Nathan Fielder Outdid Himself
As a longtime Nathan Fielder fan, if you had told me at the start of this season of The Rehearsal that it would culminate in Fielder getting in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit and flying an actual plane, I would never have believed you… which is why it makes for the perfect season finale.
After all, the entire premise of Fielder’s second season was an exploration of airline security, specifically the seemingly unknowable communication that happens between co-pilots in the cockpit. Throughout the season, Fielder created various exercises involving real co-pilots in order to boost their confidence to speak up in difficult situations. However, in true Nathan Fielder fashion, those difficult situations were engineered to be outlandish. For instance, one ongoing subplot involved Fielder creating a fake reality competition program and asking co-pilots to judge the contestants. We even analyzed the controversy surrounding that subplot in a separate piece.
Not only does the climax of this season make sense due to the show’s subject matter, but it also tonally tracks. Fielder’s concept of staging eerily accurate rehearsals of real-life encounters is part of the show’s gimmick, and the comic blurring of reality and fiction puts the viewer in an awe-struck state. To see Fielder go that extra mile and pull off this stunt is, first and foremost, a literal accomplishment nearing the levels of Tom Cruise. Yes, Fielder really did fly a 737, and yes, everyone lived to tell the tale. But there’s also the artistic achievement here: The applause-worthy feat of a unique storyteller leaning so fully into his schtick that it’s almost too good to be true.
So while I never could have predicted that the season would end that way, the choice almost seems inevitable because of how ridiculous the concept is and how much of a match it is for Nathan Fielder. At the end of the day, the finale doesn’t just work because flying a real 737 is impressive, it also works because it’s the most Nathan Fielder thing Nathan Fielder has ever done.
The Handmaid’s Tale Served an Undercooked Ending
I’m probably the first person to compare Nathan Fielder’s satire to Hulu’s grim dystopian series, but it’s hard not to when the two finales aired within days of each other. While the former managed to deliver an epic conclusion, the latter missed the mark. Handmaid’s has become known for its slow-burn pace that usually results in explosive moments, such as the ending of season four when June (Elisabeth Moss) makes her way back to Gilead in order to hunt down Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes).
In this final season, however, the explosive moment was in the episode before the last one, while the actual finale focused on the aftermath. The entire hour placed June in a series of uneventful two-person scenes to neatly resolve long-running conflict, including moments with Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), and her mother (Cherry Jones). The only slight surprise was the reappearance of Alexis Bledel, who departed the series after season four but whose return was similarly oversimplified.
We don’t really see the downfall of Gilead, only the beginning of it. We don’t see June reunite with her daughter Hannah, a strangely passive objective for the show’s protagonist that the writers only reminded audiences of when it was convenient for the plot. Instead, we got a forced arc in which June was encouraged to write a book about her experiences. Mind you, June has never used writing as her method of resistance or rebellion throughout the entire series, but this was an easy way for the show to come full circle and end with the voiceover narration that opened the pilot episode.
It’s not that slow-moving and open-ended finales cannot work, and it’s not that this finale necessarily needed to be as epic as The Rehearsal was. However, spending the final hour of a series that lasted six seasons to wrap all the subplots up in a little bow is underwhelming for a show that once stood out for its bold choices and topical vision. It wasn’t proper catharsis.
Of course, catharsis for an audience does not always have to align with what we want. After all, no one could have anticipated that watching Nathan Fielder stage the ultimate simulated rehearsal of flying a 737 was the catharsis we actually needed. What these diametrically opposed finales indicate is that regardless of how epic, subtle, open-ended, or finite a finale is, a strong ending only works if proper catharsis is somehow achieved. While The Rehearsal stuck the landing (pun intended), The Handmaid’s Tale imploded.
via Shutter Speed