Nathan Fielder spends the primary ten minutes of “The Rehearsal” season 2 premiere with seemingly good intentions. He is studied the cockpit transcripts main as much as a number of aircraft crashes, and he is deduced that interpersonal nervousness between the pilot and co-pilot is the largest issue at fault for them. In a short time, nonetheless, Fielder dives into murky territory: he hires his actors (skilled in “The Fielder Technique” from season 1) to review the workers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Commercial
This consists of TSA brokers, store employees, flight attendants, and naturally the pilots themselves. For the pilots Fielder has his actors observe them onto their flights, after which observe them to their resorts once they land in different cities. We’re handled to 1 clip, filmed from what looks like a physique cam, the place an actor knocks on an actual pilot’s resort room door. He pretends to be a earlier visitor who left one thing behind within the room, and he asks the pilot to let him rummage via his room for it. The pilot, whose face isn’t blurred for the digicam, agrees and lets the actor are available and discreetly research his belongings.
It is a scene that instantly raises two questions: 1) Is that this authorized? And a couple of)Â Whether it is authorized, which of my congressmen ought to IÂ name to repair this?
Commercial
Actuality prank exhibits like this are often allowed to indicate footage of individuals once they’re in a public place, which the airport itself qualifies as. However is the pilot’s resort room nonetheless thought-about a public place? Authorized points apart, I feel we are able to all agree that this conduct is crossing a number of moral traces. I do not assume anybody would respect discovering out {that a} full stranger has been following them round all day, learning their mannerisms so as to painting them in a TV present.
The ethics of Nathan Fielder’s TV exhibits have lengthy been a controversial matter
It helps that we all know “The Rehearsal” is not at all times 100% sincere about what’s actual or not actual, so we are able to assume (or hope) that these folks the actors adopted round for days had been extra conscious of the state of affairs than “Gotta Have Enjoyable” makes it appear. Nonetheless, the present’s complete disinterest in elaborating on that is intentional; Nathan makes clear all through season 2 that he wants this present must be comedic and entertaining, and the joke of this sequence is that we’re alleged to giggle at how invasive and obsessive Nathan’s being in pursuit of his targets.
Commercial
In fact, not each viewer can discover the humor on this. When season 1 got here out, New Yorker movie critic Richard Brody lambasted the “merciless and conceited gaze” of Fielder. “Deception prevails all through,” he wrote. “Fielder units up a faux web site so as to lure a girl named Tricia, to whom Kor is planning to make his confession, into the mission unawares (and the deception goes far, even to a pretend job for her); we by no means discover out when she discovered what she’d been roped into.” Brody went in on onerous on Fielder, refusing to miss the numerous invasions of privateness and belief that Fielder went on to perform his targets.
I largely agree with Brody’s ethical considerations about Fielder, aside from the half the place he claims that Fielder is tired of addressing these ethical considerations. Season 1’s fourth episode, “The Fielder Technique,” is jarringly meta in how introspective the present’s prepared to be. Fielder roleplays as one of many actual folks he received on the present, an aspiring actor named Thomas. Nathan tries to expertise for himself how the entire shady, exploitative observe feels from Thomas’s perspective, and his discovery is deeply unflattering to himself.
Commercial
The sequence factors out how Fielder’s manufacturing workforce pressures folks to signal an “look launch” that’s method too lengthy and complex for many of them to parse via. Then, simply to actually underline how tousled that is, we watch as Fielder pressures one in all his “Fielder Technique” actors to provide him the keys to his house. We then watch as Nathan combs via this stranger’s house all night time after which sleeps in his mattress, regardless of telling Thomas he’d solely cease by to water his crops.
Do Nathan Fielder’s ends justify his means?
Nathan’s actions all through this present are creepy, however they’re alleged to be creepy. The comedy comes from simply how disturbed Nathan comes throughout, and his obvious lack of self-awareness over it. Nathan’s character would not appear self-aware however the present itself positive does in the best way it depicts him; the one query is whether or not that self-awareness is sufficient. If the present remains to be exploiting actual folks for leisure, because it positive appears to be doing to at the least some extent, would not its self-awareness make it even worse, not higher?
Commercial
There are two saving graces of “The Rehearsal” season 2 up to now, fortunately. The primary is that it by no means feels just like the present is making enjoyable of the folks whose privateness it breaks. For example, the pilot who will get tricked into letting an actor with a digicam into his room isn’t the butt of the joke. The viewers is anticipated to sympathize with him, and to be involved by what the actor (and Fielder) are doing.
The opposite saving grace is that Fielder is (allegedly) solely violating these strangers’ belief and privateness for the sake of the larger good. Stopping future airline crashes is a noble activity, assuming Fielder’s critical about it. I feel most individuals would forgive Fielder’s transgressions if his experiment truly wielded optimistic, significant outcomes. If Fielder truly one way or the other manages to make trendy air journey much less terrifying, he can violate my privateness as a lot as he desires.
Commercial
