Flight of the Conchords

I have a confession to make. My television gets over 300 channels, but I only want to watch one. After the wife and kids are in bed, I tippytoe into the living room and quietly turn to channel 314. Like most men, I’m drawn to the pay movie channels’ late night programming. Unlike most men, I’m watching a show about a couple of male (and fully clothed) folk musicians. In my defense, “Flight of the Conchords” is the fourth most popular folk parody duo in all of New Zealand (number three is a Flight of the Conchord’s tribute band).

The new HBO comedy series watches the Conchords (Bret and Jemaine) as they make the transition from mildly popular Kiwi band to struggling New York City based musicians. Their hapless manager Murray stalls their progress by refusing to get them nighttime gigs. “It’s too dangerous out there at night,” he argues. “Anything could happen…you could get murdered…or ridiculed.”

When Murray isn’t slowing the band’s development, a woman usually is.

First up is Sally, who used to date Bret, but drunkenly gives in to Jemaine’s dance moves and eloquent request for her to go back to his house so “we can feel each other up on the couch”. A sober Sally tries to get rid of Jemaine, who suggests that instead they take a break. “Break?!!” cries Sally, “No…there’s no relationship”. “Yet,” responds Jemaine, “Maybe we could start with a break”.

Next is Bret’s love Coco, who Jemaine constantly competes with for Bret’s attention. One show opens with a shot of Bret and Coco sitting on a couch tickling each other. Their apparent intimate moment is interrupted as the shot widens to reveal Jermaine sitting next to them. “Bret, how come you don’t tickle me anymore?” Jemaine wonders. “Seriously, you guys are just tickling each other and it might be nice to include someone else.” Coco (rhymes with Yoko) creates a wedge between the band members that may end up causing them to split.

Finally there’s Mel, the band’s fan. She doesn’t let her husband get in the way of fulfilling her duties as fan club president/stalker/sex-crazed lunatic.

The show’s characters are great, but what sets it apart from normal sitcom fare is the Conchords tendency to spontaneously break into song throughout each episode. Of Sally they sing, “You’re so beautiful. You could be a part-time model. But, you’d still probably have to keep your normal job.” These lyrics describe their financial hardship; “You know you’re not in high finance, considering second-hand underpants. Check your mind…How’d it get so bad? What happened to those other underpants you had?”

Summertime programming generally leaves fans of well-written comedy longing for the fall return of shows like “The Office” or “30 Rock”. But, HBO delivers a summer show that is worth watching, even if it has to be done in the wee hours of the morning, so that my wife doesn’t find out I’m every bit as obsessed with the Conchords as their other fan.