The Flight of my Fancy

I’ll be the first to admit that there has been a void in my life ever since Fox prematurely pulled the plug on Arrested Development last year. That was the type of show that only comes around once every 3 or 4 years. It was my reason for watching TV, ray of laughter to bring sunshine to my otherwise monotonous life.
With its departure I pretty much accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to receive satisfaction from the TV for at least 2 years. There just isn’t anything to get excited about. Sure there are decent shows like “Office”, “30 Rock”, “Ali G” and “Scrubs” but they just didn’t have the same ability to get me into an excited conversation at the water cooler. I resigned myself to the fact that the few hours spent watching TV a week would be spent experiencing only moderate joy.
So I gave up a lot of TV (something that is fairly easy when you only have 4 channels) and I engaged in other pursuits. I wrote songs. I read books. I became more social. I took up photography. I even learned to knit….ok it didn’t go that fair. Well you get my point. TV just wasn’t the same.

That all changed three weeks ago.

I was in a casual conversation with a friend when he mentioned a great new show on HBO that he was watching called “Flight of the Conchords”. Knowing that great TV is hard to come by I let his recommendation fly in one ear and out the next. The next day on the radio my favorite personality put in a huge plug for the same program. Two endorsements from two trusted sources within 24 hours. Maybe there was hope. The deal was sealed no less the 14 hours later when we were having dinner with a couple from our neighborhood. Not more then 15 minutes into the conversation the husband brought it up. I was now committed to giving this show a chance. He was ready to share and already had a burned copy of the first 4 episodes for my viewing pleasure.
I have to admit that it took a couple of viewings before I truly got the hang of the brand of humor. It is the dead pan stuff that really resonates with the young, educated crowd to which I belong. The humor isn’t exceptionally complex but it has appeal to the refined senses.
Now there will never be a replacement for “Arrested Development”. I am fine with that. But I have also realized that there is more then one way to generate a laugh. From what I have seen of this show I strongly believe that it has the potential to be the “it” comedy for the foreseeable future. Hats off to my two new favorite Kiwi’s, Bret and Jemaine.

For the ignorant, here is the link- http://www.hbo.com/conchords/