6.18.2007

That robot song had me in stitches

One episode in, I'm liking HBO's new comedy series, Flight of the Concords. It's part Extras, part mock-musical, and part indie rock hipster in-joke -- and very enjoyable. We'll have to see how it holds up over the course of several episodes, of course, but I'm hooked after just one. The premise of the episode was so simple -- two bandmates are temporarily torn apart by a girl -- that you wouldn't think it could sustain enough jokes for a 30-minute show. But you'd be wrong. And the musical numbers are actually the show's strength, which is saying something considering how I hold actual musicals in disdain and find little to laugh about as far as Tenacious D is concerned. I'm interested to read what the critics have to say, but in the meantime, do give it a try.

I'm also digging John From Cincinnati. I'm not sure if I'm ready to invest all this emotion in the characters just yet, and the show is already asking its audience to do just that after a dramatic episode two. (The writers wisely chose the kid to be the target of your emotion, and its hard to say no to that naive kid.) By and large, this is a show full of oddballs, and my three favorite characters so far are the hotel owner, Ted Bundy, and the namesake, who I can only describe as Rainman meets Morrissey.

As for the first episode of the second half of Entourage, I can already tell I'm going to tire of Billy's character -- and fast. Unfortunately, it looks like he'll be around for a good while.

N/P -- Peter Bjorn and John