When Flight of the Conchords first debuted on US cable channel HBO in 2007, what was perhaps most striking about it was how something so fresh and new could feel so deeply, inherently familiar. Sure, it could have been Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie’s accents, sounding even broader in the New York setting, or the Judy Bailey in-jokes, speaking straight to my soul; But what really got me, in the misty-eyed days of my late adolescence, was the sight of New Zealanders not pretending to be cool: leaning in to their cringeyness and how perfectly, inherently us that felt.The irony, of course, was that the show had been snubbed by our own local broadcaster TVNZ—who, a tidy 11 years later, are finally ready to take a chance by airing Clement and long-time collaborator Taika Waititi’s new show Wellington Paranormal.A spin-off of their hit 2014 vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, the six-part series takes officers Minogue (Mike Minogue) and O’Leary (Karen O’Leary) and puts them at the centre of their very own Police Ten 7 style reality show—one that quickly reveals that, at the heart of our country’s capital, there is some spooky shit going on.Taken under the wing of the highly superstitious Sergeant Ruawai Maaka (Modern Māori Quartet’s Maaka Pohatu) after an out-of-the-ordinary projectile vomiting case, Minogue and O’Leary quickly become the station’s go-to's for any and all weird happenings—of which, fortunately, there are many. Encounters include small talking dogs and disgruntled wives finding their husbands levitating in the garage ("You're 47!!")."Largely improvised and gloriously lo-fi, the effect is more than just charming—it’s adorable, which I mean in the least corny or condescending way imaginable. Perfectly re-tooling the kind of magical naivety pioneered by Clement and McKenzie, in the current television landscape it feels practically radical.
It shouldn't be controversial to say that for far too long New Zealand television has been dominated by the same players and the same tone. In the years since Outrageous Fortune’s glorious (if overlong) six-year run concluded in 2010, terrestrial local television has struggled to let go of the idea that its popularity can be exactly duplicated. Think of the The Blue Rose; The Almighty Johnsons; Nothing Trivial; Go Girls; Filthy Rich, and—*shudder*—Step Dave: attempts at sexy-comedy-drama have become weirdly ubiquitous in this country, but nothing, even Fortune spin-off Westside, has ever really made an impact.That these shows are predominantly helmed by the same people—Outrageous Fortune producers Rachel Lang and Gavin Strawhan have, in particular, been responsible for a huge amount of this fare—is perhaps no surprise. What is, however, is that over a decade since New Zealand networks infamously passed over Flight of the Conchords, they are finally interested in giving a different comedic sensibility a shot.Wellington Paranormal is neither sexy nor slick, and sometimes the self-consciously gumby affectation barely even registers as deliberate or ironic, lending instead to a truly authentic, Fred Dagg-ish vibe. Arriving on the heels of the success of Waititi’s Hollywood projects and local success The Breaker Upperers, it is even conceivable to imagine Wellington Paranormal being picked up by international markets. Amongst the endless slough of weighty hour-long dramas, Wellington Paranormal is a revelation of light, good-natured and carefree deadpan joy. If only TVNZ hadn’t been so spooked in the past.Follow Katie on Twitter.
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