Book in for return Flights
If familiarity really does breed contempt, then no one’s yet passed that gem of psychological enlightenment on to the boffins who churn out endless entertainment to our small screens and devices. No matter how fractured our potential viewing time has become – from the old days of families gathered to watch programmes at set times, to today’s streamlined shows beamed direct to bus trips and lunch-breaks – what we actually watch is relentlessly same-y.
Which is why we love the concept of ‘‘the return’’.
Novelty be damned: we hang out for the restored classics, the sequels, the prequels and revivals. The anticipation of a second, third, umpteenth series trumps any premiere any time, and one-off specials become appointment viewing for fans starved of re-runs or new material.
Which is why HBO’s decision to film Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie at the London Apollo Theatre earlier this year has the potential to become the small screen highlight of 2018 when it makes its debut on Sunday night. More Flight of the Conchords? Hell yeah.
Box set binges of the now decade-old TV series have frozen the Kiwi duo as cheeky comedy upstarts, so there’s an initial hurdle of having to accept the flicks of grey in their hair, the 40-something faces, the indefinable signs of maturity. (Is it odd that Clement is clean-shaven and McKenzie is bewhiskered? Why does that make each of them seem older?)
But with time has come considerable – even, in the case of McKenzie, Oscarwinning – success and it’s instantly clear the pair haven’t changed the schtick, they’ve merely honed the winning equation of humour plus music plus gently deferential Kiwi banter.
There’s also the sneaking suspicion that all their practice has made them rather good at what they do… maybe insofar as to have become the third or even second-mostpopular folk duo in New Zealand.
There’s even a few well-known numbers such as Foux du Fafa, Robots, Bowie and the stunning Inner City Pressure among their newer tunes.
But even the new ones rely on the same humour: The Summer of 1353 is mad-cap medieval complete with rockout recorder solos; The Ballad of Stana is a gritty, country tale of satanism and anagrams; and Seagull a daft-as-a-bag-of-spanners song in which Clement tries to deconstruct a deep McKenzie ballad only to discover he’s ‘‘literally a keyboard-playing seabird who sings… damn these feathered wings’’.
The 90 minutes are sewn together with chuckles at mistakes, cheerful jokes, surreal stories and the introduction of Nigel, the oneman New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (‘‘he’s a small orchestra but per capita it’s bigger than yours’’).
And it’s like they’ve never been away.
If the success of Flight of the Conchords’ return is due to the anticipation, then My Kitchen Rules
NZ’s is because the show seems to have been on our screens for ever. This fourth outing retains last year’s trick of replanting presenters Manu Feildel and Pete Evans from their nine-season stint across the Ditch, as well as the stereotypical mix of flamboyant foodie friends, culinary cousins, yummy buddies and comestible couples.
It’s paint-by-numbers TV – and having chewed through Australia’s three-month version earlier this year, MKR NZ is quite comforting in its composition. Couple number one, Sindy and Roger from Papamoa, are ‘‘lovebirds’’ and so we see them frolicking along a beach as if advertising erectile dysfunction pills or reverse mortgages. They kiss six times in the first six minutes (seven if you include the odd let’s-make-these-snapper-kiss footage), and Roger seems completely at ease with Sindy’s constant mispronunciation of ‘‘tortillas’’.
Elsewhere, a deluge of names sort themselves into their pigeonholes – the Auckland dentists are maybe a bit staid, the Ma¯ ori cousins are intriguingly extrovert, Jess and Cindy (this time with a C and certainly no lovebird) aren’t here to make friends, and Liam and Eden are ‘‘from the Naki’’.
And then Pete and Manu glide suavely into their judging seats and roll out the usual stream of worrying glances at the thought of undercooked meat, warnings that simplicity allows you ‘‘no place to hide’’, and exhortations to ‘‘step up’’ or ‘‘be proud’’ to these simple home cooks in search of their 15 minutes of gastro glory.
There’s ceviche, there’s ostrich, there’s tense background music to accompany the un-potting of caramel creams, there’s product placement for Manu’s favourite brand of stock, there’s a wry arched eyebrow from Pete.
And it’s like they’ve never been away.
Flight of the Conchords: Live in London is on SoHo at 7.30pm tomorrow, which is the same time that My Kitchen Rules kicks off the new series on TVNZ 1.