The Performance: Sometimes Work Fashions Artist

HBO’s ‘The Rehearsal’ doesn’t get that granular because its purpose is not to inform ‘about aviation’ but to amuse.

Peter Garrison

Tuesday, August 19, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

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Edited By:

Travis Tingle

One person after another told the author, ‘You have to watch The Rehearsal [on HBO]. It’s about aviation!’

Key Takeaways:

Nathan Fielder's docu-comedy series "The Rehearsal" uses elaborate, often absurd, experiments to investigate perceived flaws in airline crew communication and human behavior.
The show culminates with Fielder undergoing extensive flight training, earning his private, instrument, commercial, and even Boeing 737 type ratings, ultimately flying a real airliner with actors as passengers.
The author suggests that Fielder, initially approaching the topic satirically, may have genuinely discovered a passion and aptitude for flying, blurring the lines between the show's constructed reality and his personal experience.

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Somehow I had gotten to 2025 without having heard of a comedian named Nathan Fielder, but my ignorance was not destined to last. “You have to watch The Rehearsal,” one person after another said to me. “It’s about aviation!”

Finally someone sat me down to watch the first couple of episodes of the HBO docu-comedy series, and a week later someone else invited me to see the seventh and final episode. So, to be clear, I did not see the whole season, just three-sevenths of it. Still, I got the drift, and frankly Fielder’s shtick gets a little wearing, like Sacha Baron Cohen’s and Larry David’s, and after a while I need some fresh air. So maybe three-sevenths was about the right amount.