Writers: Bret McKenzie, Jemaine Clement & James Bobin
Director: Troy MillerCast: Jemaine Clement (Jemaine), Bret McKenzie (Bret), Rhys Darby (Murray), Kristen Schaal (Mel), Arj Barker (Dave), Frank Wood (Greg), David Costabile (Doug) & John Hodgman (David Armstrong)
Murray wants to take some photos of the band, leading to Bret becoming insecure about his body...Flight Of The Conchords takes a more surreal pathway with episode 6, as David Bowie (Jemaine Clement) appears to Bret in a succession of weird dreams, dispensing strange advice for him to follow -- like wearing an eye-patch. It's very Mighty Boosh in style, and seems a better stylistic fit for the Conchords duo, as a fun science fiction musical piece "Bowie's In Space" also seems to prove.
Elsewhere, it's business as usual for the show, with incompetent manager Murray (Rhys Darby) arranging a photoshoot for the band, as they currently have just 2 photos (one without either of them in shot, and one with Bret's head pasted onto someone else).
The resulting low-budget photoshoot makes Bret become self-conscious about his body and Jemaine does his best to cheer up his friend -- by boosting his self-esteem via a song with unintentionally gay lyrics, called "Bret's Got It Going On".
The slight weirdness to Bowie is continued with another main plot, as the Murray gets the band their first real job: providing the music to an electronic novelty greeting card. The Daily Show's John Hodgman has a small role as the card company's boss, quietly frustrated by Bret, Jemaine and Murray's stupidity when it comes to understanding how one of his cards actually works ("like a walkman?")
It's nice to see an episode with a different energy to the rest, and the surreal moments when Bowie appears to Bret in his dreams, dressed from different career eras (Ziggy Stardust to Labyrinth) work very well. Both musical interludes also work better than usual, as the first is genuinely amusing and the second is quite ambitious and a pleasing pastiche of eccentric 80s music videos.
However, Bowie is still frustratingly low on laughs and just ambles through its scenes. The first half is quite plodding, only enlivened by Bowie's appearances, while the second half is a marked improvement that comes too late. It's clear that the series is never going to suddenly transform into anything other than an enjoyable, goofy, silly way to spend some time.
As a comedy series, it's lacking big laughs and clever plotting, so scrapes along on the amiable charisma of its lead actors, a few witticisms, and unexpected flashes of genius. Therefore, it's very difficult to actively hate Flight Of The Conchords, but it's also very difficult to see it as anything but a mildly entertaining comedy curio.
But, if you think pure surrealism is a better fit for the Conchords than the docu-comedy style that's usually employed, Bowie is undoubtedly the best episode (stylistically) of the series. Shame it's one of the least compelling and humorous, though.
30 October 2007
BBC Four, 9.30 pm
