Grid Effect

Well, I couldn’t get out of my mind-numbing job until about 7PM last night, so we’re not going to bother with a rundown of Monday’s shows because it’s Tuesday. Instead we’re going to knock out a recap for Sunday’s Flight of The Conchords, which we thought was a significant improvement over the the episode that preceded it.

Bret and Jemaine (Much to our dismay we’ve been spelling his name, “Jermaine” for the past season and two episodes, as reader Brad Eleven so kindly pointed out to us) have never been the assertive type. So the notion of one of them forming a gang and the other being so passive that he can’t even bring himself to ask for a spot in it was suitable for a comedy. You know, when a guy is running around town with a picture of Knut stitched onto his sweater, it can make for a few laughs.

If this little guy couldn't bring about world peace, then I'm afraid no mortal sentient has any chance. Sorry, Barack.

We also loved the running gag of Bret, Jemaine & Murray’s collective self-consciousness when in the presence of Australians. Not that any of them would be particularly cunning in an exchange of barbs, but the frozen looks on their faces stemmed from a lifelong inferiority complex. I don’t really know anything about the two countries but the fact that they’re always hammering away at this is one of the better sources of material for the series.

We didn’t much care for the subplot with Mel and the painting, even though it brought us some quality moments between the beleagured Doug and his domineering spouse. The picture itself was a quality site gag, as is this show’s wont, but it sort of just hit a wall with the “hurt feelings” reprise and they didn’t bother addressing it again. For good reason, it didn’t really have any logical conclusion. Maybe they’ll touch on it again later in the season but outside of Bret telling Jemaine he was only good at sex last week because he asked him in front of Sally, I can’t think of another example of subtle continuity from this show.

Oh, and the music, our main point of contention from last week was actually funny. We tend to enjoy the songs that have actual funny lines, more so than the songs that’s prime objective are an over-the-top satire of one genre or another. The cold open with Bret’s, “___ is not very good” “dissing” rap, the rappers feelings song and the Westside Story parody, for the first time in awhile we thought the music was the best part of the episode. And the episode outside of the music was fantastic.

Just a fantastic episode from one of the cleverer series’ on television. Any complaints we may have had were nitpicky and made up for with something as simple as confusion during roll call. It’s a shame they can’t all be like this, but it would probably end up unappreciated if they were.

Links later.