When it first debuted on Max in 2022, nobody really knew what to make of The Rehearsal. The series, which followed Fielder as he helped people “rehearse” for real-life situations so that they could be prepared for all of life’s uncertainties, eventually spiraled out into something stranger and more existential as Nathan became a pseudo-patriarch in a fake family.
Although The Rehearsal was undeniably strange, it also earned an overwhelmingly positive response from critics, and it seems the show’s second season is no different. The Rehearsal season 2, which is set to premiere on Max on April 20, now has a 100% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, which means that it has once again wooed critics.
“A marvel of philosophy, social science, and art critique, all of which it delivers in the funniest package imaginable. Television doesn’t come more inventive, daring, and amusingly absurd,” Nick Schager wrote for The Daily Beast.
“Nathan Fielder’s curious HBO docu-comedy is even more daring, profound, and subversively hilarious in its aviation-focused second season,” Ben Sherlock adds for Screen Rant.
Although it’s impossible to say for certain just how strange the show’s second season might get, it seems like critics are more than willing to go along for the ride, just as they were the first time around. The Rehearsal‘s first season started from a relatively simple conceit, but Fielder’s skill is in taking those simple conceits and asking more and more questions about them until they finally come undone. If the reviews are any indication, it seems like Fielder has managed to pull that trick again in a way that is equal parts profound and inventive.
