Grid Effect

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.