6/19/08

Bob's Big Screen

Check out unique TV series on DVD

by Bob Connally

With summer upon us it’s the perfect time to catch up with some great TV shows on DVD. From first hand experience I can say there’s nothing quite like tearing through an entire season of TV inside of a week. Here’s a look at two outstanding and vastly different shows you may have missed.

Flight of the Conchords: Season 1

(Now available)

AC/DC once said, “It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock’n’roll.” For Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie (well, the sitcom versions of them), these words are absolutely true. Together they are New Zealand rock band Flight of the Conchords, determined to make it in New York City. It isn’t easy though. Not in a city full of muggers and racist fruit vendors.

Clement and McKenzie don’t exactly project a rock’n’roll image. They buy croissants in bakeries, prefer water to beer, and awkwardly try to avoid their one and only obsessed fan, Mel (Kristen Schaal), who flirts with them while her husband waits in the car. Meanwhile their manager Murray (Rhys Darby) holds band meetings in his office, neglecting his actual job at the New Zealand tourism board. None of his co-workers seem to mind. Each episode includes Murray officiously taking roll at the start of each meeting. It’s a running gag that never gets old.

TV comedy has gotten a shot in the arm in recent years. Shows like “Scrubs,” “Arrested Development,” and Britain’s “The Office” changed the way writers and directors approach the sitcom form. “Flight of the Conchords” blends many of these shows’ best elements with musical interludes from the band. The songs are funny, inventive, and fit into the rhythm of the show much more than songs in the average musical. As comics and musicians the Conchords are phenomenal. They fear no genre. Everything from hip hop to sixties pop (in French!) is fair game.

 “Flight of the Conchords” is a very funny show with a terrific modern day comedy team. All 12 first season episodes are available on DVD. The boys are currently preparing for season 2 on HBO. These are busy guys though. The real Clement and McKenzie (decidedly more popular than their sitcom counterparts) are touring the world and are fresh off the release of their first full-length album, which I highly recommend. My personal favorite song (which also appears on episode 3) is “Think About It,” in which Clement laments, “There’s people on the street gettin’ diseases from monkeys…Now there’s junkies with monkey disease. Who’s touching these monkeys?  Please leave these poor sick monkeys alone, they’ve got problems enough as it is.”

Check out season 1 of “Flight of the Conchords.”  And whatever you do, don’t call them Australian/English/Scottish.

             

Mad Men: Season 1

(Avail. 7/1)

In 1960 the men of the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency have the world on a string. This is what they’d have you believe anyway. The truth is nobody at this New York City institution is what they seem.

Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the ad agency’s golden boy. He’s a quiet man but he’s managed to gain a reputation for possibly being the best ad man in New York City. Still the man himself remains a mystery, even to his own family.

The Sterling Cooper workplace is filled with cigarette smoke, power struggles, and men who will do anything to get ahead. Don stays above the fray by being smarter and more reserved than the younger ad men, but he knows deep down that someday one of these guys will end up taking his place. He just hopes it’s not the ambitious Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), whose true nature as a backstabbing shark barely lies beneath the surface.

The rest of the execs make up the boys’ club that is Sterling Cooper. For them boozing and chasing the women around the office is just part of a normal workday. The women are much smarter and savvier than they’re letting on though, none more so than Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks). Meanwhile the shy new secretary, Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) has a burning ambition to be much more.

At home Don and his wife Betty (January Jones) are worlds apart. Don’s indiscretions remain a secret but it’s clear to us that Betty on some level is aware of them. As the season goes on though, we find out there’s something that no one knows about Don. It’s a secret that could shatter his world.

Created by Matthew Weiner, “Mad Men” is an exceptionally well-written show. The dialogue crackles and is delivered by top-notch performers. Hamm’s work as Draper won him a well-earned Golden Globe. Perhaps the show’s biggest star is its production design. 1960 New York is brought to vivid life. Through the sets, costumes, and some of the best cinematography you’ll ever see on television, you never feel like you’re watching a period show. It feels like you’re being pulled into that world.

 “Mad Men” is one of the best things to hit TV in some time. All 13 episodes of the first season are absorbing and entertaining. In case you haven’t seen it yet, this boxed set (on both DVD and Blu-Ray) comes out just in time for you to catch up before AMC launches season 2 on July 27. See why this terrific show deservedly won the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Series.