HBO just aired its highest-rated TV finale in years, and it was not The Last of Us Season 2. While much of the talk surrounding the premium cable network (and its Max streaming) service over the last month-and-change has been on the hit Pedro Pascal-led video game adaptation, there has been other fare hitting the channel, including another long-awaited second season, in Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal.
In his follow-up to 2022's The Rehearsal Season 1, which saw the Canadian absurdist comedian offer a real person the chance to rehearse the experience of raising a child from birth to the age of 18, Fielder took to the skies, capping off the sophomore effort with one of the best-reviewed TV episodes of all time.
Season 2 came to a close on Sunday, May 25 (just like The Last of Us Season 2 did), ending Fielder's season-long conquest to prove his hypothesis that miscommunications or lack of openness in the cockpit are the leading cause of airplane crashes worldwide.
This culminated in an epic TV hour with both fans and critics raving. The Rehearsal Season 2 finale is now the highest-rated episode of TV of 2025 on review aggregation platforms like IMDb and the best-reviewed episode of HBO television since 2016's Game of Thrones Season 6-closer, "The Winds of Winter."
As of this writing, The Rehearsal Season 2, Episode 6 (subtitled "My Controls") is sitting at an incredible 9.8/10 on IMDb, which would put it in the top 20 best-reviewed episodes of TV ever on the platform.
The only HBO show with episodes higher on the list than it is Game of Thrones, with the aforementioned Season 6 finale and that season's penultimate episode, "The Battle of the Bastards" (both of which hold a rare 9.9).
And it is not just an IMDb phenomenon. The Rehearsal's Season 2-capper has also become HBO's highest-rated TV episode of all time on the television-focused social platform Serialized. On that platform, it holds an incredible 4.86 out of five stars, putting it in a four-way tie for the third-highest-rated TV episode on the platform.
It is worth noting that these ratings can (and likely will fluctuate as time goes on), but early on, fans seem to agree that Fielder has crafted an all-timer to end the HBO series' second season.
The Rehearsal Season 2 was created by and stars Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder (best known for his Comedy Central series Nathan For You and the Emma Stone-led The Curse). The series took Fielder's concept from Season 1 of allowing people to rehearse various tense moments in their lives in these roleplaying scenarios that nailed every detail in sometimes absurd specificity and built upon it.
This time around, Fielder had taken on the task of making commercial air travel safer. To do this, he devised an ornate set of 'rehearsals' that would allow pilots and first-mates to open up in an effort to open the communication lines between roles in the cockpit—something Fielder believed to be the leading cause of aircraft disasters.
Why The Rehearsal Season 2 Finale Is Getting Rave Reviews?
While The Rehearsal has fared fairly well in its run-up to its Season 2 finale, nothing the documentary comedy has done before even gets close to how the second season-closer has been received.
And there is a good reason why the series is getting the plaudits that it is.
A common sentiment among Rehearsal Season 2 viewers has been that the show's finale is one of the most impressive, tense hours of TV ever made. It sees star/creator Nathan Fielder reveal the full extent of his 'saving the skies' plan, which, to the shock of many, has included him personally training to get his commercial pilot's license.
To prove his point of how effective his roleplaying exercises between pilots and co-pilots can be, Fielder sets out to fly his very own commercial flight full of passengers with him in the cockpit, putting his strategies to use.
This culminates in a stunning, simply gobs-smacking final few minutes where Fielder, with a co-pilot at his side and a Boeing 737 full of real-life people (all aware of the risk they are taking), completes a real-life two-and-a-quarter-hour flight over the California desert.
Fielder has always been one to keep his comedic cards close to his chest, withholding information for the audience until the absolute perfect moment, but this "I'm going to fly a jet-liner" moment in Season 2 plays out as one of the most shocking and thrilling moments in HBO history.
In the same way that Tom Cruise impresses movie audiences with his death-defying Mission: Impossible stunts, Fielder accomplishes the same heart-raising effect with his final Rehearsal Season 2 stunt.
As he flies through the air with over 130 real-life people sitting in the cabin behind him, the audience cannot help but question whether the comedian has gone too far. Then, when he lands, viewers experience this level of release rarely seen in TV shows helmed by comedians like Fielder.
It is simply gripping television that will likely never be replicated on HBO or otherwise.
