"But We Wanted To Look like Daft Punk"

While the writers strikes moves into another month and we are burdened with more reality shows (it's official : The opening episodes of American Idol are as bad as The Edsel), there is some good to report.

HBO still can crank out great television shows.

With the end of The Sopranos and a long wait until Vinnie Chase and the boys are back, many have been saying that HBO is struggling (Yes, John From Cincinatti was bad) and its programming has been supplanted by other cable networks like Cinemax and AMC. If people think that, then they haven't been watching Flight of the Conchords and In Treatment.

In Treatment is the story of Gabriel Byrne's therapist Paul and Monday through Friday for the next nine weeks, he'll see a different patient from 9:30-10:00 each night. The show works in real time (and unlike 24, the characters actual voice a need to use the bathroom) and it is set solely in Paul's office for a 30 minute therapy session. Each night of the week tracks a different character (there is a woman in her mid twenties contemplating "settling down," a married couple with different views on children, a soldier haunted by battlefield trauma) and on Friday nights, Byrne checks in with his own therapist (apparently, all good therapists are in therapy themselves).

The show could be painfully cheesey and trite, but it does a great job of NOT being that. At 30 minutes without commercials, the show works incredibly well. We have seen the likes of this show before, but usually it's been a REALITY show and I think what makes this show work so well is that it is FICTIONAL. That might not seem to make much sense as you would most likely think that a show about people in therapy would work better if they were REAL PEOPLE (like that show Intervention), but for whatever reason, those therapy shows about "real" people have never been particularly interesting (probably because "real" people are not that interesting).

In Treatment works where so few reality shows have worked and it is probably because the show has much more real characters. Now, I know this is making as much sense as a jigsaw puzzle of outer space, but often times, reality shows have people who know they are on television so it ceases to become real. Well, In Treatment and it's creators don't have that to worry about so instead, they have invented tremendous characters with very real story lines. I have found it easy to identify with ALL of the characters on this show and it is a testament to not only the great writing, but also the superb acting that it is all able to work so well.

Gabriel Byrne as Paul, a therapist with plenty of his own issues (I hope my therapist has this many issues, thus it will make me feel like less of a freak), owns the screen every night. Last night's episode was particularly fascinating as the viewer can CLEARLY tell that he is struggling with some of his own relationship issues. I will be interested to see how the Monday (Laura) treatments go because it is an easy story line and one that could become frustrating if the shows creators move it down a road that would be a simple (albeit scandalous) one.

It'll be interesting to see where the show goes, but given the dearth of good (any?) programming out there, In Treatment is well worth a watch. Particularly if you yourself have ever been in therapy. Not that I would know anything about that.

The even better show though, is Flight of the Conchords. Now, I'm way late getting to the party here. The show premiered in June, but it hasn't exactly burned up the Nielsen ratings (but it has sold a nice number of DVDs) and for whatever reason, NOBODY is talking about it. And that is an absolute sin.

Several times on this bloviating blog, I've lamented the lack of good comedy out there. Well, this show is good comedy. No, it's GREAT comedy. And then some.

Flight of the Conchords is the story of a two man (Jemaine and Bret- you'll like them right away) band from New Zealand (the fourth most popular folk parody duo in said country) who moves to The Lower East Side of Manhattan to make it big. They are assisted by their bumbling manager and employee of the New Zealand Consulate, Murray. They have one die hard fan in Mel and one pal Dave, who lives at home with his parents.

During the half hour show, Bret and Jemaine break out into song (Business Time, Mot Beautiful Girl In The Room, Cheer Up Murray) and many of these can be found on youtube. These musical clips are also what has given the show any of the popularity it currently has.

But it is not the songs or the side characters that make the show so amazing. Like all great comedy, the key is having the CENTRAL CHARACTERS be hilarious. It's easy to have secondary and tertiary characters who are there for "comic relief," but what seperates hilarious from pretty funny is great leads. On Seinfeld, Jerry was the funniest. Everyone loves Kramer (pre racist rant) and George, but face facts. It is Jerry that drives the show and it is Jerry who is consistently hilarious (too much George is never a good thing as evidenced by the unfunny Curb Your Enthusiasm). In Napoleon Dynamite, Uncle Rico is a hoot, but the film wouldn't be half as funny as it is without Napoleon asking if the chickens have large talons. Same with Austin Powers. The secondary characters are great, but the film is comedy legend because of..... Austin Powers.

Anyways, you get my point. Good comedy NEEDS great leads and Bret and Jemaine are as funny as they get. I'd love to see these guys in an interview, because they are amazingly self deprecating, do a wonderful job of staying in character, and have some of the best comedic timing I have ever seen. The show never takes itself seriously, but yet it is super original and outstandingly creative. The fact that EVERYONE is not talking about this show is an absolute crime because it is the funniest things that has been put on television since..... Well, since Seinfeld.

I like The Office and I've chuckled at How I Met Your Mother, but so much of Flight of the Conchords is fresh. As I said, the songs are great (and surprisingly catchy) with funny lyrics and comical videos, but it is everything else that makes the show tick. Bret and Jemaine have some of the freshest, most memorable, and creative lines I have ever heard. If more people watched the show, some of the lines would be as oft quoted as lines from Seinfeld, Napoleon Dynamite, and even Pulp Fiction. This is a bold statement yes, but so much of what they write/say is both tremendously original and timeless. And so I have no problem putting this show in the rarified air of those oft quoted classics.

Also, even though the show is on HBO, Bret and Jemaine fall back on none of the cliche jokes that many comedians use for an easy laugh. There are no fart jokes, no masturbation jokes, no excessive swearing (in fact, there is hardly any swearing at all). And the only sexual joke (wacked off) that i can remember comes because the Kiwis misspeak and try to pass off their error as "New Zealand lingo."

Instead of Superbad/Knocked Up overused humor, there are timeless lines like, "Why would I stand next to a big magnet Murray?" There are tons of Napoleon moments in the show and if you liked that humor, there is no way you WON'T like the humor in Conchords.

But the humor is by no means "niche" humor. If you have half a brain (which I guess America doesn't), then there is no way you CANNOT appreciate the freshness of the storylines and the writing. Further, it is the subtlety of the show that makes it so great.

Much like Seinfeld- where everyone remembers the main parts of the episodes (Frogger, The Soup Nazi, Master of Your Domain)- it is all the LITTLE stuff that is so hilarious. Bret and Jemaine take no epsiodes off and they work to make every conversation, every scene, so subtley hilarious. They do not bank on one big laugh or one big song (and they could easily do this). Instead, they craft every episode with subtle comments ("that was a great epsiode of the dog show") and hilariously inane conversations that DO NOT insult the intelligence of the audience. That is something that so few comedies today do. Instead of hitting you over the head with gratuitous swearing and forced yelling, Conchords uses great writing ("I'm not crying. It's just been raining..... On my face.") and quiet acting to carry it. It really has the potential to be a classic. Check this out.....

Murray: Look at him with all of his friends. They follow him. He's like the Pied Piper of cool. The Pied Piper was a good musician wasn't he?
Bret: He wasn't cool.
Murray: Yes, he was.
Bret: He took all of those kids into a cave
Murray: No. Before that phase. When the rats were following.
Jemaine: Listen, the Pied Piper isn't cool and neither is Todd.

So turn off The Bachelor and don't throw in your Office DVD yet. There IS some good TV out there. You just have to find it.