Tuesday, March 03, 2009

TV stuff; Cool Cops

I've been fighting the flu lately so I've watched more than my usual amount of tv, the highlight of which was Sunday night's Flight of The Concord. To me one of the funniest aspects of the show is that the New Zealand embassy, with which the boys and their idiot agent are associated, is housed not in some great stone monument all gargoyled'd up and splendiferous but in a shabby building in NYC. The third floor no less with the only signage being a piece of paper Scotch-taped to the door. And the office space is not only cramped but falling apart.

Sunday night the boys were visited by the New Zealand prime minister. A fair share of the episode reminded me of Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three and his take on the then Russian bureaucracy. The NZ prime minister goes by one name--Brian--and totes around a "cell phone" (something brand new to New Zealand) like the original cells--the size of a walkie-talkie. And he is constantly calling NZ to see how things are going in his absence even though he's only been gone a day. At one point we overhear him asking "How the environment there? Not good? Well put your cousins to work." In a show with top to bottom morons this guy stands out. In an episode that has look-alikes (well, the point is they don't look alike even though they think they do) of Obama, Elton John, Art Garfunkle, Bono and Elvis and then out of nowhere the real Art Garfunkle appears--even by the Conchords usual absurdist standards this episode is wonderfully ridiculous. Another surprise is that one of the boys actually gets laid!

If you've never seen Conchords this is a good place to start. Check your TV listings. It's also on HBO On Demand.

-------Cool Cops

By coincidence I got three galleys in one week in which the lead character was one of those Dirty Harry type detectives who a) can't work with the constraints of the department b) has terrible memories of bad stuff while on duty c) has a smart mouth and d) is a hunk. Reviewers bitch about romance fiction and how rigidly formulaic so much of it is, especially The Bad Boy that our ladies always go for. The Bad Boy ain't got nothin' on the Dirty Harry copper.

7 comments:

Vince said...

I'm with you, Ed. This week's Conchords is the show's best episode to date, with one daft surprise after another. I watch now just for the scenes with Murray. He's a fantastic character, genuinely good and utterly hapless.

Unknown said...

It's always good to see what people consider funny crossing international boundaries, e.g. from NZ to the US. It didn't always happen. Took me years to find a home for The Unreal Jesse James at Beat To a Pulp.
Keith

Dave Zeltserman said...

Ed, Flight of the Conchords in consistently good, but last Sunday's show was truly inspired. What they did with the PM cracked me up, as did his underlying belief in the Matrix.

Anonymous said...

I love this show, and this was the best episode yet, even better than anything in the first season, which was generally better than the second. You failed to mention that not only did Jermaine get laid, he got laid by Mary Lynn Rajskub (aka Chloe on "24), every geek's dream girl.

Anonymous said...

I've seen a few episodes from the first season. Very funny stuff. My favorite was the David Bowie episode. Their spoof of Bowie songs was hilarious.

Ed, was wondering if you've seen/read "The Little Sleep" by Paul Tremblay? I picked it up this weekend. Haven't read it yet, but have been hearing good things about it.

Hope you're feeling better.

Jeff P.

Ed Gorman said...

Thanks, Jeff. I'll give the Tremblay novel a try.

Ed Gorman said...

Thanks, Jeff. I'll give the Tremblay novel a try.