Writers: Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie & James Bobin
Director: James BobinCast: Jemaine Clement (Jemaine), Bret McKenzie (Bret), Rhys Darby (Murray), Arj Barker (David), Kristen Schaal (Mel), Frank Wood (Greg), Sutton Foster (Coco), Eugene Mirman (Eugene), Rachel Blanchard (Sally), Ramsey Faragallah (John) & Murray Bartlett (Mark)
Sally, the ex-girlfriend of both Bret and Jemaine, is back on the scene and rekindles old memories...Murray: There's something I wanted to talk to you about actually, Jemaine. Umm, it's not good news. Planet Jemaine... supernova'd. Yeah, there's nothing left of it, apparently -- just a huge gaseous cloud and the beginnings of a black hole.
Jemaine: When did this happen?
Murray: Uh, about 4 million years ago.
Sally Returns is guilty of relying on themes and ideas Flight Of The Conchords can't seem to shake off, surrounding the social difficulties of Bret and Jemaine around women. Yet again, Sally (Rachel Blanchard) causes them to both to fall madly in love with her, and the episode becomes another doomed romance with a weird "love-triangle". And, while we don't get a band break-up exactly, Bret and Jemaine are split when Jemaine gets his own place to impress Sally...
The series' riffs on a handful of ideas every episode is becoming faintly amusing for all the wrong reasons, but Sally Returns is fortunately saved by having some genuinely funny jokes, songs that actually tell a narrative story (so don't feel as forced) and a plot that you can become invested in. It helps that Sally is a character we're already familiar with, so for the first time we have a subjective opinion on a character and situation.
Jemaine again plays gooseberry in the opening scene, where Bret and girlfriend Coco (Sutton Foster) amuse themselves on the sofa by tickling each other -- despite neither being ticklish. Later, Jemaine meets Sally again in a laundromat and, following the show's funniest song so far (Business Time; a ruined love song), Jemaine starts to make moves to secure her love. Unfortunately, Bret has similar plans once he realizes Sally's back, despite going out with Coco, and both compete for Sally's affections with increasingly extraordinary presents for her impending birthday...
I still wish the series would just move away from the competing duo aspects, particularly involving woman and band break-ups, but fortunately there's enough spark and good humour in episode 5 to keep things interesting. Rachel Blanchard is particularly adept at this brand of humour, as Peep Show is similarly low-key and reliant on the same straight-faced cuteness she brings to Conchords.
The non-Sally aspects of the show are more successful, however -- particularly scenes of Jemaine moving into a new "apartment" the size of a cupboard ("a compartment"), Murray (Rhys Darby) deciding to move the band into real estate by purchasing stars ("Murrayland"), only for Jemaine's to go supernova "... about 4 million years ago", and a decent finale that neatly ends Sally's recurring storyline.
Overall; some fun moments, a watchable storyline, a few great lines and two songs that actually aide the story instead of distract from it too much. Also nice to see someone mention the Conchords actually have a music video released on the internet (the robot vid from the Pilot), as I was beginning to think these guys never do anything musically.
Flight Of The Conchords is still a disappointing series for me, but this was a definite highlight and helped sustain my wavering belief that a truly great episode is around the corner...
23 October 2007
BBC Four, 9.30 pm
