The Rehearsal

[therewillbeblus]

Yes, this show's brilliance is escalating rapidly ep-to-ep. I'm sure he's stretching stuff to fit a vision (like the 23 second pause reflecting the chorus' runtime), but it's still startlingly creative and hilarious material regardless. It's been a while since I laughed as hard as I did during the feeding scene in ep 3. And there are a lot more callbacks to Nathan For You this season - it's hard to list all the specifics, but the way he's engaging with people remind me of specific scenes from that series (i.e. his conversations with the young pilot mirroring his convos with the pizza delivery guy in the 'free pizza' skit). And I guess he's given up on The Curse getting renewed, because that evisceration of Paramount+ went hard

[Matt]

There's so far much less of a theme of confusing what's real vs. what's fake in this season.

Well episode 4 certainly takes a sledgehammer to that statement!

Spoiler

"Jennifer Kissme" had me wiping tears from my cheeks again.

Sometimes when I'm watching Nathan interact with other people, I think how the Devil wouldn't even need to convince people to sell their souls to him anymore. They would just freely hand them over if it meant an opportunity to talk about themselves uninterruptedly, especially if it was on camera.

[Matt]

Funny that Stephen Colbert shows up in a brief clip because episode 5 reminded me of his old Colbert Report segment "Better Know a District" in which Colbert, in character, interviewed members of Congress and often put them in awkward or contrived situations, such as creating a fake courtroom TV show for Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones because she mentioned she always wanted to be a judge.

This season has become so self-referential that the show and the utility of rehearsal itself become the main topics of this episode. I still can't imagine how everything's going to wrap up in next week's season finale.

Spoiler

The teaser for next week, showing the "Pack" actors seeming to give drink requests as they might to a flight attendant gives me an idea, but... no, it would be too ridiculous, right?


"The stewardess is flying the plane!"

Still, I wouldn't put it past Fielder to make the whole season some kind of ZAZ tribute.

[Matt]

Well, I was not wrong in that

Spoiler

someone wildly under-qualified ends up successfully landing the plane.

Incredible second season, managing to raise the stakes, expand the scope, and yet still end on an ambiguous, ethically questionable note. Congratulations to "Wings of Voice" winner

Spoiler

Isabella Henao!

[denti alligator]

Great season. The finale was especially poignant, I thought. And of course that poignancy is inseparable from the "ambiguous, ethically questionable" situations Nathan puts himself and others into.