The Rehearsal Season 2 Episode 5: Nathan Fielder & Autism

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Rehearsal, Season 2 Episode 5, “Washington.”]

Three years in the past, when the primary season of Nathan Fielder’s good, bold docu-comedy present The Rehearsal premiered on HBO, I used to be fascinated by what the Canadian filmmaker-madman had concocted: A Charlie Kaufman-esque experiment the place extraordinary folks take part in meticulously crafted simulations of socially and emotionally difficult conditions, with the intention to higher put together for his or her real-life outcomes.

The present resonated with me so deeply that I wrote an article for Consequence about how Fielder’s try to grasp human conduct by these “rehearsals” mirrored my very own experiences of masking as an autistic individual. Now, in The Rehearsal’s ingeniously conceived second season, Fielder continues to interrogate this theme by the world of aviation security, specializing in how an absence of communication between airline pilots and their first officers has led to an alarming sample of airplane crashes.

Like final season, Fielder assessments out his theories by a sequence of very humorous, more and more absurd role-playing workout routines that provoke unexpectedly profound insights in regards to the human situation. However what makes this season notably notable (for me, a minimum of) is that Fielder not solely addresses autistic masking, however does so as soon as he discovers my article.

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A minimum of, that’s the way it’s offered within the season’s fifth installment, “Washington.” Within the episode, Fielder is intent on bringing his analysis to the Congressional Aviation Subcommittee (CAS) with the hopes of pressuring them to do one thing in regards to the worrisome, under-discussed downside of miscommunication. Fearing his conclusions can be dismissed attributable to his standing as a comic, Fielder Googles himself to see how he might retool his fame, and simply so occurs to learn my piece.

At first, he considers my article an “odd perspective,” which I take as excessive reward coming from arguably the oddest individual working in leisure proper now. However then, Fielder finds other articles and forums additional supporting this notion, and discovers a possible hyperlink between autistic masking and airline pilots’ compartmentalizing their feelings.

Fielder’s inquisitive response to my article and skill to attach it to the bigger thematic arc of the season was extremely gratifying and thrilling to witness. Given how autism continues to be pervasively misunderstood and stigmatized, particularly within our current administration, I’m grateful that Fielder discovered a method to incorporate it into The Rehearsal with each real curiosity and a humorousness that’s neither mocking nor facetious.

However since this present blurs the traces between actuality and fiction so closely, I did typically query the validity of Fielder’s strategy, particularly when it got here to the folks with whom he interacts.

After establishing Congressman Steve Cohen’s ties to each the CAS and the Congressional Autism Caucus as a possible manner in, Fielder ventures to the Heart for Autism and Associated Issues to talk with psychologist Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh. Although I used to be delighted to see Dr. Granpeesheh reaffirm The Rehearsal’s resonance with the autistic expertise, I used to be stunned and dissatisfied to study by my very own analysis about her involvement in Vaxxed, a 2016 pseudoscience propaganda movie that pushes the discredited but sadly nonetheless prevalent perception that vaccines trigger autism.

Moreover, the Heart for Autism and Associated Issues specializes in applied behavioral analysis (ABA), a typical but controversial type of autism remedy often criticized for searching for to suppress autistic behaviors over embracing them.

Contemplating how thorough Fielder and his staff are, I puzzled why Fielder didn’t simply discuss to an autism professional from a extra ideologically sound background. Maybe there have been extra complicated causes at play that inhibited that from taking place. Or maybe this was one other occasion of Fielder purposefully utilizing a questionable supply to focus on the comedic and satirical undertones of the narrative he’s constructing. However in mild of this season’s emphasis on combating self-suppression, the inclusion of Granpeesheh’s perspective reads as a bit contradictory and inconsistent with the values of the sequence.