'Flight of the Conchords' tells the story of a couple of musicians from New Zealand trying to make it in a band in New York. They're not very good, they have no girlfriends, one fan and an incompetent manager (Rhys Darby, who steals most of the scenes he's in), and everybody just loves their English accents. The series' twelve episodes follow their failures. So what's so great? Partly its the absolutely deadpan way in which the undynamic duo's misadventures are depicted; but mainly its the songs, which are brilliantly bad, pastiches of real musical styles but hilariously funny (although the songs feature mainly in "music videos" or in scenes which blend the characters' imaginations with real life; on the rare occasions the band actually gets a gig, their act consists of an anaemic chant of "we like to rock the party" over a badly strummed guitar - there is a reason for the band's lack of success!). In some ways, this is 'Spinal Tap', but with more musical variety; and the funniest program of the year.
Review of Flight of the Conchords
