Grid Effect

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.