High School is Hell

by Kevin Gaussoin, Editor-in-Chief

Fifteen years ago, Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on television and the success of its seven seasons (or twelve if you include Angel) brought supernatural action drama into being, leading inevitably to today’s supernatural shows ranging from The Vampire Diaries, through Supernatural and Being Human, and into the occasionally-clothed and always sexy True Blood. But Buffy had a few things going for it that the others did not. Notably here are its clever and ubiquitous self-referential humor and perhaps most importantly here is that Buffy possessed something that most other supernatural shows never had. It was in the beginning set in one of the most frightening places on earth: High School.

(Beware: Some spoilers ahead!)

Flash forward over a decade, past five more View Askewniverse films, and absurdist and discomfort-based comedies like Reno 911 and The Office and we arrive here at Todd & The Book of Pure Evil. To claim Todd is the inevitable distallate of the perfect storm of all the shows mentioned above might be gentrifying it beyond repute, but you will probably see the parallels yourself–this is some wonderfully lowbrow shit filled with swearing and blood and even a bit of nudity. Hooray for Canadian TV!

Todd & The Book of Pure Evil establishes its formulae and its cast in the first few episodes, and while it has ongoing plot threads, these threads serve to enrich the story and reward returning fans without sacrificing a fun story for those who have jumped in late for an episode. The premise is simple: High school stoner Todd finds The Book of Pure Evil, reads some magic words, and his wish comes true. Todd’s wish was to become a heavy metal rock god, and of course The Book perverts Todd’s wish and puts his friends and his whole school in mortal danger. The Book, being the perfect comedic diablo ex machina, flaps its pages like a bird and flies away to find its next victim, cementing Todd (Alex House – Degrassi: The Next Generation, Warehouse 13), his likable best friend Curtis (Bill Turnbull – American Pie presents the Naked Mile, Goosebumps), and the girl of Todd’s dreams Jenny (Maggie Castle – The Time Traveler’s Wife, Goosebumps). Buffy taught us the value of having a Willow and a Giles in your Scooby Gang, so Todd’s group soon gains their token nerdy awkward ginger girl with Hannah (Melanie Leishman – Never Cry Werewolf), as well as their anti-Giles adult advisor in the form of their creepy counselor Atticus Murphy (Chris Leavins – RoboCop, La Femme Nikita).

Also notable in the cast is Crowley High School janitor Jimmy (Jason Mewes – Clerks., Jay and Silent Bob Get Old, the ComicsOnline Podcast). Todd is not the brightest “chosen one” ever, so not only does he have a trio of heavy metal Fates outside waiting to guide him to his destiny (one of whom played Todd in the original short film), but Todd and friends also have an alternate wisdom dispenser in Jimmy. My biggest complaint with this whole series is that Jimmy gets far too little screen time. Whether it’s intentional or not, it feels like Mewes has followed the Silent Bob playbook in purposefully leaving us wanting more. Give us more Mewes!

Highlights

Todd & The Book of Pure Evil The Complete First Season features 13 half hour episodes. Here are some favorites:

S01E01 “Todd The Metal God” – This episode launches the whole series and sets the premise.

S01E02 “How to Make a Homunculus” – Have you ever wanted to make a living replica of the object of your unreturned desires? This episode shows us Hannah’s hilarious results. My only complaint with this episode is that Melanie Leishman is way too damn attractive to convincingly play such a misfit.

S01E04 “Gay Day” – What if all the homophobes at your high school suddenly turned gay, along with all the other guys? Can you hear the metal turn to techno? This episode is as uncomfortably funny as you might expect.

S01E06 “Invasion of the Stupid Snatchers” – Following the “what if all the [x] were the opposite of [x]?” formula, this one features the dumbest kid in school (who is asian, but he’s Canadiasian, so maybe that’s how it works there) who uses the magic of the book to make everyone else stupid too, by getting everyone high. Thankfully Jason Mewes’ tolerance has built up to the degree that even magical intoxicants don’t faze him.

S01E07 “Terrible Twin Turf Tussle” – Who loves chicks making out? Bordering on skinimax, this episode is so stimulating… Look, I’m going to have to go watch it again. Just see for yourself.

S01E08 “Cockfight” – The bully has a small penis; The Book can help with that. But as always, the wish gets distorted, and this time, the bully ends up with Audrey II for a cock, and you know the kinda eats, the kinda red hot treats, the kinda sticky licky sweets it craves?

S01E09 “Big Bad Baby” – Todd sure is stupid, but this episode is hilarious. Also: Boobs. Bazinga.

S01E11 “The Phantom of Crowley High” – Buffy took six seasons to get us a musical episode; Todd gives it to us in the eleventh episode. I kinda wish the music and singing was actually good like in “Once More With Feeling”, but this is a fun episode anyway. Plus, Curtis gets mad tongue action.

S01E13 “A Farewell to Curtis’ Arm” – Curtis is missing his left arm, but he should be able to resist The Book long enough to destroy it, right? He surely knows better by now, right? He wouldn’t let The Book give him a monster arm bent on destruction… Oh. Nice season closer anyway.

Audio & Video

Todd & The Book of Pure Evil is a dorky lowbrow supernatural gore comedy, so it’s likely that they spent more money on prosthetics, fake blood, and flying book animations than on audio. Todd‘s metal like that. That said, it’s DVD quality 5.1 surround sound with a crisp 16×9 picture, giving us nothing to complain nor boast about. I wasn’t even bothered by the lack of Blu-ray level HD until episode 7.

Special Features

This DVD set is done right with all the obligatory bonus features we want. Perhaps the coolest being the original short film.

• Three Audio Commentaries with cast and crew
• Blooper Reel
• Outtakes & Deleted Scenes
• Extended Musical Scenes
• Q&A with Cast Members
• Todd & THe Book of Pure Evil: The Original Short Film
• Promo Clips

Overall

Todd & The Book of Pure Evil is not for everyone. Does your grandma like talking penises (if so, send pix)? But anyone who appreciates dumb lowbrow humor delivered with all the obligatory swearing, gore, sex, and bodily functions in a conveniently evil package should be completely delighted by Todd & The Book of Pure Evil The Complete First Season.

ComicsOnline gives Todd & The Book of Pure Evil The Complete First Season 4 out of 5 evil makeout sessions.

Our problem until recently was that Todd & The Book of Pure Evil was only available in Canada, but now we can get Todd & The Book of Pure Evil The Complete First Season on Amazon for a surprisingly good price…

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