‘The Rehearsal’ Season 2, Episode 5: Mr. Fielder Goes to Washington (Kinda)

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Welcome to the Prestige TV podcast where we function just fine without rehearsing.

I'm First Officer Blunt of the Midnight Boys.

She's Captain All Ears and we're obsessed.

And we're back to discuss the penultimate episode of the rehearsal season two,

Washington.

Before we get into everything, how are you doing, Jodi?

Charles, I know that things are getting pretty serious and we are sadly, rapidly approaching the finale of the rehearsal because you got your laptop out.

All right.

People,

to walk people through the behind the scenes of the podcasting life, Usually, I'm like, you know what?

I have my phone.

I have a few notes, but I'm locked in.

I'm ready to go.

He doesn't need a rehearsal.

I am talking about so much TVs right now.

I'm like, I need a document.

There's quotes we're throwing to different comments

and statements and articles.

I'm bringing out the laptop.

Is that okay?

We got some props today.

That's okay.

There's like, as we get into

are fully immersed in the latter half of the rehearsal, there's a lot going on and there's a lot of response.

There are a few publications involved and there's just a little more to sink your teeth into.

And I can't help but wonder if the rehearsal addressing autism is the Nathan Fielder version of looking camp right in the eye.

And we...

We simply have to get into it.

Laptops allowed.

Laptops allowed for this episode.

I'll try to remove it by next.

But there was a variety article that's been going around this week that,

yeah, has people talking.

It is from Ethan Shanefield, and it is titled Nathan Fielder created a fake singing competition for the rehearsal.

One contestant lost $10,000 and feels betrayed.

Quote, I signed up to be a singer, not a lab rat.

That singer is named Lana Love.

In this article, she basically goes through the process of what it was like being on the Nathan Fielder show.

She's one of the singers who made it to the rounds that we saw last week, where they were all singing Amazing Grace in pop-punk style,

RB, country, the like.

She says that she spent $5,500 on travel, lodging and hair, and makeup across three trips to LA.

She lost out on $4,000 from canceled lessons because she is a vocal teacher.

She made it through the first audition.

So production held her in a waiting room for three to four hours, told her she would next have to perform Old McDonald How to Farm or Yankee Doodle.

Basically, the entire article goes through the weird winding process.

At first, it seemed like she had no idea who Nathan Fielder was.

And then, as it progressed and progressed, she made more flights.

She started realizing this is all weird.

Singing in front of an airline pilot instead of an actual judge is weird.

Why are we only singing songs in the public domain?

And then, at one

point in the article, she says, I'm not sure if he's a psychopath or a genius.

He might be showing us our flaws through him.

And before I get into what your thoughts on this are, Jodi,

she dropped, she is not happy with Fielder, but she did drop a song in response to him.

Would you like to hear it?

And have you heard it?

I haven't heard it.

I've been saving myself to hear it live on this podcast, and I would like to hear it.

All right, Kai, with uh now that we have um our uh captain's permission, can you please uh play the song?

For those that don't know, this one-minute song is titled Nathan Fielder, and it is comprised of lyrics that are come out of context comments, left under one of the comedian's old YouTube videos.

I want to know, like, as a reformed music critic myself, I have thoughts on this track.

What were your thoughts on Nathan Fielder?

I will give my amateur non-music critic thoughts first.

I would say that the only words I perfectly understood were Charlie D'Amelio.

And now knowing that these came from YouTube comments, that makes a lot more sense.

I liked the beat drop.

I'm going to tell you what.

I liked the beat drop.

The beat drop was kind of sick.

I had a little jam there.

It's creative.

I will certainly give her this.

I have

a few quibbles with Lana I'd like to discuss.

But the song had a little heat there at the end, at the end of its one minute.

It was a little bit of a bop.

It got there.

I was actually very surprised.

Shout out, Lana.

But more importantly, what are your thoughts on this article?

Because obviously we've been talking about this this entire season.

The show has been interrogating it this entire season of what's ethical?

How much do these people know?

Is Nathan a supreme asshole and the devil?

Or is he just pointing out that most humans will do anything if you put a camera in front of them and promise them any modicum of fame or attention.

Right.

And then culling and curating what are the most interesting things that those people will do for that camera time and for that attention.

And like, and you never know what it's going to be.

Sometimes that interesting thing is a woman talking about her wet dream about Einstein and she's going to make it on camera.

I think I

the large takeaway from this article is like, I don't want anyone to lose, you know, $5,000 $5,000 in travel and $5,000 in unearned wages.

But also,

and this comes up in the show a lot, we are responsible for our own choices and we're also responsible for our own desires and what choices those bring us to.

And I think we see a couple of things laid out certainly that seem like these singers may have been getting tricked, like they believed something that wasn't real.

But we also see this woman explaining herself that after the first round of being judged by a pilot, evidently an airline pilot, and asked to sing old McDonald, and then going home and being told she was released, then being told she was being brought back, she went back.

And like, that is a choice to leave behind your job that makes you money with singing lessons and go back to what is pretty clearly

something's up.

And it also really mimics

like other maybe than the flying back and forth really mimics the actual experience of entering into a singing competition.

There is no guarantee you'll get on camera.

There is no guarantee you'll become a star.

There's almost a complete 100% guarantee you will not.

And I think sort of the difference in this is like, a lot of these people get on camera.

A lot of them become characters, you know, Like the young woman last week who ends up kind of being Colin's potential crush, she just took some random acting gig.

And next thing you know, she's like a full episode of a very popular television show on HBO.

And that's always the setup of this.

Some of it is trickery, but it doesn't seem that different than the reality TV that we, or at least reality TV watchers watchers or singing competition show watchers, often accept.

So while I certainly understand the frustration of anyone who gets to the end of such an ordeal and kind of doesn't win,

it

does just a little bit seem like

she didn't get what she wanted out of an experience.

But she did get something out of it.

I mean, I learned from this article that that thing,

the compilation of the show last week that I was sure was just a skit was certainly a skit.

Like it was written, those songs were absurd, but it used the real performers that it hired.

And in that way, I'm kind of like, okay.

I mean, it is, it is one of those

reading that, I totally agree with you in that.

Hey, at a certain point, this is your money.

If you're already being like, why am I performing in front of a pilot for a plane when I think I'm on what is supposed to be the voice or something akin to it?

Everybody's adults.

Everybody has their mix decisions.

I think what is illuminating about an article like this is that it kind of shows us, and it's kind of Nathan's show doing what I think it's designed to do, which is when you want to be famous or you want to be seen or you want some type of success in a creative field,

you will

massage

your ego, what's going on.

You'll see certain things.

You'll act like certain things are more normal than they are, because

part of being on a reality show is being seen.

That is the product that you're selling.

I don't care.

It's like, if we're being honest, when's the last time an American idol or an artist from The Voice became the next Kelly Clarkson?

Kelly Clarkson?

I mean, Carrie Underwood, but mainly Kelly Clarkson.

Yeah, so it is, we're so even far past the moment where you can be someone who has been on a singing competition and then turned that into a viable career.

So even when like reading this, I'm just like, let's say this was the voice, the chance of you crossing over in any regard would have still been very low.

And I think the thing that like we're talking about is

how much does Nathan

How much responsibility does Nathan have to tell these people what they're signing up for?

Because a lot of times times with a lot of reality shows,

it's what we've been talking about.

It's made in the edit.

The producers are making the show.

So you might think that you're signing up for, I don't know, some knuckleheads that are going to drink at the Jersey Shore.

And then it's edited in a way where it becomes the Jersey Shore.

You get the situation.

You get these things where it's like, people who showed up on that show, I've...

I worked at MTV News and I heard people like, yeah, nobody realized what that show is going to become.

That the show became what it became when you get all this footage and you're like, oh, oh these are stars how do we make it into what we need to make it into to make this huge right and i also don't take away from lana love

great stage name that she is also i think well within her rights to manipulate nathan and the experience of the show and talk about it and she says in this article that she is contradicting her her nda she's going against it and she's talking and i what i like about about that is that she's calling their bluff a little bit.

And I think it's fine because like this doesn't, it doesn't expose anything about the show and how it gets made really.

Like we kind of know for me, the sort of

mystery in this show is not how it gets made or the strings they pull to make it happen, but like what comes out on the other side.

And I think this episode is a great example of that of like, Nathan is the mystery of this show, you know, wondering what he really thinks if he is presenting a version of himself and of the world that he actually completely,

you know, like contradicts and opposes and really is

trying to say, I'm not on the spectrum, or if he is doing a completely like exaggerated version of himself and saying, this is stuff I think about all the time.

And now I'm presenting it in this absurd comedic way.

And so like, I, while I read the article kind of being like, girl, come on, girl.

Oh, McDonald, Lana, Lana.

I'm also like, okay, Lana, get your, make your song and get your clicks.

I mean, isn't this what Nathan is doing this entire season where depending upon where you sit in the narrative,

Paramount Plus and the Paramount Corporation is the asshole and Nathan is the little guy asking, why did you remove my

episode of my TV show without telling me?

And then if you are a Maradi or a Colin or a Lana or any of these people, you're a rung below, Nathan, a couple rungs below where it's just like, no, you're my Paramount.

You might be my big corporation or my big thing where I'm just like, hey.

I feel tricked or I feel like I was taken advantage of.

And I think in the Lana, and I'm not saying all those people do.

I'm just saying I think Nathan is even playing with that a little bit, being like, depending on where you are at in the rehearsal, Nathan might be the big brother that you're just like, fuck this guy and everything he stands for.

I'm like, I'm like envisioning in my head, who are the two celebrities?

Is it like Ryan Gosling and

Macaulay Cochin, who like have each other on the shirt and it just keeps zooming out more and more and more of them on the shirt, of them on the shirt, of them on each other's shirt?

Like, you're exactly right.

Lana did to Nathan what Nathan did to Paramount Plus.

Make yourself the Paramount Plus.

Like, get the one up.

If they are going to remove your episode, if they are going to, you feel, make a fool of you, then sure, expose them for something.

Take the risk.

Because

I do appreciate that about what Lana is doing: is like she is

contradicting her NDA and like she is taking a risk in exposing this because I guess it's meaningful to her.

You know,

I sort of like don't buy the earnestness of how tricked she was, but who benefits from sincerity?

We're always asking.

Look at that.

This is why you're the best in the game, Jodi.

With that, do you want me to get into a little bit of the plot of this episode and then we can start talking about our thoughts on it?

Well, I mean, should we just quickly say before the episode, I think that's something that you and I both thought about this with this as well.

And with this week, how much people have been talking about

like this article and the participants in Nathan's shows and what they lose and what they gain.

We kind of couldn't help but maybe break the fourth wall a little bit to say that we have following each one of the rehearsal episodes and our episodes gotten an email from nearly nearly every participant like named main participant in these episodes of the rehearsal to say

enjoyed the pod and they're always very pleasant and positive like the nicest people the nicest people very nice emails a lot of exclamation points

a lot of exclamation points sometimes disclosed um to say you know like that they enjoyed listening to the pod, hearing the things discussed, and that they're open to chatting about their experiences, both on and off the record, depending on the person.

I think I can say on this episode, because he didn't ask for anonymity, we heard from Colin, our boy, our sweetheart, Colin, who I think everyone was kind of worried about.

Like,

is Colin so supremely uncomfortable in these situations?

And I think we'll get more into in this episode what discomfort means for each individual person.

But, you know,

he can't say much.

There are NDAs in place.

But

hearing from Colin

really kind of reinforces this thing that I think about the people who participate in the Nathan Fielder shows, which is that like each and every one of them have ended up there for a reason.

And it's because they've subscribed to the process and they have subscribed to the idea of cameras.

of attention and maybe even of like an experiment, which seems to be more so the case with the pilots.

The actors are there because they're actors.

The musicians are there because they're musicians.

Those are attention-facing mediums.

And

I think that like, I feel okay about that.

Do you want to hear what Colin said on Instagram?

I would love to hear what Colin said on Instagram.

Colin debuting a mustache.

Quite sully of him.

Said, hey guys, it's me, Colin, the wholesomely awkward pilot from episode four of the rehearsal.

He went on to answer what he deemed like the most asked questions that he could answer.

No, Emma and I are not dating.

He's dating someone at home, and she's absolutely wonderful.

And he said, To keep in mind that this is Hollywood and Nathan Fielder, so

timelines sometimes aren't going to be accurate.

And he's not an actor, he's a pilot.

And this was completely out of his comfort zone.

A real pleasant message from Colin.

That's it.

I mean,

shout out Colin.

I hope that you and your partner have nothing but happiness.

You seem like the biggest sweetheart.

And I do think that I'm not shooting Nathan any bail.

I don't think he needs to be shot any bail, but there is a level of like, even when I was watching this episode, I do think Nathan has an affinity and a connection to humans that usually are not going to be the center of the frame, especially in reality TV.

And I know that for us, we're like, Nathan is so fucking mean.

He's the devil.

But to your point, a lot of most, these people sign up for this.

And I do think that there is a level of, they're like,

hey, this is Hollywood, baby.

Like, Colin is just like, I, he said, Colin said it's Hollywood, baby.

Yeah.

It's Nathan Fielder's Hollywood.

Can you imagine anywhere more insane?

Am I the type of person?

who would love to have a long conversation with this random actress who is explaining her decades-long one-sided love affair with the thought of Einstein.

I would love to have that conversation.

Most TV producers, most actors, most comedians are just like, no, get that out of here.

And I do think that that's what makes the rehearsal so special is that like, I never actually feel like Nathan is talking down to the people that are on the show.

I just think he is doing the very comedian thing where he's just like, everything that this person says or how they act is so interesting.

I just want them to keep going

That is what this episode is about, and we'll get into it.

But I cannot encourage everyone enough to read the article that is referenced within the show on Consequence.

Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal Affirms My Experience with Autism, written by Sam Rosenberg.

And we will talk about it more, but

the way that Sam gets into talking about how Nathan Fielder does center and give attention to people who are on the margins of what we often consider sort of socially acceptable people to give attention to is completely new and unique.

And it is, I think we're drilling down on what makes this show so fascinating.

Listen, guys, I know we've gone long, but it's episode five and there were just, there were some big picture things that needed to be said.

This happens with every season of a Nathan Fielder show recently, where I I feel like we get to the tipping point of like, all right, people have figured it, like have discovered it.

They're all watching it.

We're all caught up.

And now it feels like everyone is just like, I need to have my take.

Brains are just exploding out of our ears.

But for the purposes of our episode, we're talking about Washington, the fifth episode of the season, where we start with Nathan rehearsing in front of a fake congressional aviation subcommittee in a bid to talk to the real congressional aviation subcommittee.

Nathan bickers with John G and leans on the Warner Discovery lobbying team, but quickly realizes no one takes him serious because he's a comedian.

To get closer to Steve Cohen, a member of the Aviation Subcommittee and the Congressional Autism Caucus, Nathan decides to visit CARD, aka the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, after sharing his fake airport with the organization so their neurodivergent clients can practice navigating the stressful situation of a packed airport.

Nathan is then named to the board and he uses his board seat to wiggle his way into a meeting with Steve Cohen.

Naturally, the meeting goes off the rails and fails miserably.

Now that we've kind of got that out of the way, just gut reaction when you watch this episode, Jude.

How do you feel?

I feel

like Nathan Fielder and his writing room are the journalists that I want to be.

I want to be on that research team.

At the point at which he revealed that Congressman Cohn,

the only other decision maker on the Aviation Subcommittee of Congress, was also on the autism subcommittee.

And that also he discovered everyone's been talking about how this show puts a lens on being autistic.

I was once again faced with a classic Nathan Fielder chicken and egg situation.

Yes.

What came first?

What did he know and when did he know it?

I just, I guess this show does, and all the crazy things that he has done in the larger Nathan Fielder world, it does sort of create a world where maybe if that guy had been on some other subcommittee, he would have found a way into that as well.

But like, how lucky are we that this was the other subcommittee that he was on and that we could delve deeper

through the eyes of Nathan, delve deeper.

So delve somewhere kind of like right on the surface that is in fact incredibly exposing, but also is that exposure all a performance as well?

We'll never know.

On this thing that like people are really and have really been talking about the rehearsal.

I mean, at some point, it like it feels like magic.

But and I think I've talked about this on the pod before.

I also,

as a writer, I relate to that clicking in of the exact puzzle piece you need

of like that does feel like magic when a story breaks open to you, when you've been gathering data and researching and writing and filling up your notes app, and then suddenly you discover that this guy is on the subcommittee for autism and people really are gonna just absolutely sink their teeth into this, and you are too, Nathan Fielder.

That does feel like magic, I think, for a creator.

And

I think some of those puzzle pieces, some of those grabs in this season of the rehearsal have felt a little more tangential, like have felt a little more like, okay, it's definitely a corner piece, but I'm not sure it's like the one we need right in the middle.

But this one was like,

all right, we're looking this in the eye and we're talking about it.

And we're circling back to like what Nathan said, I think in the first episode that we commented on and we're like, Nathan, zoom back.

What are we saying?

When he keeps in this episode saying to the head of card, you know, well, everyone feels like this.

Everyone feels like they want a rehearsal.

And sweet, sweet head of card

keeps having to be like, well, some people.

I mean, and that is when he says because there's always a moment in the rehearsal where i'm so uncomfortable for the first like 10 or 15 minutes because i'm waiting for the turn in the episode he's such he's so good at that dramatic pivot where i'm like something is going to happen something is going to happen it's this is too calm even for nathan and when he says i wasn't known as an aviation authority but maybe by mistake I was an autism authority.

I was like, please don't tell me Nathan is going to do the Nathan for you autism episode.

And by God, he did.

And the thing that I felt also as a writer that

I love when this happens in art.

And this is why I think Fielder is just so good.

And this is probably my, I don't know if it's the best episode of the season, but it's my favorite because Nathan finally points at the thing that everybody's said about him for years, which is, is Nathan on the spectrum?

Is he acting?

Is he autistic?

All of those things where if I'm Nathan for you, I could see him when he's just alone being like,

wow,

maybe I'm honored because I see all these people who see themselves in me if they're neurodiversion or autism and being like, oh, this feels so empowering.

And then probably the other thing as a comedian being like.

is this what my art and my persona and the thing that i am creating being boiled down to that this is the autistic comedian i think this episode the tension in it and the uncomfortableness that I had in it was like,

this isn't Nathan like staring at the camera and being like, I'm neurodivergent.

I'm Autistic.

But there are moments where he's just like, well,

let me just lay out some things to you.

And I'm just like, this is like, this is such a fucking bold move.

I don't know how to even say other than I was like, I just never thought he would like look at the thing that so many people have been saying and be like, I'm not going to blink.

This is the episode.

Take it or leave it.

Yeah.

And I think like secret third option, Nathan Fielder experiencing this and being like,

I did it.

Like exactly what I intended, you know, maybe like exactly what he intended wasn't to sort of offer this lens for a neurodivergent community to really relate to, but he intended something like that.

He intends to explore discomfort.

He certainly intends to explore masking.

And I think it's a really interesting peek behind the curtain to know that a lot of these pieces and in particular that consequence piece, which talks a lot about masking and how the rehearsal is

very similar to a lot of the therapies that children or people with autism, diagnosed with autism, experience and how those things can be tools and they can be useful.

They can also be dehumanizing.

They can also tell you that

what you experience needs to be tamped down, needs to be different to accommodate the sort of more typical world.

Those are certainly themes that Nathan Fielder intends to be exploring, whether it is like precisely through the lens of being neurodivergent or not.

So for him to then get to sort of like pry that wide open in this episode, but also approach it through the lens lens of he's definitely not as this character saying, oh, now I get it.

I'm autistic.

That is not what he is doing.

What he is doing is looking at those eye expression test slides and saying, oh, I don't know, these images are kind of low res.

That's very funny.

That's probably my biggest laugh of the episode.

That was my biggest laugh of the episode, but it is that it's once again, the known thing that Nathan Fielder does, which is when he's taking the test, they are lingering on his face and his discomfort.

And he's trying to like rush through the test, but he's also kind of like knowingly looking at the camera sometimes.

And once again, I think the beauty of his art is where does reality like begin and where does the artifice stop?

And he's just so knowing about it.

And there was even what I thought was just

such great writing: is that this season of the rehearsal, no stone goes unturned.

All of the critiques about Nathan Fielder, all of the petty grievances, he's going to point to them.

And there's this moment where he's talking to the doctor, Gramp Shea.

I think that's how you pronounce it.

Sorry if I mispronounced it.

And he's trying to advocate to get closer to this organization card so he can get to the subcommittee with aviation.

And she goes, well, hey, I think it's really cool what you guys are doing with the airport.

Our children could, our children could use this.

It would be very, this would be very good for them.

And like Nathan just gets very uncomfortable.

He's like, I promised, I made a commitment to myself that I wouldn't be using children in any more rehearsals.

And there's this, just, there's just this

almost dig

that I like took in that moment of him.

Like, Nathan could have taken the win and been like, oh, this is going to be such a great reality TV show moment of seeing all of these children get to use what was built as a very dumb, almost prank in this very amazing way.

And Nathan can't even let the sincerity in that moment land.

He has to make it into a joke.

He has to turn it on his head.

He has to add just a little bit of acidity to it.

And that's what I think keeps me coming back: the fact that no matter how hard he tries, he just can't be sincere.

He just can't do it.

Or is his discomfort his sincerity?

Like, I do, I do think that that's this episode is staring autism straight in the eye.

It's also staring discomfort straight in the eye.

And I think, and I know this is subjective.

Everyone is different here, but I think my favorite episodes of the rehearsal, my favorite moments of Nathan for you, and we've talked about this with the sort of breaking of the fourth wall, are when Nathan is made really uncomfortable, whether it is the character of Nathan or perhaps Nathan Fielder actually breaking when someone says that they drink their grandson's pea or they've had a wet, a waking wet dream about Einstein.

Whatever it may be, it puts him as an equal to the people he's studying because it allows us to study him too, to question his sincerity, to judge it, to try and decide, to try and decide what makes him uncomfortable when he's in on the joke and when he's not.

those episodes

are

i don't know if they're always the funniest but they're always the most fascinating to me and him rolling up to that meeting with the congressman looking nervous as hell and revealing that he could have done a rehearsal for this but he didn't because he's actually not someone who always needs to do a rehearsal he finds it a fun and helpful tool a bonus.

I think like, yeah, this, this episode just being about discomfort and insecurity with how you're perceived, like,

and security with how you're perceived, because you know who you are.

Like, this is Nathan Fielder happily, pleasantly rolling into our inbox to say, like,

I had a weird time.

Let's talk about it.

I, I really, I like, this is a, this is a rewatcher for me.

I really I really liked this one and the the twists and the turns that it took and the lens that it put on

on Nathan and and on the conversation around Nathan.

It's very meta.

It's so meta and I think your enjoyment of this episode and the rehearsal and just Nathan the Nathan Fielder project is always going to fall on the line whether you think that Nathan Fielder is making fun of the people on this show or he's, to your point, among them.

And through his discomfort or his, like, why didn't this end up the way I wanted to?

I think I kind of,

I've always been on the side of even this episode.

I think it is Nathan Fielder being like, if you're autistic and you see something in my work.

That's important, but I'm still going to get some jokes off in the same way that it's like, if you're Mara D or if you're Colin or if you are someone where you are in a position where you have been forced to be part of this Broadway play called life and go through all of these motions and societal rules that are going to make you a good human, I'm making something for you to show you just how ridiculous that all is.

And I think I didn't take this episode as being the Nathan Fielder looking at the camera and being like,

I'm making art about autism.

I think he's like, I'm making art about people for and about people who feel on the margins of society and who cannot cannot, who do need rehearsals, who do need to be like, hey, this is all weird.

Like, you're not the weird one.

The things and the structures we've built are actually the weird and we're all just trying to survive within it.

Yes, yes.

And we talked about this last week, right?

Like, I really love, you know, and I think last week we were a little bit like, oh, is this like a, not a filler episode, but is it kind of like a get your bearings, get really uncomfortable in a different way sort of episode?

But it brought us here and it so literally did because we're not geniuses, but last week we were talking about this like social, the social rules, the social constructs, and the people who don't understand them like Nathan, at least as he presents himself in this show.

And that this show might create,

for as much as it's making Colin uncomfortable in the last episode, seemingly, it might also create a comfort of like, there are other people, and really those other people are everyone to varying degrees, who don't understand these social rules that it feels like everyone understands.

And like last week, it's laid out explicitly in the I, lip, I move, like Nathan doesn't get that.

And he, and, and Colin quite literally doesn't see that.

And I was thinking about that so much

in a line in Sam's consequence article.

He says, to paraphrase an observational tweet on the matter, Fielder dramatizes the anxieties that many individuals with autism face in the pursuit to belong by breaking down the cultural norms that uphold and reward neurotypical behavior, ultimately revealing their inanity and futility.

And I was like, damn, yes, that is what he's doing.

Whether it is through the lens of being neurodivergent or not, it does really, you know, his,

who could say what his goal is?

Like maybe his goal was to be breastfed by a 20-foot puppet.

I, it was definitely a goal because it was in there, but the goal to expose the inane and futile rules under which we often choose to operate and judge those who do not choose or are not able to operate under will only ever harm us as a society.

And they will only ever

not fix aviation safety to get back around to season two.

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Why I love this episode as well is that

Nathan is always pointing to himself and kind of being like, I'm not the good guy in this.

There's a moment where he's like, where they're all, all the kids from CARD are there and he's holding up like the sign and he's revealed that he's become the board member.

And instead of lingering on this moment, like it's some triumph, he immediately goes to,

all right, I got my in with Cohen.

I got what I needed from this.

And I do think that That's what makes the humor of it work, where he is never making fun of card.

He's never making fun of Moody or Colin or any of the, to me, he's always making fun of the like, I'm still Nathan Fielder.

I still have a show to make.

I'm still making something for entertainment.

And there always is going to be a level that you might be a lot of love.

You might be someone where within me having to make this giant monstrosity of a TV show, there are going to be people who are like, I didn't get what I want.

In the same way that there's going to be people who are like, I see myself in Nathan.

And I think he's very good at toggling between

the ethical lines.

Cause I think we're always just like, does Nathan realize the ethical lines that he's crossing in this?

And I'm just like, Yeah, that's the whole point.

Like, that's the whole show.

It is someone being like, No, I get it.

Like, the person who has to understand it the best to make it sing and make it funny is Nathan Fielder.

Right.

And to point that out, it's probably Fielder being like, I'm kind of a little bit of an asshole.

I'm doing this for a reason.

And

I'm making this really smart,

really

strange thing.

But within the show, I'm not presenting myself as a genius.

In addition to Nathan just basically attempting to recreate behavioral therapy,

which is kind of what he's been doing all season.

Now, by the end of this episode, what he's done very clearly is just recreate masking.

He has just offered an opportunity to a fake Congress and one real Congressman to give pilots a script so that they may feel a social comfort to operate the way that they are being told that they should.

He just made masking.

I had the same thought.

And the thing that made me uncomfortable is that Nathan is not subtle about it.

He's the voiceover is discussing masking as we are witnessing him doing masking, while also the jokes before and after this have all been like, yeah, but I don't need rehearsals.

I'm like, that's all good, but like, I don't need any of this.

And I was wondering, do you think people will get uncomfortable by the fact that Nathan is doing this all with a wink?

That he is not giving you the easy out of being like, well, actually, I'm neurodivergent and this is actually what I go through.

So I get to make fun of it.

He's still doing it in the Nathan Fielder way.

Like,

I don't know what's real, what's not.

Up for you to decide.

I mean, I would certainly let the

community of people who have autism decide that themselves.

But I didn't feel like

anyone was being made fun of in particular in this episode.

Really, including Nathan, because even within this construct, he is being really vulnerable and he is like exposing himself.

He's put himself, whatever version of himself it is, whatever character, in this room with this congressman who literally walks in with like an insane wooden cane, just, you know, sounding like Colonel Sanders.

And like, it's so uncomfortable.

He has put himself in a distinctly strange position, much like Lana Love by choice,

because he wants to heal the AV.

Is it because he wants to fix aviation safety or is it because he wants to be taken seriously?

Another thing that we're constantly addressing in this episode: Nathan Fielder, wizard of loneliness, saddest clown in the world,

wants to be taken seriously.

And as usual, in my I relate to something greatly in this episode moment, I relate greatly to being like,

I kind kind of wish I had a different internet footprint occasionally.

I also feel like a clown

when you, when you Google my recent headlines, etc.

I, you know, it's to your point, I've never been more connected than watching Nathan scroll through the images online of it and just like reading stuff and being like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm also the blogging clown.

I'm also, I'm also the potting clown.

And it was, I actually, that is why it's my favorite episode of the season so so far, even if it might not reach the creative heights of the evanescence draw.

What it showed to me that I think is that

Nathan does make very nuanced and emotional art and TV, whatever that means.

And just for me, in terms of connecting with him as a creator and realizing that

Seeing him in a light where he is both pointing at what everybody has said about him for years, which which is like, why is he so weird?

What is his aura?

Why is he so unlikable?

And just kind of leaning further into that while also just introducing us to characters that after every single podcast, we're like, I love this person.

I love that person.

I like, I want to be this person's friend.

Why is he being so mean to them?

I do think that there is a level of this season where I'm like, oh, Nathan is doing.

what I think more reality shows should do, which is just like, hey, I love seeing hot, sexy people people argue and throw drinks at each other, but I also just do want to see Colleen

failing at falling in love and Moody's weird Starbucks girlfriend and Meridi standing up for herself.

Like that to me is just as fascinating, if not more so.

And I'm like, that's why I enjoy the rehearsal so much in Nathan Fielder because he, he loves himself.

just like the the duckling that might

have just been ignored or never hurt like is never really given the chance to be like hey, yo, let me get my shit off right now.

Well, and you talk to any lover of reality TV who isn't just like completely monstrous, and they will tell you that, like, that is the reward of reality TV is that it, just like so many other TV and film mediums, it has created this space where you wade through the trash for the like treasured moment of learning something about human behavior.

And I think the same for the rehearsal is like, and it's, it's instead of waiting through trash, it's waiting through comedy.

And like, that's often addressed within this season of like, okay, yes, HBO will let me do this important thing as long as I make it entertaining.

Entertainment is important.

It's what keeps our attention.

But if within that entertainment, we learn something about humanity from Nathan Fielder, that's excellent.

That's an excellent investment of time.

And I'll say that within this episode, I found it really fascinating to hear from the

card representative that he was working with that people are often more inclined to be more empathetic and understanding of a person when they actually learn that they have autism.

And I think

taking the sort of title out of that,

perhaps we are made more empathetic to more different kinds of people by being exposed to them on the rehearsal, which we have said many a time with a laugh, exposes us to people we did not know existed.

It doesn't always make them more human, but it often does.

So do you think that for a season that is so obsessed with sincerity, that this might actually be one of the most sincere, not just episodes, but seasons of television that Nathan has ever made.

Because to your point, once Nathan kind of like names the thing,

you do, to me, I got a better understanding of like,

oh, this is what the project was about.

Is like, not necessarily Nathan coming out and be like,

I might be neurodivergent or I'm autistic, more so being like, hey, the most sincere form of art I can make is pointing out that this subset of people, this community, like this, my work impacts them.

And I'm going to give them a hand wave in this episode being like, I see y'all, I got something for you.

In the same way that with these airline pilots, I do think that there is a level of this project being like, hey, when you're working in this high pressure situation where lives are on the line, here are the different types of people.

And this is what they go through when they feel like they can't speak up, when they can't defend themselves, or they can't talk to their pilot.

I was watching this episode realizing, I was just like, oh, Nathan is actually making something very,

something very resonant.

If I was, if I was part of the neurodivergent community, I'd be like, oh, no, not only did he like show all these articles and not only is he doing all this, he made it super funny.

And he like, he put the like lens back on himself in a very interesting way.

And I was just like, oh, that's not something we really associate with Nathan traditionally.

Yeah.

Well, and I'll say here, please, please email us with thoughts at prestige TV at spotify.com if you have a take on this in the neurodivergent community or outside of it, just I think that this is like pretty special episode of TV that could have stirred up a lot of feelings in a lot of different people.

I think that if it's not the most sincere season,

I think it's the most clear, which is so weird because it's about planes.

But I think when you compare it to season one

of

of the rehearsal, which is so audacious and goes a lot deeper in the paint and a lot deeper in the like exposition to be like, this is something that Nathan's dealing with right now.

And I'm not using that tone because I didn't love it.

It's, I think they're doing that on purpose, but they're like, he's the storyteller and the audience, you know, whereas this, like, we'll see how it ends, but it is developing this

very clear through line of

there are interesting people and interesting things

that are worth your time and worth your investment, Congress, in every corner that you look at, you know?

And you can, if you're Nathan Fielder and you have a camera and an unlimited budget as long as he doesn't go over budget, you can look in any fucking corner you want to and find something.

I mean, it's to your point, it's very funny because Nathan looks like an asshole being like, you're wasting this congressman's time.

And the congressman is like blowing him off, but he is doing a thing where it's just like his hypothesis is correct.

Like, maybe not completely, but his hypothesis is if two people spend the time to talk to each other and role play and get a lot of the muck out of the way, you can have more honest conversations.

And sometimes those honest, those conversations can save lives.

There's just the, there is just the scaffolding of HBO needs me to make this really entertaining.

So so if i'm wasting millions of dollars of their money i have to hide that nugget of like truth of like we should all talk to each other and we should all be a little bit more open to people who are not as clear about all of these social rules that we've constructed like pause we should all be able to like

like have real dialogue and try to understand each other And then he's just like, well, I'm building a Panda Express and also I'm trying to hire this

like this woman who is going to tell me about her veterans about Einstein.

There's just a lot to get through to the send her the Tootsie Pup.

And the comedy of it is,

no,

you know, creating a script where a co-captain says to a captain, your uniform is too tight.

And I can say that because I have been scripted to be blunt.

And the captain can say, thank you for telling me that.

I appreciate honesty because I have been scripted to appreciate honesty.

That doesn't save lives.

But the larger message that we are getting at of the show, that the ability to see all humans as just as human as you and

have a conversation with them and accept them as human, that like literally does save lives if you do it enough and if you pull the thread enough.

So I guess we'll just kind of see where it lands on masking for aviation safety.

Well, with that, Captain All Ears, do we want to go to a Wings of Podcasting, our not confusing at all segment where we read a bunch of listener emails?

We're getting creative, just like Nathan.

Subject line, Tom Cruise is Nathan Fielder.

Hello.

Hell yeah.

This season's flight-centric theme makes me wonder if the final episode will reveal that Nathan Fielder was actually played by Tom Cruise all along.

Who is a more famous pilot than Tom Cruise's Maverick?

Also, with Mission Impossible, the final reckoning coming out in late May, also a paramount-owned property, shots, wouldn't it be fitting that we could get a Mission Impossible style reveal, mask reveal to end the season?

What are your thoughts on this twist?

I will just say, I love this email.

And this was sent before

we watched this episode because if this is about masking and the trials and tribulations of autistic people and neurodivergent community in terms of

interfacing with the larger public, what better way than using the mask technology from Mission Impossible for Nathan to really sell it?

If he's actually Tom Cruise, I'm like,

Nathan Fieldser, you're our next president.

You understand everything.

I respect your game.

And we said, Charles, we said last week, like the final result of this, if the rehearsal keeps going, is that it touches something big.

And what is bigger than Tom Cruise and the Mission Impossible franchise?

Yo, Ethan, that was a great, honestly great call.

This is a great, like, hey, everybody take off the mask.

And if Tom Cruise is under it,

who's going to be mad at you?

What's the next email we got?

Got an email from Rich.

Hey, Jody and Charles.

Great idea with the airline industry dating app, but the name could use some work.

We'll take the feedback.

Thank you, Rich.

On the wings of love, way too long and cumbersome in the app store.

We got a tech guy.

We got a tech guy.

But guys, Winger is right there.

The only thing he's done is leave all of the vowels in Winger when I think you know good and well, you'd take that E e out oh hell yes rolls off the tongue easy to work into conversation you on winger yet

yes you might need to pay off the 80s hair metal ban but that can't be too expensive those guys could use the money um

saying you on winger yet also makes me think about

uh how much this show is affecting people's sort of relationship to pilots.

There have been a lot of very funny tweets this week, especially about how people are interfacing with pilots on their flights now that they understand their inner workings a little more.

I will say,

first,

I love the name winger.

Second, Jody, you are a genius because we need to take all the vows out.

You are absolutely right.

That is the only way we are going to sell this app idea.

If you are in tech, call the both of us up.

We do have money to make this a reality.

And honestly, third,

I got to be real.

If you work at an airline now, your stock has never been higher.

I think Nathan, the job, here's the thing, as someone who was on planes very recently is about to be on a plane,

the vibes up in that shit were like, god damn,

this plane might go.

Any, any type of turbulence, people were doing Hail Marys, they were praying, they were scared.

And already I feel like Nathan Fielder has fixed this by just showing us that pilots are people too.

And so, Rich, thank you for this.

I think this is great.

You are just like, I hope those pilots up there have a script that will navigate them well through this moment.

I will not only say that, if Nathan wants to just hire me to make up dumb names for these,

I have to say, when, what are the names?

When he said, First Officer Blunt, I was like,

This

seems to me like a recent, a somewhat recent introduction, or at least one that we're getting a lot between like, you know, Louise Kiss Me or whatever was last episode and whatever Colin's name was, like Dr.

Kisses a lot.

There were just all these, all these pun names, which actually, Charles, thank you does lead us to our next and I think final email for today from Mark.

Subject line, Nathan's little gift.

It's a terrifying subject line.

He said, when I get around to rewatching The Season's The Rehearsal, I'll be sure to be tickled by Fielder's little asides.

For example, did you catch the name of the talk therapist?

And then he included a picture, just a close-up.

It's just like prop comedy from the Sully episode when Sully finally goes to the therapist's office.

Dr.

Stephen Millandlord.

Where does this come from?

Does it reference something in Fielder's past TV?

I do not know.

So I typed this in.

So there is Shadow Jared Gilman on Twitter who posted, took forever for me to realize this doesn't say Dr.

Stephen Milanlord, Ph.D.

And when I looked at the screen grab that comes from the email, it is indeed spelled M-A-L-A-N-D-O-R-D.

There is no second L.

So the name is Malandlord

Ord.

So just the name.

So here's the thing.

I still think it's supposed to be my landlord.

Nathan is just fucking with us by being like, you know what makes this even funnier?

Let me take out the L.

Listen, last last week I asked a sort of confusing question of just like call outs of your favorite pieces of lore from the universe.

And this is reminding me of it.

And this week, I cannot let us log off before noting that Angela, actress Angela from last season

was in the Congress, people.

Did you see her?

Wait, what?

Yes, a quick clip.

And I felt sure we would get more.

The camera lingers on her because, of course, she is our

most beloved actress, our future Meryl Streep in the Congress audience.

And at that point, I had this, or not the audience,

she's one of the actors studying the Congress people for Nathan's rehearsal.

And at that point, I just felt like, is Nathan Fielder our greatest employer of minor actors in LA?

And how are you going to hate him for creating a fake singing competition show when he's making this kind of job opportunity?

Exactly.

Lana Love just got off her killer single, Nathan Fielder.

Run the numbers up on that, people.

He's employing actors at a time when, hey, I live in the town.

You know, shout out Bellany.

I live in a town.

It's not great out there.

So maybe, maybe Nathan is just not a thought leader in the neurodivergent community, but also in Hollywood.

And what I'll say,

I'm going to say, guys,

please email us at prestigv at spotify.com.

That is prestigetv at spotify.com because this was a, this was a hefty episode.

And honestly, if you need a prompt, if anybody out there is autistic from the neurodivergent community, a big fan of Nathan Fielder, and you think we got anything right, got anything wrong, missed anything, email us.

We will read it on the show.

I'm honestly so fascinated to just kind of get some thoughts on what y'all thought of the episode because I loved it.

It's my favorite of the season, but that is prestige TV at spotify.com.

Anything else you want to say before

we depart, Jodi?

See you next week.

One episode left.

See you next week.

First Officer Blunt.

Guys, before we go, I want to say a special thank you to Kai Grady, Justin Sales, our man CT.

Without them, it is just, we could not make the show possible.

So thank y'all.

And And we will see you next week for the season finale.