My brother first introduced me to Flight of the Conchords – the band who bill themselves as “New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo” – when he insisted I listen to their songs on YouTube, and I later started noticing Web ads for the HBO series of the same name. I even won some Scene Points a while back when some friends were talking about the series, and I said, “Oh, I only know the songs.” But more recently, I’ve been catching up with the show. The Flight of the Conchords show has the stripped-down, awkward humor made popular by The Office, the geeky, oddball aesthetic of Adult Swim, and the endearing quirkiness of Napoleon Dynamite. Plus, it has that whole it’s-not-TV-it’s-HBO, New Zealand-import, we-heard-about-them-before-you, elitist thing. The show is hipster heaven.
Flight of the Conchords is also perhaps the only series that’s been able to truly master the problematic TV musical genre. But a Kiwi folk-parody duo starring in a series about a Kiwi folk-parody duo is perhaps the only context in which a musical TV show even begins to make sense (sorry Steven Bochco, Cop Rock just didn’t make it for me). Most of the storylines are simply flimsy setups to the songs, but since the songs are so goofy to begin with, it actually seems to work.
But despite the zany and surreal nature of the show, Jemaine and Bret – who play themselves in the series – are very sweet and charming, in that ‘you were a weird little kid, weren’t you?’ kind of way (of course, I’m not sure if that’s strictly “in character” or IRL – either way, the accent helps). The song interludes are always fun, but I think my favorite scenes are the so-depressing-it’s-funny “band meetings” held in the chintzy New Zealand consulate.
I started this column out by making the best comparisons I could, and while I do think my comparisons are accurate, I should also point out that as a whole, Flight of the Conchords is entirely unique. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything else quite like it; I’m looking forward to a second season in 2008.
The first season of Flight of the Conchords is currently available on DVD.
Elizabeth “Liz” Gartley, of Houlton, has a BA in media studies from Emerson College in Boston. She has studied abroad in the Netherlands and Australia, and most recently interned at a production company in Hollywood. She can be reached online at egartley@gmail.com or leave a message for her at your local newspaper office.
