This week I toured a training wing at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and all I could think about was Nathan Fielder. In this season of Fielder's The Rehearsal series on HBO, the comedian exposes a tense shortcoming in modern aviation: communication between pilots. The immersive way that hospital staff role play bore a striking resemblance.
For the uninitiated, The Rehearsal is an awkward, absurd experiment in comedy. Fielder generally helps regular people through conflicts in their life by building elaborate replica environments—stages for them to rehearse a high-stakes moment. Last season opened with an exact replica bar filled with actors, built just for one man to practice an awkward conversation with a trivia partner. The absurdity is not always funny per se, but it’s usually thought-provoking for anyone who thinks a lot about the way people communicate.
