It’s also rather interesting to learn that the way this episode was put together involved “Test Pattern” actually performing a live concert. This promotional material indicates a lot of this footage was assembled by them actually throwing a concert (they even come up with a clever way to push guests to wear ‘80s attire to further fulfill their needs). This works about a hundred times better than performing something in studio and using extras to complete the illusion of a concert film. It just acts as another strong piece of evidence of the meticulous production design and effort involved in this program. Every step is taken to make this look more real.

The episode sees Hader as Marky (who is more or less doing his Steffon voice here, which is just nice to hear again) and Armisen as Lee, both of which are given opportunities to shade in these bizarre characters beyond being musicians. There’s an absurd aside about Lee going through a phase where he married a bunch of inanimate objects that you just need to get behind. Test Pattern’s third member comes courtesy of Maya Rudolph (acting as the Tina Weymouth surrogate) and she fits in here like a rhinestoned glove. Yes, they’ve all worked on SNL together but I can’t think of a person better than Rudolph to fill this role. She’s just the perfect loud, brassy musical personality with nearly as much versatility as Hader and Armisen themselves. All of the band members’ hefty egos make appearances here too, even if they materialize in fairly subtle ways through this doc. These are musicians after all.

As “Final Transmission” plays on you’re treated to a number of Test Pattern classics, hits like “Art + Student = Poor,” “This Is My Street,” and my favorite, “Flashing Lights.” There’s even an ‘80s style robot that accompanies the band in a very welcome touch. Robin Sparkles would approve.

Through the band’s final performance, we also get to go through the group’s varied evolution, such as their Belinese period, Marky’s William Gibson-inspired songs, and let’s not forget the Rudolph-led track that made it onto the Sun Warriors soundtrack, “Save Time For Me.” The reinventions don’t stop and before you know it Armisen is croaking out a too perfect Tom Waits-inspired song that laments about a derelict carousel graveyard.