Contents
About the show
Once upon a time, in faraway New Zealand, where the grass is green, butter is made and “The Lord of the Rings” was filmed, there lived two shepherds, Jemaine and Bret. One day they decided they absolutely had to become famous musicians in America. So they went there and formed a band called Flight of the Conchords in New York City, and even found a manager, who doubles as the deputy cultural attaché at the New Zealand consulate. But here's the trouble: fame just won't come, and the band has only one fan-follower. Money for the rent on their tiny shared apartment keeps running out, and there's no work. The gigs they manage to land pay five or ten dollars at best, and their music video has to be shot on a mobile phone. And all this in a big city where not everyone knows there's a country called New Zealand, and those who do aren't exactly jumping for joy about it. A tough situation. And how will our heroes, who frankly aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, deal with it? The right answer: through music! Read more (in Russian)
Translation
It so happened that I decided to translate “Flight of the Conchords” into Russian. So I did. The translations are published here and on tvsubtitles.net as subtitles. You can download the subtitles for each translated episode from the table below (click the floppy disk). The episodes also come with my comments on their content (in Russian). To read them, click the episode titles in the table.
The translation of both seasons (22 episodes) is now complete. There won't be a third season.
# | Episode | Subtitles |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ||
| 1x1 | Sally |  |
| 1x2 | Bret Gives Up the Dream | |
| 1x3 | Mugged | |
| 1x4 | Yoko | |
| 1x5 | Sally Returns | |
| 1x6 | Bowie | |
| 1x7 | Drive By | |
| 1x8 | Girlfriends | |
| 1x9 | What Goes on Tour | |
| 1x10 | New Fans | |
| 1x11 | The Actor | |
| 1x12 | The Third Conchord | |
| Season 2 | ||
| 2x1 | A Good Opportunity | |
| 2x2 | The New Cup | |
| 2x3 | The Tough Brets | |
| 2x4 | Murray Takes It to the Next Level | |
| 2x5 | Unnatural Love | |
| 2x6 | Love Is a Weapon of Choice | |
| 2x7 | Prime Minister | |
| 2x8 | New Zealand Town | |
| 2x9 | Wingmen | |
| 2x10 | Evicted | |
Songs
The table lists all the Flight of the Conchords songs featured in the show (plus a bonus), with their Russian titles. Click a song title to listen to it and read the lyrics along with the Russian translation. For obvious reasons, the table doesn't include Who Likes To Rock The Party, Doggy Bounce, or wordless sketches like angry Bret's dance.
All the lyrics and translations are now published. The translations will be updated occasionally, if I decide to improve them significantly.
Conchords under the influence
As I mentioned recently, starting November 22 the Russian TV channel 2x2 began airing “Flight of the Conchords” under the title «Летучие конкорды» (“The Flying Conchords”). I couldn't let that pass, so I watched the first episode. Here's my report.
First, the good news. Fortunately, the creativity of whoever wrote the show's announcement on the 2x2 website didn't spread beyond the announcement, and the main characters are called Bret and Jemaine, not «Бред и Джамая» (“Bred and Jamaya”). Also, thank God, nobody advised the localizers to call Murray “Marray” or something equally nasty. In short, everyone's called what they should be.
As you can probably guess, I watched it for the translation. I was curious how the 2x2 team would handle it and whether I could learn something new from it. I started learning right from the first seconds.