Flight of the Concords 2007-2009

     Two New Zealander friends experience life, love, friendship, all the usual stuff, while trying to make their living as a rock band.  This is a rock band that can only schedule a performance at the local aquarium, it is run by an eager and overambitious New Zealand buddy and it only has one fan.

     This show has all the elements of a great comedy.  The supporting cast is consistently hilarious, just view episode 10 and listen to Murray's commentary on rock and roll and threesomes.  Mel is another gem of a character who has a husband but lives and breaths the FOTC band.  Arj always has some sort of admonition and advice for these unsuspecting guys and it makes for a hilarious misconstrued view.  The writers take an idea and spin it in the other direction.  As an example, the episode where the woman objectifies the man.  No one knows what wild and crazy situation these guys will get into next??  I was actually amazed about how many reviews I found for this program!!

     This musical comedy about a faux folk duo is pretty mild for HBO.  The language is uncensored but it's nowhere near the levels of shows like Deadwood and Six Feet Under.  Some scenes show social drinking and touch on drug use.  The storylines typically revolve around dating attempts and most of them fail.  There's probably nothing here that mature teens haven't seen or heard before.  Song lyrics occasionally insult women but they're more intended to poke fun at traditional pop music.

Special Note:  Before Flight of the Conchords was made into a HBO series, it was mainly an improvised radio series on BBC Radio 2.  This was similar to the TV series where Bret and Jemaine were band members and they were trying to make it big in London.  Rhys Darby (he plays Murray in the TV series) was their manager and Jimmy Carr played their fan Kipper.  The radio series was popular and in 2006 they were awarded the bronze Sony Radio Academy award for comedy.  In episode 2.1, Murray says the Grammys the guys won were fake but in real life the band won a Grammy for best comedy album.  At a photo-shoot, Murray says Bret looks so small next to Jemaine that he looks like he could be in Lord of the Rings.  Bret McKenzie actually appeared in minor roles in both The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2001 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2003.  Filmed at 28 Henry Street, New York City, New York.

28 min each episode, 2 seasons created by James Bobin, Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie with Rhys Darby, Kristen Schaal, Art Barker, Frank Wood, Eugene Mirman, David Costabile, Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie. 

Note:  Imdb 8.5* out of 10* with 54,847 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 95% with 38 critics 100% with 39 audience scores, Metacritic 68 out of 100 with 15 critics 9.1out of 10 with 215 ratings, Amazon 4.7* out of 5* with 1933 ratings, The Guardian 5* Brian Logan, Common Sense Media Sierra Filucci, age 15+, 1* positive, role models, 3* sex, drinking, drugs & smoking 4* language.

 
Episode Titles:  Sally, Bret Gives Up the Dream, Mugged, Yoko, Sally Returns, Bowie, Drive By, Girlfriends, What Goes on Tour, New Fans, The Actor, The Third Concord.