Closing last Sunday’s episode of “The Flight of the Conchords,” gang members began snapping their fingers in unison and flying into one another’s arms.
If that scene brought to mind “West Side Story,” you’re probably the wrong demographic for this HBO series, the most original comedy on TV today. It’s silliness of a high order, aimed at the “Napoleon Dynamite” crowd.
“Conchords,” which runs Sunday nights, is about the misadventures of New Zealanders Bret and Jemaine, two would-be rock musicians in New York so pathetically dweebish they make Napoleon look like Cary Grant. You have to love them.
When Bret plays a song attacking rap music, their idiot manager warns them that sensitive rap artists have been known to respond to criticism with firearms and worse.
So Bret forms a gang, made up of an ancient Asian couple, a white- haired mobster wannabe and a mama’s boy passing himself off as a Green Beret. All this leads to that tone-perfect homage to those airborne juvenile delinquents immortalized by Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.
Like “The Simpsons,” “Conchords” is unafraid to mine pop culture of an earlier era for ideas. “Conchords” plays on the teen fantasy that nerds can be cool, a comforting thought in a time when real coolness just costs too much. Dweebs also figure in NBC’s “Chuck,” which airs Monday nights.
Much was made during the Super Bowl of the season premiere, which was broadcast in 3-D; special glasses were made available at stores, online and by mail. I stole my son’s to watch. There was a moment early on when a doughnut covered with rainbow jimmies seemed to beckon, but otherwise the effect was lost on me. And who wants sitcom characters to be three-dimensional anyway?
Chuck, played by the very likable Zachary Levi, has a brainload of government data in his head (if you have to ask how, this show is probably not for you). While continuing to work with the “Nerd Herd” in an electronics store, he also gets swept up in Very Dangerous spy gigs with a dour spook and his gorgeous blond accomplice. Each week they get into trouble saving the world from evil, while Chuck also pals around with his nerdy friends at the store, aptly named Buy More.
“Chuck” was on life support last season but was granted a reprieve by NBC. It’s broadcast too early to engage the audience it’s meant for, which is the “Conchords” and “The Office” crowd. So tape it, time shift and catch it while you can.
“Medium” also returned this week, with Patricia Arquette as Phoenix mom Allison Dubois, who talks to dead people and has dreams with red herrings. She also has a cute, loving, supportive husband (Jake Weber) and three adorable girls, one of whom, in the season opener, has taken to drawing nude pictures of her art teacher, who is rather suspiciously unsettled by it all.
