Writer: Eric Kaplan
Director: James Bobin
Cast: Bret McKenzie (Bret), Jemaine Clement (Jemaine), Arj Barker (Dave), Rhys Darby (Murray), Kristen Schaal (Mel), Eugene Mirman (Eugene), Eliza Coupe (Lisa), June Raphael (Felicia), Florence Annequin (Lisa's Friend) & Adrian Martinez (AJ Jones)
Bret and Jemaine meet two women in a croissant shop and go on a double-date, while Murray makes an album deal...
Haven't we exhausted the whole girlfriend thing on this show? Every other week one, or both, of the Conchords has an awkward relationship with a girl. It's yet more evidence that the storytelling possibilities of the show aren't being explored very well – which is bad news considering this is only the eighth episode.
Hey ho. Girlfriends finds Bret and Jemaine loitering outside a croissant shop, unable to gather the confidence to go inside and buy something. This socially inept nature of the characters is very inconsistent, isn't it? Anyway, once inside, they both somehow manage to secure a double-date with two sexy women who work there: Lisa (Eliza Coupe) and Felicia (June Raphael).
The series of dates are disastrously one-sided, with Bret finding Lisa is besotted with him, whereas Jemaine struggles to even talk to the disappointed Felicia...
Girlfriends is quite interesting on one level, as we see the Conchords' views on sex is incredibly naïve and childlike. Bret is aloof when it comes to Lisa's obvious attempts to bed him, while Jemaine is desperate for such sexual attention, but doesn't have the quiet charisma that Bret appears to wield.
Mind you, both Bret and Jemaine consider sex to be the pinnacle of a relationship that takes years to build-up. As Bret says, a girl would only even go "upstairs" with him after 3 years, and he feels harassed by Lisa's overt attempts to shag him.
Unusually, Murray (Rhys Darby) stars in his own subplot that is one of his weakest. Convinced dodgy-dealer A.J Jones (Adrian Martinez) is the brother of world-famous record producer Quincy Jones, Murray makes a deal to get some albums produced. A day spent trying to flog them on the streets is a total disaster, and he later discovers most of the boxes contain sawdust.
I guess Murray has no concept of how much big boxes of CDs would weight? The funniest part of his storyline was seeing his still-antiquated computer equipment – didn't the tech support girl fix that last week?
Anyway, initially I was pleased the show was finally addressing the promotion of the band, as I thought this would be a stronger aspect of the series. But, it doesn't really go anywhere, and I'm still not sure if the Conchords are genuinely bad, or if the musical interludes we see throughout the show exemplifies their talent.
The music this week was okay, but nothing special. A shared dream sequence ("Foux Da Fa Fa") was visually fun, styled on a 60s Scopitone music video, but "A Kiss Is Not A Contract" was a more standard ballad.
Overall, Girlfriends wasn't very memorable, and it's ridiculous how often the show returns to the same themes/ideas. The series focuses on the Bret/Jemaine/Murray trio (so can't branch out into a supporting cast for its stories), but the majority of their plots only revolve around band break-ups and girlfriends...
And I'm officially bored by it now.
13 November 2007
BBC Four, 9.30 pm
Director: James Bobin
Cast: Bret McKenzie (Bret), Jemaine Clement (Jemaine), Arj Barker (Dave), Rhys Darby (Murray), Kristen Schaal (Mel), Eugene Mirman (Eugene), Eliza Coupe (Lisa), June Raphael (Felicia), Florence Annequin (Lisa's Friend) & Adrian Martinez (AJ Jones)
Bret and Jemaine meet two women in a croissant shop and go on a double-date, while Murray makes an album deal..."Bands shouldn't have girlfriends. You lose your female fan base. What about Wham? You never saw Wham with girlfriends. That's how they kept the women wanting them. No girlfriends."
-- Murray (Rhys Darby)
Haven't we exhausted the whole girlfriend thing on this show? Every other week one, or both, of the Conchords has an awkward relationship with a girl. It's yet more evidence that the storytelling possibilities of the show aren't being explored very well – which is bad news considering this is only the eighth episode.
Hey ho. Girlfriends finds Bret and Jemaine loitering outside a croissant shop, unable to gather the confidence to go inside and buy something. This socially inept nature of the characters is very inconsistent, isn't it? Anyway, once inside, they both somehow manage to secure a double-date with two sexy women who work there: Lisa (Eliza Coupe) and Felicia (June Raphael).
The series of dates are disastrously one-sided, with Bret finding Lisa is besotted with him, whereas Jemaine struggles to even talk to the disappointed Felicia...
Girlfriends is quite interesting on one level, as we see the Conchords' views on sex is incredibly naïve and childlike. Bret is aloof when it comes to Lisa's obvious attempts to bed him, while Jemaine is desperate for such sexual attention, but doesn't have the quiet charisma that Bret appears to wield.
Mind you, both Bret and Jemaine consider sex to be the pinnacle of a relationship that takes years to build-up. As Bret says, a girl would only even go "upstairs" with him after 3 years, and he feels harassed by Lisa's overt attempts to shag him.
Unusually, Murray (Rhys Darby) stars in his own subplot that is one of his weakest. Convinced dodgy-dealer A.J Jones (Adrian Martinez) is the brother of world-famous record producer Quincy Jones, Murray makes a deal to get some albums produced. A day spent trying to flog them on the streets is a total disaster, and he later discovers most of the boxes contain sawdust.
I guess Murray has no concept of how much big boxes of CDs would weight? The funniest part of his storyline was seeing his still-antiquated computer equipment – didn't the tech support girl fix that last week?
Anyway, initially I was pleased the show was finally addressing the promotion of the band, as I thought this would be a stronger aspect of the series. But, it doesn't really go anywhere, and I'm still not sure if the Conchords are genuinely bad, or if the musical interludes we see throughout the show exemplifies their talent.
The music this week was okay, but nothing special. A shared dream sequence ("Foux Da Fa Fa") was visually fun, styled on a 60s Scopitone music video, but "A Kiss Is Not A Contract" was a more standard ballad.
Overall, Girlfriends wasn't very memorable, and it's ridiculous how often the show returns to the same themes/ideas. The series focuses on the Bret/Jemaine/Murray trio (so can't branch out into a supporting cast for its stories), but the majority of their plots only revolve around band break-ups and girlfriends...
And I'm officially bored by it now.
13 November 2007
BBC Four, 9.30 pm
