Band Meeting: HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" Takes Off with a Wing and a Prayer (and a Song from Murray)

With just the opening words of the second season premiere of HBO's Flight of the Conchords, I felt as though I had refound my lost Linus blanket, all comforting and cozy and warm.

Say it with me now: "Band meeting."

If you haven't already watched the Season Two premiere of Flight of the Conchords (either at FunnyOrDie.com or right here at Televisionary), I suggest you do so immediately as it's only available online through the weekend. (The actual linear television premiere of Flight of the Conchords will air on HBO on January 18th.)

Just a few quick thoughts about the premiere as my full thoughts on this and the first few episodes of Conchords will come in a full advance review at a later date.

I've missed Bret and Jemaine (not to mention Murray and Mel). The season premiere ("A Good Opportunity") kicks off just where we left off at the end of Season One: with Murray achieving fame and success with new band Crazy Dogs (complete with three gold records) while the guys continue to slog on without any real gigs or money coming in. But they do get the titular good opportunity when they are asked to create a jingle and star in the commercial for a women-only toothpaste called Femident.

It was fantastic to see Murray achieve metoric success and then lose it just as quickly when he realizes that the Crazy Dogs have in fact stolen the lyrics and music video from an unknown Polish band that put out the same song 15 years earlier. (Or as Murray calls it, a "cover song" from before.) His operatic song about abandonment have nearly overshadowed his Season One debut performance, "Leggy Blonde," but that song will always have a fond place in my heart.

Still, it was great to see the guys attempt to find success without Murray, only to learn that they need him to hold them back from any attempts at success. Especially as they don't have work visas or green cards. Or a legal right to be in the States in the first place, really.

And a storyline involving superfan Mel starting a street fire to protest the claim of plagiarism against the Crazy Dogs was absolutely hilarious, especially as she browbeat long-suffering husband Doug for not wanting to light things on fire. After all, why did he even bother to come if he wasn't going to burn things? Touché.

All in all, a fantastic return of the best damn New Zealand folk-comedy band in the business. I don't know about you but I couldn't keep the smile off my face the entire half-hour and I've missed the Conchords' unique blend of witty comedy, absurdist repartee, and kick-ass musical numbers.

Flight of the Conchords' second season launches Sunday, January 18th on HBO.

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

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What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season ...

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In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj...

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