Flight of the Conchords: Everyone eats at Mel's

I'll get to the other weekend stuff later, but I wrote so much about "Flight of the Conchords" that I felt it deserved its own post. Spoilers coming up just as soon as I finish up my cool ideas list...

First of all, apologies to anyone offended by my, um, alteration of the above photo (the blue dot's a tribute to "I'm With the Band"), but I wanted to find a way to include it without further ruining my attempts to soften my NC-17 rating. That sketch was disturbing, it was riveting, it was hilarious, it was Mel. And our first Mel-centric episode was a winner, with her presence overriding the show's usual problems with episodes about Bret and Jemaine dating.

There was the usual silliness on the margins -- Daryl Hall randomly hosting the world music-fest (and shutting down the guys in mid-song when it became obvious they don't play world music), Dave living with his parents and loaning Jemaine one of his mother's blouses (plus the awful mouse shirt), Murray having a piece of straw in his mouth during the final band meeting, Murray being completely oblivious about his e-mail and webcam shenanigans, etc. -- but Kristen Schaal was the star. Oftentimes, characters that broad only work in small doses, but I was laughing throughout, even as we revisited a lot of familiar Mel topics (how she destroyed Doug's career, for instance). Loved her going on and on to Bret about how she respects their boundaries and then immediately unlocks the bathroom door so she can watch him pee.

I do have one small concern about the threesome plot. On the one hand, Bret and Jemaine arguing about who should do it and why was funny, and as I said in my "Superbad" review yesterday, funny covers for a lot of sins. At the same time, though, Bret's eagerness to get to business time with a lady he just met flies in the face of his sexual skittishness back in the wingman episode. I don't want to be Comic Book Guy or the kid who complains that the same bone in Scratchy's rib cage played two different tones, but part of what makes this show work is its weird internal logic; if the characters' behavior starts bending and twisting to fit the needs of each script, the scripts will eventually suffer for it. I was okay with it here, but don't do it too often, you know?

What did everybody else think?