Earlier today I discovered that my TV gets HBO Canada, and, even more fortuitously, the season 2 premiere of Flight of the Conchords was coming on at 11:30! I was excited. If you don't watch this show yet, you should. It's about a self-described "two-man novelty band" - Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement - two unassuming gents from New Zealand who deliver some amazingly funny lines and clever songs as they (barely) try to make a name for themselves in New York City.As the episode begins, the boys are still on the outs with their manager, Murray (played with perfect innocence by Rhys Darby). To use an old Newfoundland expression, Murray is as useless as tits on a bull. He has zero knowledge about band management, the music industry in general, and... actually... he's clueless about everything. Bret and Jemaine finally fire him as their manager, and he spends the rest of the episode trying to win them back.
There are a lot of great moments:
- Murray's song at the beginning, where he manages to find plenty of words to rhyme with "rejected". Starts out quietly, until Murray steps out onto his balcony for a great panoramic view of NYC (the show seems to be saying: "We have a budget now!"), where Murray switches his singing style to a loud opera voice (think Pavarotti on steroids). Funny stuff.
- Sight gags! Bret makes some "band merchandise", stuffed Conchords dolls, but neglects to tell Jemaine where he acquired the denim used for the tiny doll clothing. A cushion makes a casual return to the library. The boys dress up like toothpaste popping out the tube for a commercial. Plenty of great visual moments.
- Mel's back! I thought she was lost forever to the Crazy Dogggz (is that enough g's?), but the Conchords one-and-only fan from Season 1 came back on the scene. Played with a scary combination of cheerfulness and spite (seriously!) by Kristen Schaal, she's only in one quick scene but it's a great one! You will feel bad for Doug (her long-suffering husband) once again.
- Dave's back! Seemingly the Conchords' only friend, Dave (Arj Barker) owns a nearby pawn shop and is always macho-posturing and dishing out life advice. He is awesome in this episode as he teaches the guys a lesson on "making a deal" and sells Bret a 25-cent pen for four dollars. "You need to learn the whole lesson," indeed.
- New intro! Not a huge deal, but Season 2 has a new opening that I kinda dig.
- Of course, Bret and Jemaine! Yes, they're as deadpan and random as ever. Their conversation about what women like is a classic.
- The song at the end about angels gettin' it on in heaven was weird, even for these guys. Their funniest songs are the ones where they capture real-life events or bits of speech that seem so natural (the "hey, I would say that!" type of stuff). This one is a little too "out to lunch" to really work. Plus, as a Neil Gaiman fan, I also know that angels don't have a gender, or reproductive organs for that matter. I'd be able to forgive the nit-picky details if the song was funnier.
No comments:
Post a Comment