Flight of the Conchords will improve your Tuesday nights no end. Photograph: BBC/HBO
Before we start: anyone tuning in to Flight of the Conchords hoping for the new Extras or even interplanetary laughs worthy of The Mighty Boosh will go away disappointed. At times, it's so low-key you wonder how it ever got made by US giants HBO in the first place.
Yet persevere and your Tuesday nights in the run-up to Christmas will improve no end. The premise is simple - Bret and Jemaine (comedians Bret Mackenzie and Jermaine Clement) are two young(ish) musicians who have left their native New Zealand to make it in New York with their "digi-folk" duo, Flight of the Conchords.
As a musical pairing, think the polar opposite of Tenacious D. Not for these aspiring superstars a dude-centric search for "the pick of destiny". Instead, they're amiable thrift-store geeks, all mutton chops and groovy jumpers, more likely to offer mumbled thoughts on Fairport Convention while fumbling for their library card.
Not that they seem unduly bothered at their fate. Incapable of getting any gigs thanks to clueless manager Murray - who, ironically, works as a NZ cultural attaché - they drift along, dating the same girl (Sally), moping in their (shared) bedroom and generally acting as remote as Auckland.
All of which could get pretty dull if it wasn't for the Conchords' musical interludes. Twice an episode, they confront their neuroses in dreamlike fantasy sequences that show off a knowledge of everything from R&B to electro-pop (Inner City Pressure, their piss-take of the Pet Shop Boys, was worthy of Not The Nine O'Clock News).
Last night, a chance encounter with Sally in the laundrette saw Jemaine transformed into a right-on Barry White for Business Time, growling: "Then you sort out the recycling/ Which isn't part of the foreplay/ But it's very important." Later, when she runs off with - yes - an Australian, the pair perform a soppy piano ballad together, in her honour, which is intentionally awful.
All in all, way too strange to get them chatting on Jonathon Ross's sofa any time soon. But that's a good thing, right?
