I recently finished watching Flight of the Conchords. I had seen them perform their songs a long time ago, but I hadn’t actually seen the show.

When I found out that it was available on Hotstar.com, and that I had access…I couldn’t stop myself!

It’s not a disappointing show at all. But we already knew that. The show has been critically acclaimed since its inception, and the only reason that the show was called off after 2 seasons was because the duo had worked so hard on the show that they were constantly anxious.

What I want to talk about is what the show is trying to say. And this can always be a very tricky thing to deal with.

You see, the show’s premise is about two New Zealanders who happen to come to America to try and become rock artists. They are in a band called the Flight of the Conchords and they have a band manager who is also a Cultural Attache to the Embassy of New Zealand.

But these are not successful musicians, these are struggling artists who are just down on their luck, short of money all the time and almost never seem to be mature enough to hold any relationship.

And yet they really love music.

When I see the show, I see two people trapped in the middle of the crisis of existence. There are bills to pay, things to do as adults, success to be had.

Their existence is highly mundane. And yet in the middle of it all they have each other, two people who really love music and don’t care whether they have instruments or not. Anything will do.

Their inner lives are rich and colourful, and I guess between the two they know that together they can glimpse that rich inner life. But the outer existence is shabby, sad, and frankly hilariously bad.

I guess the show is about realising that everyone in the world leads rich inner lives. Complicated dreams and desires that are also quite simple. We are all rich within, some of us are able to channel it out there. But some of us are never able to materialise it.

The shows simple and outrageous props also point to this. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be grand. Grand dreams can be had with cheap props. And ambition doesn’t always mean success. Passion doesn’t always mean success.

Sometimes it’s the desire to do something that is also just pulling people forward, never to fully materialise what is inside their heads. But perhaps something that will remind us to listen a little bit more to the world popping inside our head.

Oh and have a good time during the whole thing.