Grid Effect

As some of my friends from Georgia might say, Hey ya’ll! It is Monday, meaning I, just like you, probably have no vested interest in what I’m currently doing. You show us a person who enjoys Monday mornings, and I’ll show you an office pariah. Also, I suppose we owe you an apology. Last Friday at the end of our Office recap, we promised an additional post later that afternoon that was never delivered.

We’re not going to lie, though we were busy at work, we could have squeezed it in, we just felt like if we used up all the good links for an unnecessary post on Friday, then there would be nothing to write about on Monday. And really, that is just kind of sad. To be honest, I think we’re more deserving of your pity than your ire.

So here are a few links. Se’ll try to unveil something original this week, maybe another story in the life of Jason Katims, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

For everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the themes and direction of The Wire, watch this forum with David Simon and…several community leaders at Harvard. The moderator has all the personality and charisma you’d expect most Harvard faculty to have.

Speaking of personality, Flight of The Conchords are touring the U.S. over the summer. I imagine it will be a similar act to their HBO special. But still, definitely worth the price of admission. We’d rather see this than 90% of legitimate music acts that will be touring at about the same time.

It’s times like this we wished we still smoked weed.

Here is nerve.com’s opinion of the 50 greatest comedy sketches of all time. We’re glad to see that The State was included, along with some Chapelle Show and of course, SNL. Had we compiled our own list it would have been from the same sources, but different material.

Mo Ryan at the Tribune wonders whether or not HBO can make it a whole five months without airing any original series until Fall. While it will be atypical for them, there really isn’t much the network can do about it now. And it’s not like their going to crumble up and die during the hiatus. Besides, who the fuck is currently watching HBO anyways?

The saga of Mark Burnett’s the reality series continues as The Contender has now been canceled by ESPN. Currently shopping for another home, this article states that HBO and Showtime are off the books. I don’t know why this series doesn’t just fade into oblivion like every other series ever made, but it doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. Someone should make a movie about this continuing struggle to find a home for a reality series that nobody watches. I could see the tagline for it now: “It’s down for the count, but up to the challenge”.

And finally,Craig Ferguson managed to beat Conan O’Brien in ratings without any qualifiers last week. When we were in college it seemed like everyone we didn’t like or respect preferred Ferguson over O’Brien, so this isn’t really a surprise to us. We disliked a lot of people we went to school with. Nothing against Ferguson personally, we just prefer the zaniness of Conan (who made a brilliant appearance at Comedy Central’s “Night of Too Many Stars” yesterday).

That’s it for now, don’t expect anything else today.

We here at Grid Effect we’re particularly enamored with the past year in television and film, but in most instances the two mediums at large cater to an audience we simply can’t relate too. For every No Country For Old Men and Flight of The Conchords there’s ten Evan Almighty’s and five Big Bang Theory’s, not to say we always scoff at the commercial pieces, we love Grindhouse and The Office, but those are two exceptions. While these both have their shallow characteristics there is still an emphasis on originality and characterization, the same cannot be said for their mainstream counterparts.

Given this is a TV blog, at this time of year we like to recognize series’ that might otherwise go unrecognized, regardless of how trivial and irrelevant the recognition actually is. We’ll countdown 10-6 today, and finish 5-1 on Monday. To read about last year’s best series as donned by this blog, go here and here.

First off, lets take some time to acknowledge the series’ we excluded, including Entourage, Rescue Me Nip Tuck and Survivor. The latter of which had secured its place on the board until this dreadful last season. And we tend to think that producing the worst season out of fifteen warrants barring you from any top ten lists. Rescue Me and Entourage, last year ranked 10 and 8, respectively fell off completely this year for a variety of reasons.

That’s pretty disappointing when two of the series’ on last year’s list weren’t even up for consideration (AD and The Wire). Each had their moments, but neither series seems to have a clue as to where they are going, and are just meandering around for the networks while they still grab decent ratings. And Nip Tuck’s absence shouldn’t come as any surprise.

10) Weeds
A bit of a sham because we haven’t even seen their most recent season, but the first two were good enough that we’re going to take the liberty of saying we’re confident in the product. A series about ultra-liberal potheads for ultra-liberal potheads might seem like a cliche given the current Hollywood environment, but this series produces the goods with great performances from Kevin Nealon as Doug Wilson, and Mary Louise-Parker and Justin Kirk as Nancy and Andy Botwin. A comedy as much as it is a family drama, this series produces great bits of dialog and plot development like no other sitcom to date. And trust us, had we been privy to season three, it would be much higher than #10.

You know it’s good when we haven’t even seen this year’s season and still have it ranked.

9) Flight of The Conchords
As quirky as it is fresh (the antithesis to Juno in that regard), FoTC follows the lives of two aspiring yet hopeless New Zealand musicians in New York. They get into mostly self-inflicted misadventures and handle all of them with a bumbling beta-maleness that can only be accurately described as impotent indifference. This would have earned a higher spot if it wasn’t for the all too frequent uncomfortable musical bits, but with Bret, Jermaine, Murray, Mel and Dave all churning out consistent comedic bits, the place as worst best series we actually saw in full in 2007 seems appropriate.

Friday Night Lights
God we hate putting this series so low. The first season was probably the best network drama we have ever seen. The exposition on a small Texas town and its football team couldn’t have been less imperfect. But this second season, with its uneven episodes and murder plots and surplus of adult-child relationships, we couldn’t rationally put it above anything else left. It has a glimmer of hope that they can get back on track, but they’ve effectively ruined Landry (probably the best peripheral character from season one) and taken several characters down paths I’m not entirely interested in nor do I find them to be as organic as the first seasons conflicts and resolutions. Right now, Taylor Keitsch and Scott Porter as Riggins and Street are saving that series.

7) Curb Your Enthusiasm
Surprised we decided to rank it this high given the frequency of letdowns for their first season in almost two years. But the last three or four episodes (starting with whenever Cheryl left Larry) completely redeemed the season’s initial outpour of implausibility. We suppose this speaks to the longevity of Larry David and his capacity for comedic development, but really we’re not so sure we aren’t putting it on here solely for the last minute of the season. They need to return for a seventh so we can see that final sixty seconds elongated.

6) The Office
Fell a couple spots from last year, though still remained strong despite all our incessant nitpicking. We like to hold great series’ to a higher standard and not resort to the old, “it’s still better than anything else on television” defense. But in all honesty, it is. Even the best 30 Rock episode, which is a highly respected and critically lauded series, doesn’t produce as many great moments (comedic or otherwise) as does the worst episode of The Office. So, for all the unnecessary declarations of love and relationship quarrels, we’re still placing it here at number six.

Back with the top five series of the year on Monday.

Welcome back, hope everyone’s labor day was as reckless as mine. Whenever there is a three day weekend, that following Monday or Tuesday seems infinitely longer than a Monday after a two day weekend. It’s miserable, and that is exactly what I am today, fucking miserable. So my apologies for the lazy, dual post. But this is all I really have the energy/capacity for right now.

Entourage certainly could have been worse, but they fit so much into one episode it kind of ruined it. This is another situation where they could have spent three days in France working out who to sell the film to, instead we saw several abbreviated conversations then they dropped an anvil on us when the Arab guy doubled the studio’s offer and went straight to the financier, who then dropped the film because an isolated crowd at Cannes Film Festival didn’t enjoy it. Then Harvey, the abrasive studio head bought it for one dollar, promising to turn it around. Which will undoubtedly prove to be a successful venture by the end of next season.

At the very least, the project turned out to be somewhat of a bust (for now). On the other hand, Eric was proved right about it. And therein lies a problem, because regardless of which one of the parties was going to accurately project the movie’s success, and guess correctly (Eric or everybody else), it was going to be agitating. That is a significant problem when in a lighthearted, campy, summertime series, you wouldn’t mind seeing everyone fail. It might be worth addressing.

As for the peripheral aspects of this finale, the Johnny Drama plot was pretty overdone, and Ari felt obsolete (at least compared to how significant a role he should have played). Also, for those who feel this show is misogynistic, between the coke binges with Paul Rubenstein and his band of hookers, to the Arab guy fixing Turtle up with some free oral off-handedly, this episode did little to quell those complaints. Lloyd giving his boyfriend advice on the limbo was damn funny, though we could have done without that mamosa spout, but it caused quite the reaction with the people I was watching the show with. Who would have thought the highlight of an Entourage season finale would take place on a gay vacation?

Conchords actually ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, which will probably be dismissed with nothing more than a quick explanation (if that) in the season two premiere. Whether I like or dislike this is one thing, the fact that it worked well in this episode is undeniable. For one, we had a Dimitri Martin cameo, albeit an all but silent one, but anytime the best young comedian is involved, I tend to approve. Greg Fitzsimmons, who started this entire mess when Murray “discovered” him and his bongos, and caused a riff in the band when Murray forced him onto Bret and Jermaine.

Another great thing about this episode, we weren’t inundated with eight minutes of crappy songs like we usually are. Outside of a Footloose parody, a portion of “Crazy Dogs” new “Arf Arf” video, some tidbits of “The Humans Are Dead” performances (One with The Orginal Flight of The Conchords (Bret and Dimitri) and Flight of The Conchords (Greg and Jermaine)) and some rehersals; we were spared any uncomfortable, psuedo-videos that were beginning to test my patience. What we saw, sans the parody, was actually necessary to the plot and the humor was appropriately derivative.

This was a bizarre little episode, but enjoyable all the same. And a good conclusion to a successful pilot season. Whether they have enough versatility to stay interesting for a second season remains in question, but for now the series is a success, and we can leave it at that.

There it is, once Mad Men and Rescue Me wraps up their respective seasons, we are done with summer television on this site. Clear your schedules for It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Curb Your Enthusiasm both of which start next week.

Finally getting around to discussing this, it was a much more hectic day at work than initially perceived and we were apparently having network isues last night that I wasn’t privy to, because the webpage wouldn’t open. So, my apologies for those I may have mislead.

Anyhow…man alive. I know this show prides itself on its monolithic tone of comedy, but this episode was too one-note for me, almost to the point of being depressing. For those who didn’t watch it, the basic premise was that Murray was feeling inadequate as the band’s manager, so Bret and Jermaine hired a semi-professional actor to pose as a record executive that encourages Murray and his professionalism, but hesitantly refuses them a record deal. The actor, however, gets a little carried away with his craft, and does offer Murray a record deal, and high jinks ensues.

If you think about it, its kind of a tired comedy plot structure: One friend feels inept, and in an ill-advised manner the other friend(s) attempt to make the one friend feel better. And after a series of misunderstandings, he inevitably ends up feeling worse, but it concludes with some sort of life lesson which leads to all participating parties gaining some matter of perspective.

Now, was this better than most? absolutely. At least it had a couple songs that were decent (And I’ve refused to sit through any Lord of The Rings movies), Dave shared a charming tale of modern love with us and there were more subtle gestures, such as Murray’s “emergency band meeting” that included roll call. But the overall comedy bit just seemed to fall flat. Nothing really side-splitting came from the “Murray is depressed” storyline. It was still better than Entourage, but only by default.

Supposedly, this episode was supposed to air earlier in the season and was pushed back for whatever reason. With one episode left in their immensely successful pilot season, we’re certainly expecting them to send us off into the fall on a higher note than they did two days ago.

Peculiar episode on Sunday. Definitely damn funny, but it was a first time for many things. Bret and Jermaine’s first experimentation with illegal drugs, their first opportunity (and presumable achievement) at a “man-man-lady” threesome (though I’m sure Mel has always been a viable option) and the first time the show completely disregarded any type of continuity.

A couple episodes ago, Bret was overly-squeamish about promiscuity, this episode he was gun-ho about a potential “lady-lady-man” threesome and running out the door of Mel’s apartment for emotionless sex? What gives? For the most part I don’t give a shit. Like stated about Entourage yesterday, comedies should ultimately be judged on the creativity of their humor, which Conchords is still excelling in, not on plot points. Look at a series like Curb Your Enthusiasm. In the pilot, Sammy, Jeff and Suzie Green’s child was an infantile boy (never shown on camera), in his first actual appearance on the series in “The Doll”, he had morphed into an 8-10 year old girl.

Still, that and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (whose first episode is up online, by the way) are the two best comedies still making new episodes. Just find a way to make me laugh, and all will be right with the world. I was just taken aback by it, but having an eager Bret in that situation made for better comedy that a timid one, so we here at Grid Effect applaud them for the decision.

But that misses the focus of this episode, as Kristin Schaal proved she isn’t better in small doses. From her interrogation of the “new fans” to her bathroom inspection of Bret (all while respecting his boundaries) she was definitely a highlight. It would be preferable if she was prominent in the last two remaining episodes. Speaking of Mel…

Am I the only one who watches these episodes worried about what’s going to happen to Dave? Seeing him cooped up in his crowded basement playing Solitary (or so it appeared) while his wife served dinner to two men that she wants to sleep with and their dates only solidified my concerns. Is it still a comedy if this guy slits his wrists? It was further explained how she cost him his career (which was hilariously inflected and delivered by Schaal), can’t they just divorce or something?

The musical numbers left something to be desired. Its at the point now where I’m just uncomfortable watching those if with a group of people. This time it was a mock anthem to “all the ladies of the world” and an acid trip parody. Yawn. But I’ve made my peace with the (in my admittedly unpopular opinion) sub-par music, and enjoy the other twenty-five minutes of the episode.

Other notes:

-I love how the only song they perform on for audiences on the show is that “Who likes to rock the party?” track. And we generally only here bits and pieces of it before they’re cut short, this time by the host of a world music night.

-Dave offered up the always bizarre wardrobe this show doles out. This time it was a t-shirt with a mouse screwing another mouse in a mouse trap from behind (that’s some redundant shit right there), and a blouse.

Maybe back later today with a review of that online It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia episode.

This is probably the closest FoTC is ever going to get to Spinal Tap, so I hope everyone enjoyed it. That long haul from Manhattan, to LaGuardia, to “a central park” in Newark (originally thought to be Central Park in New York), proved detrimental to the sake of the band, and led Murray to question his abilities in talent management.

Some of the highlights include leather suits, Murray’s car falling into a pool, a women’s “North Jesrsey University” water polo team and an argument over sparkling bottled water. It wasn’t the best episode they have done, but at the very least it revolved around the band, as opposed to potential girlfriends. I asked for something like this last week and it was answered, so I guess there is little room for complaint. Still, it just felt a little tired to me. All of the humor was running jokes. With the leather suits shrinking and Murray’s objection to Bret and Jermaine trying to out “rock ‘n roll” each other, when in all actuality they’re just idiots.

The music was forgettable at best, though I liked the psuedo-lounge singing parody. Given that there was only one track, and the drive looked like it was going to break into one, they might need a season off to write some new material, should they bring the series back. I mean, the only song they performed opened with them saying, “Mermaid” in a peculiar voice for the first minute or so.

The highlight of the episode was clearly Murray. And more specifically his brief departure from the band, in which he actually cursed at Bret and Jermaine, despite their pleads not to (go fuck yourselves!). Between this and his phone conversations with his off-camera wife and Rhys Darby’s portrayal of the “responsible” band manager, the episode wasn’t a total loss.

In short, this episode raised more red flags about whether or not they can extend this relatively strong run into a second season. I suppose it doesn’t really matter, I’m going to watch them anyways, regardless of caliber.

Possibly back with some links or something later. It’s a really slow day.

Well, I feel exceptionally dirty today after watching My Boys for the second week in a row (none of you will believe me, but it wasn’t my idea. Continue snickering). Structurally this show is a mess, but it seems to rate well with, seemingly, everyone who watches it. Besides me, of course. Unfortunately, I’m a regular viewer now, and can be lumped into this demo. It’s a dark day here at Grid Effect.

Not really much to comment on about Sunday’s Conchords episode. Jermaine and Bret go on a double date at the insistence of Jermaine. Bret ends up being successful with both women and Jermaine is comically inept, though still insists that Bret is his “wing-man”. Bret and the blond love interest of his do a sort of gender reversal, in which Bret proudly reveals he doesn’t let a woman upstairs until after three years of courtship, but begrudgingly does so only to be pressured further into sex by the comely lass. Eventually, he gives in after she lies about being shipped out to Iraq in the oncoming days, then afterwards showers with his clothes on and wallows about the experience being over in five minutes. Later he visits the pastry shop she works at to discover she isn’t at war, and she dismisses him while high fiving her friends. That’s the episode in a nutshell.

As you could tell from the incredibly succinct synopsis, it had its moments. But is already starting to feel rehashed with the continuous relationship quandaries. The material is still entertaining, and I definitely wasn’t bored throughout the half-hour, but one has to wonder about the longevity of the show if every episode revolves around two women that we are unlikely to ever see again. However, while it might be a non-stop barrage of relationship humor, it’s the best of its kind.

Murray had a rather minor subplot this weekend in which he attempts to buy Flight of The Conchords albums from a common street hustler (a pudgy, middle-aged white man claiming to be the brother of Quincy Jones), only to find out that he was sold one box of albums and several boxes of sawdust after his first day of sales, during which Mel was the only customer. Dave agrees to buy them because they can be reconfigured and sold as blanks. As a side note, these episodes are being played out of order, as evidenced by Murray still having his old computer pre-tech support woman.

The music left a lot to be desired this episode. The first was some sort of homage to 60’s French videos. I understand the concept here, but if its a comedy shouldn’t it at least be funny? It seems like we were supposed to be amused strictly because they were parodying something off-brand, not because there was actual substantive humor involved. The second song was much better, but still kind of bland. It seems like when they change the setting for the musical numbers, I am more prone to find it irritating. The song was called, “A Kiss is Not a Contract” that Bret breaks into when his girlfriend claims he owes her some “sugar”. It had its moments, but wasn’t mind-blowing or anything, I wasn’t just waiting for it to end like the song that preceeded it.

Anyhow, definitely a weaker episode for them, but a strong half-hour in general. It’ll be interesting to see if there is a divergence from the relationship angle they are so enamoured with in the latter episodes.

Well, that was an offbeat episode. And for this show I thought it would take people walking on their hands and eating with their feet for me to classify any one episode as “offbeat”. Not to say it wasn’t amusing but it was flummoxing, and if this was anyone’s first time watching the series, then they probably didn’t quite “get it”.

For the most part, the concept of Americans despising New Zealanders is funny in and of itself. Dave’s explanation of “prejudism” was really misinforming, particularly since, as the show so often illustrates, most Americans are not aware that New Zealand and Austrailia are two separate, distinct cultures. So the notion that they are actively discriminated against is counter-intuitive to the running theme of obsoleteness they are usually so insecure about.

There was a bevy of humor extracted from this story, the disinfecting of apples, the vendor counting to ten in his head, and Dave teaching Bret and Jermaine how to flip the bird, all paid off nicely. The ending was a nice touch as well, how the three reconciled after the vendor mistook the two protagonists for Austrailians, and they transferred their hatred onto the Aussies and took their collective bird over to their embassy in the credits. A decent plot line with plenty of derivative humor, but the delivery and quirkiness was probably a little too absurd for a first-timer, if you fall into this camp I’d try to catch the pilot or any of the earlier episodes before making any judgements.

Lots of Dave this week, which I have been advocating for, but Murray with his own song (Hiiii!) was the surprise of the week. It through all my expectations into a tailspin and I was questioning my sense of reality. Not that the song was particularly funny or anything, but I really didn’t anticipate any musical numbers by anyone else. Can we expect the same from Dave or Mel?

Anyhow, every scene in Murray’s office was brilliant. The ripping out the cord, the constant harassing of “tech support”, whom he fell in love with a few days before actually learning the woman’s name, I also enjoyed the quelling of Bret and Jermaine’s non-argument. If Murray and Dave ever interact without the two leads around, I could almost guarantee a top-tier scene would be the result of it.

The music this week was great, if only because it had a clay-mation interpretation of “Albi, The Racist Dragon”. Nothing like a mock-folktale to steer an episode in the right direction. The only downside was the delivery, as Jermaine’s quasi-paternal inflections weren’t as noticeable. I already mentioned Murray’s song, “Leggy Blonde”, and it was alright. The visual effects and Murray’s deadpan sold it more than any of the writing. The third song was another rap parody, and much like their other rap parodies, I found myself simply waiting for it to end. The entire “white guy trying to act black” thing never really amused me, and while these two do it better than most, its just the gimmick that is tireseome.

Never the less, another strong outing. Star-Ledger TV critic Alan Sepinwall, after mixing with several HBO figureheads, has instilled some confidence that this series will get a second season if it wants one. If they can make somethig this eccentric and it still produces sound comedy, I see no reason they couldn’t maintain the same standard for two full seasons.

This might constitute going out on a limb here, but I think Jermaine Clement and Bret McKemzie are David Bowie fans. Either that or they feel his decorum in the 70’s and 80’s is rife with comedic potential, and they’re simply mocking the hell out of him, me thinks the former is probably the case. Mainly because David Bowie wrote/writes damn good music.

We had a dearth of musical performances, which is approved greatly by this website, with a few exceptions, we generally do not get much from the musical interludes. So it opened up more room for dialog, but instead we were beat over the head with a running joke about Bret getting advice from Jermaine dressed up as David Bowie in a dream (though he was first under the impression it was Bret, he convinced himself that it was Bowie). Don’t get me wrong, it was funny at first, mainly because Jermaine has great vocal range and that is necessary for good impersonations. But I don’t think they have ever been so repetitive before, at least not so obviously. There is always the roll call jokes, the off-handed remarks about them never having any gigs, but there are variations of them, and they’re not so atypical to the rest of the series, nor clumsy.

This episode, like every FoTC episode, had some laugh out loud moments, personally I probably set off a car alarm laughing at the biscuit conversation, but I imagine the crowd pleaser coincided with the John Hodgman cameo (Mac vs. PC commercials, Daily Show correspondent), and it was masterfully timed and executed. Even the conversation afterwards about Bret’s graphic design on his genitals sold the scene before it, because we weren’t privy to anything more than conversation.

Very little from side characters this week, we learned that Mel more or less cost her husband her job, with the admission that she was junior professor of psychology at an unnamed institution, and that her husband was a senior professor in the same department, but was fired. Poor guy. So now he not only has a wife who wishes to cheat on him, but no income or career as a result of her. Nothing like marriage in the 21st century, kids.

Mel did make an attempt to cheer up Bret, but did it at the expense of Jermaine, who’s “Looks are to deep to be classically beautiful” and a barrage of other perceived insults to boost Bret’s confidence. So we had two scenes from her. And Dave, whom I really wish was used more often, was only in the closing scene but didn’t add much.

Two songs this week, but only one musical type break from the plot that more or less ended the episode, it was an ode to David bowie of sorts, wasn’t really into it for whatever reason. The second didn’t cut out away from the scene or the plot and was just Jermaine trying to instill confidence in Bret with an incredibly creepy serenade of sorts, entitled, “Bret, you’ve got it goin’ on”. In which the versus get more and more disturbing, that eventually lead to Jermaine admitting that sometimes when Bret is sleeping, Jermaine puts a wig on him, pretends he’s a woman and lies next to him. Leading to everyone conceding that there is nothing homo-erotic about it if Jermaine is, indeed, pretending he’s a woman. I love the rationale on this show, it seemingly accounts for a great deal of their humor.

We are the halfway point now in the season (if the twelve episodes I heard they are doing is accurate) and there appears to be no signs of falling off. Next week it looks like we get “Albi, The Racist Dragon” as one of their musical numbers. It’s a personal favorite up there with “Jenny”, which they may not perform on the series because it’s close to seven minutes long, which they could conceivably do if it’s the only song in whichever episode they use it in.

Either way, its good to have a stellar new comedy on television, as they are few and far between nowadays. After six episodes in, all with more highs than lows, I think its safe to confirm that’s what we have on our hands.

Well, as the old saying goes, even a broken clock is write twice a day. Usually used to describe something that is always unsettling but occasionally surprises one with its aptitude, the inverse is also true. This episode wasn’t dull or unfunny or anything of the sort. It just lacked the charm of its four predecessors.

Jermaine, now in Bret’s role from the pilot, is feeling left out of the loop now that his roommate is preoccupied with his girlfriend, like, for instance, they never tickle each other anymore. So who should stumble into the laundromat when Jermaine is handling some delicates? Why Sally, of course. Who primarily broke up with Jermaine because he isn’t Australian, and he didn’t have his own place, apparently.

This motivates Jermaine to seek some independence and find a spacious janitors closet at a swank upper east side condominium. Determined to impress Sally, he decides to throw a party but at an awkward an impromptu double-date, Jermaine announces his plans for said party when Bret properly informs him that the day he is planning for is also Sally’s birthday, since they used to date and all. Over the course of dinner, its noticeable that Bret still has a thing for his ex-girlfriend, leaving Coco in a state of insecurity and discontent over this newfound turn her relationship has taken.

Jermaine, attempting to throw the best party he can in a 4 ft. x 5 ft. closet, is flummoxed when Bret does not make an appearance, knowing he is at Sally’s birthday party, he heads over there but before he can leave, Coco gives pulls him aside to relay a message to Bret on her behalf.

At Sally’s party, we come to find out that the allusion Jermaine and Murray made to her being materialistic is indeed true, as we find out she is marrying an Australian millionaire who bought her a BMW. Meanwhile Bret wasted all of his money on art supplies for a picture of her in a Xena type pose with Bret-faced lion waiting subserviently at her side. And Jermaine went through all the trouble of making a glass butterfly, which he broke but offered with a tube of all-purpose industrial strength glue.

As they reflect on their poor judge of character on the way back home, Jermaine informs Bret that Coco has dumped him, and gives verbatim reenactment of her message, including a slap across the face that Jermaine does after the speech that he was supposed to do beforehand.

That, in a nutshell, is last nights episode. It included two songs, one being probably their most popular song here in the states, “Business Time”, which transitions abnormally from Jermaine and his awkward encounter with Sally (”You can’t keep the J-Dog down…Its street talk, you just take the first letter of your name and add ‘dog’ to the end of it”) to him dreaming about being in a marriage with a stale sex life (the premise of the song). It is one of the few times I actually preferred their performance of the song in favor of its depiction of it on the show, might have had something to do with Jermaine being completely naked and very unpixelated during the cover.

The second song just fell flat, it was a dual love ballad to Sally as she danced with her new fiance. An even odder transition precluded this one, from them standing on the street to them sitting at a piano with dry ice floating around them. For a series with an abundance of comedic musical performances, its actually pretty impressive that this was only the second time I felt uncomfortable watching them (the first being the “Boom King” track from episode two).

All in all, still an enjoyable half hour of television. The double date, Murray’s persistent concern for the state of the band, Bret’s absurdly creepy painting all provided virtual laugh out loud moments for me. The highlight of the episode, however, belonged to bit-player Dave, who’s description of Bret and Jermaine’s declarations of love for Sally being the most sensitive things he has ever seen since he was witness to a puppy being born, is probably the raunchiest and therefore most unexpected deliveries this short series has exhibited. Honestly, I have yet to watch a scene where I am not amused by Dave, here’s hoping he gets more camera time before the season ends.

Ultimately, outside of avoiding peculiar musical choices and giving Dave more face time, I am not advocating for any changes in this series. Occasionally I enjoy one episode significantly more or less than its counterparts, this episode’s shortcomings were probably just accentuated because Entourage was actually good this week, so there is really no room for complaint, just a solid hour of television.

Rescue Me recap tomorrow.

It looks like this is going to be a regular theme in these episodes, a perceived slight of one band member who momentarily leaves the band before they reconcile at the end of the episode. Twice a woman has come between them (though there was never any talk of breaking up in the pilot), once a job and once a mugging. If this trend continues it could run its course sooner rather than later. But, this episode was hilarious, so onward and upward, young Kiwis.

I wonder if the title reference is commonplace with bands nowadays. Having not played an instrument since the third grade, I really have no idea. But it seems like an obvious reference if there is a divisive long-term female companion with one of the band members. It’s also considerably delusional to even begin to compare ones self to The Beatles in any capacity, even one as unrelated to actual music production as this.

Coco is the Yoko in question, played by Sutton Foster, who’s mostly known for her work in musical theater. If you recall I believe she is the sign girl from episode two, but I suppose things have heated up in the past week, leaving Jermaine feeling left out when Bret asks him to no longer accompany him and Coco on their dates after Jermaine made a pass at her. Thus leading to friction within the band.

If nothing else, this will be remembered as the first episode that didn’t involve Bret or Jermaine, with Maggie having her fan club meeting with Murray. It held its ground and then some, as Murray seemingly has an infatuation with Mel, who is too preoccupied with Bret and Jermaine (in that order) to notice (not to mention she is married). Come to think of it, that’s probably why Murray mentioned Bret has a boyfriend, to see how visceral her reaction would be.

In fact, all of the best scenes this week took place in Murray’s office. In addition to the one just mentioned, the scene where Coco joins the band meeting was priceless. Its rare someone gets hit in the face with a sandwich then screams, “A sandwich hit my face!”. Usually the response is something along the lines of, (rhetorically) “how dare you?” or (literally) “I’m going to beat your face in”. But Jermaine is horrified that he was struck by bread and deli meat. Between that, Jermaine’s poster, Murray’s awful moderation, the use of the word “dickhead” and the guilt trip over the band shells; my only complaint is that Dave wasn’t involved.

They played two songs again this week, which is looking to be a staple amount. The first was a love song to Coco, “If Your Into It”, and was a great follow up to the visual comedy of Brit’s original version that exceeded two hours in length. The second was a satirical “ode to love” with a metaphor comparing the effect tape has on assorted office supplies. Both were improvements from the past two weeks and I hope to see more of it. But the second song seemed like a finale moment, I was sort of under the impression this episode was going to end their pilot season with all the characters coming together to finish the episode…

…But we were privy to some previews, in which the storylines with Sally and Coco converge next week. This will probably be their magnus opus (at least as far as this show is concerned), which is saying something, given what we’ve already seen.

Rescue Me recap coming tomorrow.

After three episodes we may have a definitive best new comedy on HBO. The title of this episode is fairly self-explanatory, Bret and Jermaine are mugged by Murmur from The Sopranos. But when Bret and Jermaine run from the two least threatening muggers I’ve ever seen, Bret gets his jacket caught while hopping a fence and Bret leaves him there, as Jermaine puts it, “to die”.

The two songs this week both relate to the inner-city plight of two New Zealanders on the streets of New York. The first one is boasting the formidable talents of their rap aliases: Hiphopopatamus (Jermaine) and Rhymenocerous (Bret). It’s funny in its own right, featuring lyrics such as, “Why don’t you be more constructive with your feedback? Please”, but is almost to chaotic and difficult to make out the lyrics. The second song, a sort of “what’s going’ on?” parody, has Bret and Jermaine questioning the state of the world by wondering why the price of sneakers is so marked up if the labor for producing them is so cheap. Both songs have their moments, but, and this is debatable, they have yet to incoroporate a song into an episode that matches the comedy of any of the three performed in the pilot.

Murray and Dave were in rare form in this episode, continuing the dialect confusion between the states and New Zealand with a “he may be dead”, “he maybe did” what debacle. The concept of someone openly walking around the streets of Manhattan brandishing a paintball gun is also damn funny. That combined with the visit to the police station in which Murray comments that the police woman’s approximation of Jermaine’s accent being more South African than New Zealand, followed by her walking off and Dave, still assuming Jermaine is dead, asking if they are bringing the body out to the lobby; accounts for great comedy from the supporting actors. I mean, Murray, witha straight face told the two naive Kiwi’s to stick to dark alleys and avoid big crowds if they want to avoid the criminally violent. What more could one want?

Jermaine and Bret also had some great moments despite the songs failing to measure up to the pilot. Including a camera phone (a camera and a phone glued together), the pizza toppings in the shape of Jermaine’s face, and Bret not hesitating to rent out the apartment to a total stranger whom we see twice but never hear a word from.

The highlight of this episode was Mel, though. Her obsession with Jermaine potentially being raped while he was in a holding cell, plus the tee-shirt she was wearing of Jermaine staring whistfully through a pair of cell bars, was absolutely classic. Also, she came running up from the stairs under their apartment, supposedly jogging again, I’m sure.

There isn’t really anything negative to say about the episode, other than the songs were underwhelming when compared to some of the best comedic musical numbers I’ve ever heard. Again, I cannot stress this enough, if you watch Entourage, or even if you don’t, you should really give this series a shot on Sunday nights at 10:30pm et.

Most likely taking the fourth off, I may be feeling spry and post something tomorrow afternoon, if I don’t just assume I drank too much tonight. Ciao.

Where as the pilot focused on the musical bits (comprising at least ten minutes of the twenty seven minute episode), the sophomore effort derived most of its humor and all of its plot from scripted dialogue with only two musical interludes (as opposed to three last week, four if you include the closing credits). Still the episode was a strong follow up to a promising debut and had me looking forward to next week.

In dire need of some cash flow, Murray suggests that they find a second job to pay the bills. When he points Jermaine and Bret to a position as sign holders (exactly what it sounds like, they stand on the corner and hold signs, pointing pedestrians to specific establishments), Bret gets the job because of his good attitude and Jermaine dismisses the position as, “something a lamp post could do”. Thus conflict arises, Jermaine and Murray kick Bret out of the band after he is unable to make a gig and they are forced to replace him with a tape. Hilarity continues.

The best of which probably comes in the car ride Mel gives to Jermaine and Bret at the expense of her poor husband, in which she is riding in between the two of them in the back seat with shotgun empty, Or the make shift Bret that Jermaine constructs in his place, or the conversations weighing the positives and negatives between Bret and the tape, or the exchanges about the two sandwiches. All of which is hysterical but almost impossible to convey, hence why I strongly recommended the series.

This show is incredibly difficult to describe, unless you have seen it before and have an understanding of its finer points then these posts are probably confusing. For instance, Bret and Jermaine have a soul-searching conversation about Bret giving up on the dream at his corner, then Jermaine starts to pedal off on his bike and they casually switch topics to picking up groceries and meeting up back at the apartment with absolutely no transition.

As for the two songs…meh. If they left them in the cutting room I wouldn’t have minded. One was a mock 80’s rap song about the plight of the urban environment, it was decent, nothing particularly memorable, more like a Weird Al rip off than anything. The second song was just awkward, in which Bret sings about his sexual conquests or the interest in sexual conquests… I guess? I don’t know, I was too busy cringing to make out the actual lyrics.

Speaking of which, if you have HBO on Demand, you can go to the Flight of the Conchords section under “TV Series” and watch their One Night Stand performance. It’s essentially thirty minutes of them performing songs, the last of which is the aforementioned awkward song. But set aside the one, its twenty minutes of comedic genius. Some of the highlights are here, here and here. Enjoy.

Like I said earlier, a strong follow up to the pilot, not quite as strong but let’s be honest, that would be asking too much. Back with a Rescue Me recap tomorrow.

Did you like Tenacious D? The rock duo headed by Jack Black that pretended not to take themselves seriously but sort of did? Well, if you liked them, you might want to avoid Flight of the Conchords. It follows the same premise, two hapless faux-musicians attempting to reach an esteemed level of acclaim with their band, despite how unrealistic the prospect may be.

Certainly some people who enjoyed Tenacious D will also enjoy the Diji folk rock interpretation, but whereas Jack Black brought an unprecedented (some might even say obnoxious) level of energy to their performance, Flight of the Conchords is much calmer, even sedated by comparison.

To summarize, Flight of the Conchords tells the tale of two New Zealand natives, Bret McKenzie and Jermaine Clement (whom since they are playing themselves, I can only hope they’re doing a parody) in New York City, trying to get their Diji folk rock band of the same name off the ground, as of now they have a fanbase that consists of one fan: Mel (Kristen Schaal), whom after the first episode, appears to have a slight obsession with the two Kiwis. She is married, and forces her husband to help stalk them for two and a half hours.

In the episode there were three songs performed that are interlaced with the plot of the episode, one at a party, in which Jermaine breaks into a mock love ballad that contains such lyrics as, “You’re so beautiful, you could be a waitress/an air hostess in the 60’s” or “You’re so beautiful, you could be a Part. Time. Model…but you probably have to keep your normal job”. We come to find out the next morning that said girl is Bret’s ex-girlfriend, Sally.

The two other songs are duets, one performed after Sally breaks up with Jermaine and Bret feels his friend has chosen his ex over him entitled, “I’m Not Crying” and the other is for a music video shoot in which there manager, akin to but not nearly as bad as Stephen Merchant on Extras, Murray (Rhys Darby) uses his cell phone to shoot it. Its a futuristic song in which robots have overrun the human population (”We no longer say ‘yes’, we say ‘affirmative’, unless there is a colloquial situation to use ‘yes’”) that futures a “binary solo” of Bret just reading off zeroes and replacing a zero with a one each time (”00000001, 00000011, 00000111, etc.)

Even though I was fascinated by the show and had nothing but good things to say about it, I was dreading having to write this entry because the humor is hard to convey if you do not have any frame of reference. If you read this, someone listing off numbers might seem trite and easy, not especially funny. But the humor comes in the stylization and tone of the series. I likened it to Tenacious D earlier, which follows a similar premise, but the episode I watched had the symmetry and understated style of an Arrested Development episode. Which, if you’re a regular reader, then you know that is much appreciated around these parts.

Some choice lines outside of the ones mentioned before:

Dave (there only other friend): I don’t know how you do things over in England.
Bret and Jermaine (Simultaneously): New Zealand.
Dave (calmly): Look I don’t really give a shit.

Jermaine: Depending on the street, you would definitely be in the top threeee/ good looking girls on the street.
Bret (Barratone): Depending on the street.
-Jermaine and Bret, “You’re so beautiful”

Jermaine: I think I know where I went wrong with Sally. I think, when you turned on the light, she was a bit startled, and she decided she was uncomfortable.
Bret: Yeah, or it could be that we used to date (revealing for to the audience that they dated).
Jermaine: Yeah its partially that you used to date but also becaused you turned on the light.
Bret: It’s mostly that we used to go out. For six months. And not so much the light.

Since the inception of Grid Effect, this series is probably the highest recommended new series we have reviewed (short of maybe Friday Night Lights). Judging by the TWoP message boards virtually no one watched the series premiere on Sunday, but everyone who watched it (critics and audiences alike) seemed to enjoy it immensely. If you have nothing else going on at 10:30pm on Sunday nights, I strongly suggest doing yourself the favor and tuning in.