Flight of the Conchords - The Complete First Season

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Product Description
Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 11/06/2007 Run time: 360 minutes

Amazon.com
Unlike most HBO series, Flight of the Conchords does not want to set the world on fire. It is droll and deadpan to beat the band. If you like Tenacious D, They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Richman, Leningrad Cowboys Go America, and silly Pythonian wordplay, then its off-center charms will definitely strike a resonant chord. The Conchords are comprised of funky, funny folk duo Bret McKenzie and mutton-chopped Jemaine Clement, transplanted New Zealanders trying to make it in New York. Brett, their incompetent manager, Murray (Rhys Darby) notes, has "the right attitude," while Jemaine has "what I like to call, 'the wrong attitude.'" (Murray, who works out of the New Zealand consulate, makes the clueless agent in Extras look like Ari Gold.) Stardom eludes the band. They have one fan, Mel (Kristin Schaal), whose seething husband chaperones her while she stalks them (by season's end, even she will desert them). Financially strapped, they live in squalor and are forced to film a music video with a cell-phone camera. The dense Jemaine is a damper on Brett's love life (he derisively calls Coco, Brett's new girlfriend, "Yoko"). But from their mundane lives springs their inspired music, and it is during each episode's musical numbers that Conchords really takes flight. Sample lyrics: "You're so beautiful / You could be a hostess in the '60s"; and "I'm not crying / It's just been raining / On my face." Another mad highlight is "Bowie to Bowie" in the episode in which Brett is visited by visions of Bowie in his various career incarnations (portrayed by a dead-on Clement). But the dialogue, too, sings with an inspired, surreal lunacy. One exchange between Brett and Murray degenerates into a chicken-egg discussion over a job vs. a gig. HBO has renewed Flight of the Conchords for a second season. Bravo! As a greeting-card executive (The Daily Show's John Hodgman), who wants to license one of their tracks, tells the duo, "I believe in potential. I can see it in you guys." --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews: Read 196 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Could have gotten this off my tivo... November 7, 2007
142 out of 151 found this review helpful

First of all: let me start by saying I give the actual show, and these guys 5 stars. This show is hilarious, and I love it.
The reason I'm only giving the DVD 3 stars is that there are NO extra features AT ALL! Nothing! The stuff on the DVD is exactly what was on TV, no extras, no deleted scenes, no commentaries, no nothing.
This came as a bit of a disappointment, for a fan who's been awaiting this release so we could get MORE Conchords!
What about some interviews? Extra footage? Life of Murry? Maybe even a snippet (or perhaps the whole thing) from the appearance they did on HBO's One Night Stand, which was amazing and funny and is available nowhere.

I mean come on... nothing? Really?

So if you've never seen the show, or missed a few episodes, if you do not have HBO and just want to see what you've missed - by all means: I highly recommend this series.

If like me, you have HBO, a DVR, and have seen all the episodes, maybe even more than once, then... you might be a bit disappointed.

But hey, at least we can get the subtitles in like three different languages.

5 out of 5 stars

Hilarious new hbo show. Why? Why? Could you please be more constructive with your criticism, please. July 9, 2007
129 out of 141 found this review helpful

The show follows the lives of a two man digi-folk band from New Zealand who frequently bust out into song. Bret McKenzie (ryhmenosaurus) and Jemaine Clement (Hiphoppopotamus) are the two members of this hilarious duo who move to New York in hopes of being discovered. The other regulars on the show are their equally funny band manager Murray who's real job is working at the New Zealand consulate, their one obsessive fan or fan period Mel who is the president, treasurer, and secretary of their fan club, and Dave, Bret and Jemaine's friend and advisor

It's hard to describe how Flight of the Conchords is so funny in the same way it's hard to describe how certain faces Dwight, Jim, Or Pam make to the camera on The Office are funny. There accents and mannerisms alone are hilarious.

I'd recommend checking out HBO's website click on Flight of the Conchords and check out the lyrics to some of the songs on different episodes, also funny stuff.
I think fans of Seinfeld, The Office, and This is Spinal tap will really enjoy and anyone who gets subtle humor, looking for something fresh.

Flight of the Conchords airs Sundays on HBO at 10:30 following Entourage.
Episode guide so far.

It's already starting to get quoted on Sportscenter.

You can also purchase there cd on Amazon as well it is called The Distant Future and has 5 tracks, a full cd will be released early in 2008, only 5$, a good deal, here are the tracks.
1. Business Time
2. If You're Into It
3. Crying
4. Beautiful Girl - (live, live)
5. Robots - (live, live)

Season 1 Episodes

01 Sally -
Jemaine dates Bret's old girlfriend and goes into a song about she's hot enough to be a part time model or a high class prostitute. Bret works on his helmet made of hair.

02 Bret Gives up the Dream -
Murray kicks Bret out of the band because he missed a gig and because they have his part on cassette. Bret focuses on his job holding signs instead and meets a new girl and sings a reggae song to her.

03 Mugged-
Murray refuses to get gigs at night because it's to dangerous. Bret and Jemaine get mugged. Jermaine has abandonment issues because Bret left him with the muggers caught on the fence.

04 Yoko-
Jemaine is jealous of Bret's girlfriend and thinks she's trying to spit up the band and likens her to Yoko her name is Cocoa. Jermaine works on a song about her "Black haired lady queen, dabbling in art, i won't let the she-wolf tear us apart. Mel gets jealous. Peace is made with a song about love sticking together like the tape the tape of love, ooh the sticky stuff.

05 Sally Returns-
Jermaine tries to get back with Sally but he needs to find his own place first so he rents out a cleaning closet in a nice apartment building which Murray refers to as a compartment. Jemaine and Bret battle for Sally.

06 Bowie - "Do they smoke grass in space Bowie, or do they smoke Astroturf "?
While doing a photos shoot Bret gets body issues and gets help from David Bowie in some "freaky" dreams to give Bret advice such as wearing an eye patch. Jemaine writes a song to cheer him up called "Bret you got it going on". **One of the funniest episodes**

07 Drive by - Jemaine and Bret have a bit of a race war. Murray falls in love with the girl from tech support.

08 Girlfriends - Bret and Jemaine get girlfriends. The roles of guy and girl get reversed as Bret is pressured into sex and told if he doesn't give it up she might not be able to have children, also that she is in Delta Force and being shipped out.

09 What Goes on Tour - Using the band's "emergency fund," Murray organizes a warm-up tour in preparation for a big gig in Central Park.

10 New Fans - The guys do a gig at a bar featuring world music and acquire two new fans much to Mel's dismay who think they just want sex.

11 The Actor - The guys hire an actor to pretend to be a record executive and give him some good compliments while letting him down to boost his self esteem, but the actor goes to far and offers them millions that he doesn't have.

12 The Third Conchords - Murray hires a bongo player Todd to join the band while at the dentist and high on Novocaine, Bret and Jemaine but heads with Todd.

Thanks for reading and hope the Info helps, albeit a bit thrown together as I tried to update as I watched the season and heard things on the series.

3 out of 5 stars

Great Series, but no extras on the discs November 8, 2007
28 out of 33 found this review helpful

I'm sitting here, feeling just ever so slightly empty.

"Flight of the Conchords - The Complete First Season" arrived last night, pried from the cold, clammy embrace of Amazon.com into my loving grasp due to a pre-order fixation I have when it comes to television offerings I find life-affirming.

"Flight of the Conchords" was easily my sole Must-See TV show of the past twelve months. To those inclined to listen, I describe the HBO series as what would happen if you gave Wes Anderson a sitcom, and told him "by the way...also make it a musical."

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie have been performing as Flight of the Conchords ("New Zealand's fourth most popular folk-rock act") for several years now, but it took the 12-episode series to throw me head over heels in love with the brilliant, dry wit that seems to flow so effortlessly from much of their material. If you're not familiar with their music, a quick pop over to YouTube will lead you to dozens of clips, both performed live and from the show itself.

Songs like "Beautiful Girl" and "Jenny" (the latter not used on the sitcom) are terrifically well written. The ease with which Bret and Jemaine throw off lines like "Looking 'round the room/I can see that you/Are the most beautiful girl in the..." (pause) "...room..." (pause again) "...In the whole wide...room" with impeccable timing is really quite remarkable. But these aren't throwaway tunes: the music itself is crafted with sure pop precision. Give them some sappy lyrics instead of their hilariously deadpan ones, and the licks and hooks of either song would surely make them hits for some faceless rockster who took life far more seriously than the Conchords ever would.

What really defined the show, though, was the surreality with which the songs were slipped into the episodes. New and inventive, many segues were great to watch simply for their own sake. The addictive faux-French pop of "Foux De Fa Fa," for example, begins when Jemaine simply asks for a croissant at a New York Ciy bakery, and dissolves into a dayglo world of 60s/70s Paris the moment he repeats the order. Fabulous.

The Conchords' "naifs in New York" schtick works well for them, and isn't a huge stretch from the calculated cluelessness of their on-stage personas. The opening dialog of the first episode neatly set the tone for nearly everything that was to follow:

Jemaine: Man, back in New Zealand I was getting it on with lots of chicks.

Bret: Who?

Jemaine: Well, ah, Sarah Fitzpatrick...Michelle Fitzpatrick...Claire Fitzpatrick... the list goes on.

Bret: That was all of them.

Jemaine: Well, triple figures.

Bret: No that's not triple figures. That's three.

Supported by equally off-kilter secondary characters (Mel, who makes up their entire "fan-base"; Murray, their manager; Dave, their best friend), the Conchords created a series that was innovative, quirky and hilarious. In short, I almost yelped with glee when I found out the series was renewed for a second season.

Sure, a few notes fell flat every now and then. But ten of the twelve episodes remained on my Tivo long after they crammed my Tivo's memory to the bursting point (Yes, I was cheap when I first got into Tivo, and unwisely bought their least expensive model. Steam-powered, I believe, my machine has the hard drive capacity of shiny new penny).

Hence, picking up the First Season DVDs meant I could empty my Tivo and finally record, say, something more substantial than the occasional Long John Silver's commercial.

It was with no small amount of geeky glee that I feverishly ripped open the package yesterday, wanting to pop it right into the player to surprise the Lovely and Talented Judith when she got home. (We also finally installed the ice-maker in the freezer, but I thought the Conchords should take top billing for the day's achievements.)

Yet, minutes after looking quickly through it...and playing it just to make sure...the collection left me gutted, if only in a teeny, tiny disappointed whiny fanboy kind of way. The way you really never want to get because of a mere DVD.

To the point: there's not a single extra on either CD.

Let me repeat that: not...one...single...extra.

No commentaries. Not interviews. Not even a single song from the "One Night Stand" special the duo did for HBO, which, goodness knows, they should have had the rights to toss in there. Even Mel's video blog, updated regularly on the web site, could have been chucked in there as a bone. C'mon, guys...we're dying for new material here!

Of course, the situation was actually worse with another DVD I'd recently been anticipating: "Anthony Bourdain No Reservations," which not only contains nary a single extra, but on its four (!) discs offers a scant eight episodes - not even a full season's worth! Now, if there's anyone's commentary I'd love to hear, it would be Bourdain's behind-the-scenes takes. In the immortal (and somewhat appropriate) words of Bluebottle, however, there's not a sausage.

Do entertainment companies owe us extras? Have we become so spoiled by the likes of "The Lord of the Rings" that we unrealistically expect more, more MORE from each and every new release? Does our Supersize Culture extend to expectations that our DVDs, likewise, should be bloated with bonus footage?

Lord knows, there have been releases where I could have done without the "deleted scenes." I mean, let's face it: for the most part, they were deleted for a reason.

Still, I'd have appreciated even a modicum more thought behind the DVD of a show as fresh and original as "Flight of the Conchords."

So here I sit, enjoying every second of what's on the discs, yet wishing there was more. Loving the duo that created such classic bits as "Business Time" and "Boom King," yet also -- as has been already stated -- feeling ever so slightly heartbroken.

And wondering what it is we should realistically expect from entertainers we give our hearts and/or minds -- if even only occasionally, at any rate -- to.

1 out of 5 stars

Not Worth it December 11, 2007
24 out of 59 found this review helpful

Despite plenty of possible extras to include on the DVD (previous HBO specials, MTV specials, BBC radio program, + more) HBO included NOTHING in this DVD package except the episodes themselves. No commentaries. Nothing. It's a waste unless you haven't seen the show before, in which case you're in for a treat.

5 out of 5 stars

Extremely Funny and Appealing August 14, 2007
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

I am someone with a low tolerance for weird or silly things, and I didn't expect to love this show - I was watching with my husband who had seen them before on television and wanted to see it. Flight of the Conchords is extremely funny - the wry sense of humor and excellent writing make up for the lack of reality. The three main characters, Jemaine, Bret and Murray are so sweet and earnest and appealing that I look forward to seeing the show each week and will definitely buy the DVD.

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