Flight Of The Conchords season 2 episode 8 review
It's fashion time, as Flight Of The Conchords arrives in New Zealand Town...
8. New Zealand Town
‘You think you know fashion Well, fashion’s a stranger You think fashion’s your friend My friend, fashion is danger’
Take note of the above, readers, in last night’s episode we learned of the dangers of fashion.
The episode opened with Bret and Jemaine performing to a small audience. There’s one person with shopping bags there at the beginning, but he wasn’t there when they finished. It also transpires that Murray wasn’t there for the set either, as he disappeared to do some shopping.
Drastic measures need to be taken so Murray calls a band meeting to address his concerns. His main concern is with their style or lack thereof. The boys didn’t think that there was anything wrong with their style until the Prime Minister announces that he’s looking for a cool band to play the opening of the New Zealand town district of New York and dismisses the suggestion of the Conchords performing. Murray proposes that they use hair gel and shows them a number of photos of Murray when he was experimenting with his look. The boys experiment with the gel and come up with a number of interesting hairstyles.
Following their experimentation, they perform Fashion Is A Danger, which sees the boys finally tackle synth pop and also seems to be a take on Kraftwerk.
The boys perform a gig that was a massive success, by their standards. The crowd seems to have taken to their cool new look. The Prime Minister and Murray are in attendance and want the boys to perform at the opening of New Zealand town.
We see Bret and Jemaine standing on a street corner, looking cool. So cool that everyone is surprised at how cool they look. Murray approaches them with the idea of performing at the New Zealand town opening, to which they respond with “whatever“.
The Prime Minister, accompanied by his assistant Paula played by Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess and Battlestar Galactica), asks Murray to see if Jemaine will dress as a Moiri as he’s half Moiri and it will save them hiring Mexicans. Jemaine objects to this on the grounds that it’s “culturally insensitive“ but still refuses to do it.
The following morning, the boys wake up and find that their hairstyles are messed up and they’ve run out of gel. Both refuse to leave the apartment in case they’re seen by anyone, so they decide to wait until nobody’s about. They wait for days until Murray turns up to see how they are. They explain their predicament and Murray agrees to get them some gel.
Days pass again as the boys wait for Murray to appear with the gel. Their door opens, but it isn’t Murray, it’s Mel! The boys are initially surprised and ask Mel if she has a key to their apartment. She says that they should be at their rehearsal for the opening of New Zealand town and then makes the excuse that she must be sleepwalking and it would be dangerous for them to wake her. They ask her if she has any gel and she says that she might have some mousse or hairspray and the boys proceed to rummage through her bag, in a frenzy, to find something to sort out their wayward hairstyles. Mel leaves the apartment looking worried, stating that she doesn’t recognise them anymore.
The boys experiment with other types of products to fix their hair – but end up getting objects stuck to their heads. Murray turns up to the apartment, to get the boys ready for their performance. Looks as though it’s down to them to save the opening as Gary, New Zealand’s most famous sheep, was accidentally sheared. Murray apologises for not bringing them hair gel and asks them why they have objects stuck to their heads. They explain their predicament and Murray says that he’ll find some anti-glue and gives them a rousing speech to convince them to perform. Which is a good job as Dave is left answering questions on New Zealand; when asked what side of the road people drive on in New Zealand he replies with “in the middle” and when asked what language they speak he says that they pretty much just make it up as they go along, which is why they’re so hard to understand.
Performing in their usual get up and without their cool new hairstyles, the boys manage to get rid of quite a respectably sized gathering in seconds.
Another disappointing episode, really, Three good episodes out of eight isn’t the kind of hit rate I was expecting, or hoping for, from this series. Two episodes left to salvage the series…
Check out our review of episode 7 here.
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