Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal Tackles Autism — Because of a Consequence Article

[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, formidable 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 bizarre individuals take part in meticulously crafted simulations of socially and emotionally difficult conditions, with a purpose 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 know human conduct by way of 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 way of 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 way of a collection of very humorous, more and more absurd role-playing workout routines that provoke unexpectedly profound insights concerning the human situation. However what makes this season significantly notable (for me, at the very least) 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 introduced 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 concerning the worrisome, under-discussed drawback of miscommunication. Fearing his conclusions can be dismissed as a consequence of his standing as a comic, Fielder Googles himself to see how he might retool his status, 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 different articles and boards 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 talent to attach it to the bigger thematic arc of the season was extremely gratifying and thrilling to witness. Given how autism remains to be pervasively misunderstood and stigmatized, significantly inside our present administration, I’m grateful that Fielder discovered a strategy 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 strains between actuality and fiction so closely, I did typically query the validity of Fielder’s strategy, particularly when it got here to the individuals with whom he interacts.

After establishing Congressman Steve Cohen’s ties to each the CAS and the Congressional Autism Caucus as a possible means in, Fielder ventures to the Middle for Autism and Associated Problems 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 shocked and disillusioned to be taught by way of 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 Middle for Autism and Associated Problems focuses on utilized behavioral evaluation (ABA), a standard but controversial type of autism remedy usually criticized for looking for to suppress autistic behaviors over embracing them.

Contemplating how thorough Fielder and his crew are, I questioned why Fielder didn’t simply speak to an autism professional from a extra ideologically sound background. Maybe there have been extra complicated causes at play that inhibited that from occurring. Or maybe this was one other occasion of Fielder purposefully utilizing a questionable supply to spotlight the comedic and satirical undertones of the narrative he’s constructing. However in gentle 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 collection.

The Rehearsal (HBO)