Latest news with #NathanForYou
Straits Times
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
What we know about The Paper, the upcoming spin-off of American sitcom The Office
What we know about The Paper, the upcoming spin-off of American sitcom The Office NEW YORK – It has been 20 years since the American version of The Office (2005 to 2013) debuted on NBC, where it ran for nine acclaimed seasons and endured as a pop culture juggernaut well after its finale. It lives on in countless memes and catchphrases, and the network says it remains one of its most-streamed shows. So, it should surprise no one that the sitcom, as delightfully cringey as it is lovable, is finally getting a spin-off – The Paper (2025). NBCUniversal revealed at its upfront presentation in May that The Paper would debut on its streaming platform Peacock in September. The sitcom is being created by Greg Daniels and Michael Koman. Daniels was behind the American adaptation of The Office, while Koman created Comedy Central's Nathan For You (2013), alongside its star Nathan Fielder, a king of deadpan comedy. Daniels and Koman are executive producers of The Paper, as are Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the duo behind the original British version of The Office (2001 to 2003). Fans first caught wind of the potential spin-off in May 2024, when it was announced that Peacock had an untitled comedy-mockumentary series in the works. Production of The Paper began last summer. Like The Office, The Paper is a mockumentary sitcom about an industry in trouble – this time, the newspaper business, as opposed to the paper business of the original. It is also set in the same universe as the original. The same fictional documentary crew that followed the employees of Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is now following those who work at The Truth Teller, a fictional newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, whose publisher is trying to revive it with the help of volunteer reporters. Oscar Nunez is returning as Oscar Martinez, who will now work in accounting at The Truth Teller. 'I told Mr Greg Daniels that if Oscar came back, he would probably be living in a more bustling, cosmopolitan city,' Nunez said at the May presentation. 'Greg heard me, and he moved Oscar to Toledo, Ohio, which has three times the population of Scranton. So, it was nice to be heard.' So far, Nunez is the only Office alum who is confirmed for the new series, but John Krasinski, who played Jim Halpert, told Entertainment Tonight that he would make a cameo if Daniels asked him. 'I will do anything for that guy,' Krasinski said. 'He calls, I'll show up.' The new series will be led by actors Domhnall Gleeson, most famous for his role in Alex Garland's sci-fi film Ex Machina (2014) , and Sabrina Impacciatore, most famous for her role as the no-nonsense hotel manager during Season 2 of HBO's The White Lotus (2022). Impacciatore will play the managing editor of The Truth Teller, and Gleeson will play a new employee. The Paper will also star Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young and Tim Key. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Forbes
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Did Nathan Fielder Fly The Plane? ‘The Rehearsal' S2 Finale, Explained
Nathan Fielder appears to fly a plane in the season 2 finale of HBO's 'The Rehearsal' HBO's The Rehearsal season 2 finale has sparked debate, as viewers were left wondering how much of the series had been staged, or deceptively edited. Nathan Fielder's comedy has always walked a fine line between truth and performance. In the finale of The Rehearsal's second season, Fielder appears to fly a plane full of passengers, and lands safely. Viewers weren't sure what to make of the stunt. Did Nathan really fly that plane? Were the passengers actually on board? Was the truth behind the flight really the point? Given the premise of the show and hints dropped by Fielder during the finale, it seems that the truth lay somewhere in the middle, with the ambiguity being the point. Yes, and no. Fielder has always been interested in the performance that people instinctively adopt for the camera, and uses his intensely awkward persona to break that facade. His work often explores the phenomenon of people working together toward a delusional goal, and the shared hesitance to voice the obvious. Previously, Fielder has discussed being inspired by the 2008 financial crisis, rooted in "these personal moments between people where someone senses something's wrong, but they don't want to speak up." His breakout series, Nathan For You, saw Fielder successfully convince real people to undertake ludicrous business proposals. In season one of The Rehearsal, Fielder still leaned on the eccentric individuals that his process uncovered, but the focus was more on himself, or rather, his persona. Season 2 is even more focused on Fielder, with the distinction between persona and personality all the blurrier. Season 2 of The Rehearsal sees Fielder explore his fixation with plane crashes, which he believes are often caused by miscommunication between co-pilots and their captains. Fielder comes to the conclusion that the hierarchy in the cockpit, combined with the professional consequences of speaking out, often leads to tragedy. Fielder reckons that these crashes can be avoided if pilots could be encouraged to speak their minds, and embarks on an increasingly bizarre series of training exercises and rehearsals to try and enter the minds of pilots. Fielder's talent for finding eccentrics and oddballs is still there—he meets a couple who cloned their dog multiple times, and a man who attempts to sell a hilariously dilapidated plane, assuring Fielder that broken dials and knobs will not affect his safety in the slightest. Fielder, however, is the main character of this series, and some of the most surreal moments come from his self-imposed experiments (a scene where a diaper-wearing Fielder is breastfed by a gigantic, motherly puppet has to be seen to be believed). The series walks a fine line between truth and fiction, but the finale reveals that Fielder has spent two years training for his pilot license, and is now qualified to fly a 737. Fielder is then shown flying the plane with a visibly nervous co-pilot, who Fielder encourages to speak his mind. Fielder appears to successfully land the plane, with 150 people on board. However, not all is as it seems, as Fielder deliberately mentions the art of pulling off a 'magic trick' during the finale, hinting at some sort of deception. Judging from the footage, which was also shot outside of the plane, Fielder does appear to have flown the 737. On Reddit, fans of the show even tracked down the flight, which appears to have taken place on Feb 16 of this year. However, it appears that the plane was not actually full of passengers, and that Fielder's co-pilot was the only individual on board. Scenes of the passengers entering the plane, and applauding Fielder's landing seem to have been edited alongside the real flight, the 'magic trick' that Fielder told his audience he was going to pull off. Despite Fielder's meta-comedy, it appears he was attempting to make a serious point, not just about airline safety, but the persona that people put on when in positions of responsibility and authority. In a final twist, Fielder appeared on CNN to discuss his findings from the show, and cheekily pointed out that the power dynamic between Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown mirrored the imbalance in the cockpit. 'You're Wolf Blitzer, right?' Fielder said. 'So you're like, your name is first on the thing. So I'm sure, Pamela, at times you might not want to say, 'Oh, Wolf wants to do something. I don't think it's a good idea.' You might not want to express that, always.' Both hosts appeared disarmed by Fielder's comment, and stammered a defense, with Brown politely insisting that Blitzer doesn't have an 'ego' and that she feels free to speak up. However, Brown did admit that Fielder had a point. Clearly, Nathan Fielder's talent for disarming people on camera, even media-savvy news hosts, is as sharp as ever.
USA Today
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Are the Falcons a gigantic Nathan Fielder social experiment?
Are the Falcons a gigantic Nathan Fielder social experiment? The Atlanta Falcons added yet another chapter to the Bloated Book of Bafflement on Tuesday when a photo from the team's first OTA session featured a devastating self-own. In what is absolutely an accident by a hard-working social media expert and not a covert attempt to continue a troubling social experiment, the team shared to social media a now-deleted photo (which you can see below) of safety Jessie Bates III and cornerback Mike Ford posing with each other in their practice jerseys. Where's the problem? Well, Bates is No. 3, and Ford is No. 28. 3, 28. ... You get where we're going with this. It's an obvious mistake by this admin. It's just a photo of two Falcons defensive backs during a day of May NFL offseason practice. There is nothing more to it than that. Right? ... Right? *flashbacks to 28-3... looks around nervously, whispers* Have... have the Falcons secretly a Nathan Fielder social experiment this whole time? For years, the only way to chalk up the many, many bizarre happenings in Flowery Branch has been to simply look to the football gods assigning them as one of their favorite torments. When the football gods pride themselves in your folly, you may then take Sisyphean joy in your eternal embarrassments. However, what if Fielder has been behind the Falcons this entire time, orchestrating each and every Atlanta misery as some sort of social experiment to study Stockholm Syndrome's effect on fans of a sports team? Posting two players in jerseys of "3" and "28" can absolutely be an honest mistake. That's what it is... an honest mistake. But what if it isn't? What if this is Fielder's latest attempt to study Falcons fans? Just think back on these huge Falcons blunders as a Fielder experiment from Nathan For You or The Rehearsal instead of just miserable developments for a seemingly cursed NFL franchise? Imagine these quotes in his voice, providing narration before unfolding a macabre social experiment for alt-comedy purposes? 'I then decided to call a pass play in a clear run play scenario, as I further explored the possibility that, even though we were ahead by a wide margin, it wasn't impossible for us to still lose this football game. Being up 28 points to three late in the third quarter of the Super Bowl usually projects a victory, but what if, this time, it doesn't?" "Our team has become known for blowing leads in the most shocking of scenarios because of the Super Bowl, but it would be absolutely implausible if we actually kept blowing even more leads? Could we make it our identity? Could we make even the simplest of leads, like one over the Jay Cutler-led Dolphins, feel likely to slip out of our grasps into painful oblivion? Maybe." "We just signed quarterback Kirk Cousins in the offseason to a massive contract, essentially locking him into a meaningful stint with our franchise for the next few years. Our pass-rush has been a historic disaster. Logic dictates in this year's NFL Draft that we'll finally address this lingering issue with our top pick. But what if we didn't focus on our defense with that pick and we took a quarterback, instead? Of course, this has never been done in the history of the NFL in this fashion and would send the fans into a spiral, but... what if we did it anyway?" "The opportunity presented itself for us to pump fake crowd noise into our stadium, to present the illusion of fans being in our building... even though there are plenty of people already there providing plenty of noise for our underperforming football team. What will the meaningless crowd noise provide? We wanted to find out." Think even closer to the fact that Fielder's second season of The Rehearsal premiered on April 20, the same week the Falcons both traded a 2026 first-round pick to move up in the 2025 NFL Draft to take Tennessee outside linebacker James Pearce Jr. *right after* the team finally did something widely praised by fans and analysts alike in drafting Georgia outside linebacker Jalon Walker. It's also the same week Atlanta defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich's son, Jax, stole quarterback Shedeur Sanders' NFL Draft telephone number off his dad's iPad and orchestrated a prank call that Friday. Is Fielder trying to tell us something? His latest season has been largely centered on aviation, and the Falcons' slogan is quite literally "Rise Up." Is season 3 his grand reveal, where he and a series of others have been running the operation in the shadows for a perpetually snakebitten NFL team to see just how loyal fans can be in the most shockingly impossible situations? This social media post was probably just a human error, a small drip of misery water in the pain bucket Falcons fans drink from to sustain themselves from year to year. But what if it's not? What if, this whole time, a man with a laptop has been plotting behind the scenes to conduct more and more experiments to see just how far he can push a fan base to leave its wretched football team behind, just to see those fans stay put? Are these fans just avoiding what they know deep down? That loyalty in sports is even more barbed and jaded than loyalty in life, and that we're more likely to leave people and jobs that cause us pain than literal sports teams we only have relation to in geography and happenstance? No, that would be nonsense. But what if it's not? At... at least Michael Penix Jr. looked good at quarterback last year, right?
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Rehearsal: Nathan Fielder Pulls Off His Wildest TV Stunt Yet in a High-Flying Finale — Grade the Season!
All throughout Season 2 of The Rehearsal, Nathan Fielder has been following a carefully plotted flight plan — but now he's really taking control of the cockpit. Fielder's wildly experimental HBO series wrapped up its sophomore run on Sunday night with an hour-long finale, and though Fielder has pulled off some memorable stunts in the past on Nathan For You, he might have topped himself here. Fielder has spent all of Season 2 investigating the problem of commercial airline crashes by zeroing in on the lack of communication between airline pilots in the cockpit, and in the finale, he asks the actors he's worked with this season if they'll participate in one final experiment: take a ride in a Boeing 737… with Fielder himself flying the plane as the pilot. (Of course they all say yes. They're actors! They'll do anything for an IMDb credit!) More from TVLine The Last of Us Season 3: Is Pedro Pascal Gone for Good? Here's What the EPs Say The Last of Us Finale Kills [Spoiler], Teases Abby's Side of the Story - Plus, Grade It! Chicago Med Is Plotting the Return of Original Cast Member(s) Next Season, EP Reveals - Who Should Come Back? We then flash back to two years earlier to discover that Fielder has been secretly training to fly airplanes all this time, logging hundreds of hours in the air and mastering the art of taking off and landing. Now it did take him a while to master that art: We see him struggle in the cockpit over and over again, only to have his seasoned co-pilots take the controls from him to keep them safe. (Fielder admits his flight instructors labeled him their 'slowest learner they had ever taught.') But eventually, he got the hang of it, and he managed to complete his first solo flight without any co-pilots to back him up. But that was on a tiny propeller plane, and Fielder's plan is to fly a full 737. So he has to train for that in a simulator while he tries to rent a plane that can carry a full load of passengers like a commercial flight. It wasn't easy for him to find that plane — a lot of the owners were wary of handing a plane over to a comedian for a TV stunt — but he finally found a functional plane that fit the bill, and he recruited one of the veteran pilots from this season's experiment, Aaron, to be his co-pilot. Fielder also has to go through an extensive health checklist to get approval to fly, and he even decides to undergo a brain MRI to detect any anxiety issues he might have. But he doesn't get the results in time, so he just reports nothing wrong on his health checklist so he can move forward with the flight. The day of the flight arrives, and Fielder dresses the part, wearing a suit and tie and captain's hat as he enters the cockpit with Aaron. They go through the pre-flight checklist together, and everything seems normal as they start the engine and take off. Fielder grows concerned, though, when he asks Aaron mid-flight if he's alright and Aaron doesn't respond. It turns out Aaron just didn't hear him, but Fielder wants to make sure they're communicating — that's the whole point of this experiment! — so he puts Aaron through one of his role-play exercises where Aaron is completely blunt and Fielder is open to feedback. Aaron admits that Fielder did forget to put his flaps back up after takeoff, and he did it for him, and Fielder thanks him for being so frank. Ahhh… the cockpit is a safe space. It's time to land the plane (literally and figuratively), and even though we know they must make it back safely — we would've heard about it if they didn't, right? — it's still pretty tense as Fielder approaches the runway… and lands the plane safely. Fielder gets a round of applause from Aaron and his passengers for his successful flight, and we end the season with the winner of the Wings of Voice singing competition singing (what else?) Evanescence's 'Bring Me to Life.' Oh, and Nathan gets a message that his brain MRI results are available… but he deletes them without looking at them. If it keeps him out of the air, he'd rather not know, it seems. So how are we feeling about this season of The Rehearsal? As a fan of Fielder's work, I'd say it was probably his least funny season of TV, and maybe his most revealing, delving into the issues he's had personally and professionally. I appreciate his willingness to take big swings, and Season 2 definitely gave us moments I'll never forget, like the Sully reenactment. But with Fielder, it's hard to know when he's actually being serious, and for a lot of Season 2, I was waiting for a joke that never quite came. I don't know if Fielder's work here will actually lead to any meaningful change in the aviation industry, but I do know that Season 2, for better or worse, was not quite like anything I've seen on TV before. Give the finale — and the season as a whole — a grade in our polls, and hit the comments to share your final thoughts on Season 2. Best of TVLine Mrs. Maisel Flash-Forward List: All of Season 5's Futuristic Easter Eggs Yellowjackets Recap: The Morning After Yellowjackets Recap: The First Supper
Metro
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
TV fans flabbergasted after star actually flies plane in 'insane' finale
TV viewers were left stunned on Sunday night when the star of a hit documentary series actually flew a plane – Tom Cruise style. Canadian writer and actor Nathan Fielder, 42, had already stunned fans of his series The Rehearsal after spending millions of dollars to stage a plane crash. Fielder was then accused of costing an aspiring singer $10,000 (£7,300) after she auditioned for a 'fake talent show' as part of The Rehearsal's season two. It's safe to say that Fielder, who rose to fame as the star of American docuseries Nathan For You, is willing to push boundaries and prod buttons for his comedy. But despite his antics down the years, and in recent weeks, even some of Fielder's biggest fans would never have expected him to actually fly a passenger plane. The second season of The Rehearsal has seen Fielder tackling the issue of airline safety and the relationships between pilots – to complete his task, he actually secured a pilot's license. 'When I first began this project,' he narrated in the season two finale episode, 'I had decided there was no better way to understand pilots than to become one myself. 'But it became clear very quickly that I was not a natural at this. Especially when it came to landing the plane. I was apparently such an abnormal case that they started passing me around to different instructors.' And it turns out that Fielder not being 'a natural' made for gripping TV that viewers have been unable to get over, with many left on the edges of their seats. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video @ShaveStop was stunned: 'Damn, who the hell knew that this Memorial Day weekend Nathan Fielder would one up Tom Cruise when it came to plane stunts?' @CharlyTodd concurred: 'I so badly want to know the details of the insurance policies HBO has had to secure on behalf of Nathan Fielder. I am still stunned at him flying that plane.' @JwyeNFL said: 'I could watch an entire series just on Nathan Fielder negotiating with HBO on all of his ridiculous ideas. How they agreed to let him fly a plane with 150+ people on board is wild.' Fielder has become known in the world of TV comedy for his ability to blur reality and peoples' perceptions, often staging elaborate schemes and pranks to do so. @ColtonStock really rated the episode: 'The Rehearsal S2 finale is straight up one of the most impressive feats I've ever seen – somehow a more insane plane stunt than the one in Mission: Impossible.' At points during the season, Fielder also stepped into the shoes of Sully Sullenberger, the pilot who successfully landed a crashing plane in the Hudson River in New York, saving everyone on board. The bumper season finale also dances around the question of whether Fielder's trouble with flying might be a result of undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, while The Curse actor (which he starred in alongside Emma Stone) learns his diagnosis, the answer is never revealed, leaving viewers to wonder if the test came back positive or negative. More Trending The Rehearsal fans have wondered on social media over whether the test and diagnosis were genuine, or if Fielder was playing up to peoples' speculations that his awkward persona is a result of ASD. Minia15 said: 'I would find it very surprising if the joke is that Nathan is negatively representing the ability of people with autism. The bit only works in my mind if he is on the spectrum.' However, ReedyMarsh commented: 'There's a lot of good that'll come out of this and I reckon he does care, but his milking of any opportunity to be funny means that he's somewhat detached in the context of his shows.' View More » Watch The Rehearsal on NowTV and Amazon Prime Video. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Post-apocalyptic thriller's season 2 finale hailed 'perfect ending' despite crushing fans MORE: Dark Netflix series 'perfect' for Bank Holiday bingeing soars to number 1 MORE: WWE breaks 23-year tradition with fans shocked over 'mind blowing' twist
