Garfunkel and Oates play themselves, i.e. two 30-something comedic musicians who write and perform parody songs that are not as clever as the Tom Lehrer songs of the 1970's, but are a homage. The shows are about their real life experiences as a female duo sort of like "Laverne and Shirley".
While the first two episodes are kind of bawdy, the third episode ("speechless") about not talking on dates, and watching sports, is hysterically funny and very creative. I started watching, hoping for something like Tom Lehrer, but what can you expect when these two women are doing IT ALL, producing the show, writing the shows, writing the songs, performing them, and acting in the leading parts? I am amazed.
I am pretty certain there has NEVER been a show like this on TV, about a comedic song group. The successful big-budget musical shows of the 60's (Monkees, Partridge family) had only very serious songs, and hoardes of backup staff to make them successful. The monkees sang their own songs but I think that David Cassidy had backing vocalists for the Partridge Family recordings. While a fraction of the songs from those shows were from singer-songwriters, this show is from singer- songwriter-show-writers-producers, which is frankly, amazing.
