Review: "Todd & the Book of Pure Evil" - Season Two

 

DUNNISON, James, et.al. (Dirs.), created by Craig David Wallace, Charles Picco & Anthony Leo, “Todd & The Book of Pure Evil – Season Two”, Aircraft Pictures/Corvid Productions/Frantic Films/ Space, 2011.

 

Despite all of the flak that they receive as a country, many excellent things come from Canada: maple syrup; the Barenaked Ladies; and the settings for practically every episode of The X-Files, Supernatural and Stargate. But Canada is the origin of some pretty evil stuff too, like unregistered internet pharmaceuticals, Anne Murray and “Todd and the Book of Pure Evil”.

At the end of the last season, we had learned that the town of Crowley had been established by Satanists looking for a place to conduct their worship free from the interference of Unbelievers; we had learned that Jenny’s dad had been abducted by the Satanic Circle based at the Crowley Nursing Home and had been rendered comatose to keep him from talking; we had also learned that Curtis had lost his hand in a Metal Shop accident because Todd had been half baked and had been fooling around with the band saw.

As part of the season’s end cliffhanger, Atticus had been expelled from the Gang, had killed his father the Hooded One – leader of the Satanic Circle – and had taken his place; Jenny had traced her father to the Nursing Home and had been captured; Hannah and Curtis had started going out together and Todd had learnt that there was a Prophecy which, if they could just find out exactly what it was, might clear up the issue of whether or not he was indeed the Pure Evil One, controller of the Book. In the meantime, under the direction of the Three Heavy-Metal Douchebags from the Carpark, he had made himself a sword which he named ‘Sand Dragon’ (for reasons known only to himself).

With all of this hanging unresolved, I decided to take another plunge into this funnily feculent pool. While the promotional material surrounding the Second Season promised that it came with “More Blood”, that’s about all that has changed ... and some other things have been let slide to make way. I felt like I was watching a Roadrunner cartoon: this show had become the Coyote, running off the edge of a cliff and now pedalling furiously with nothing to give him traction. The fall is inevitable.

 

 

In the first season all of the characters in the Gang had more or less equal weight in terms of their impact on the events and their ability to work with the mayhem; all of that has been lost this time around, and I’m wondering if there was some kind of audience polling that informed the direction of the subsequent season? Atticus, Jenny and Hannah have all retreated sharply into the background of each episode’s plot: Atticus is a paper tiger hissing empty threats and spite from the sidelines; Hannah seems to exist merely to provide a rationale for all of the gizmos that emerge from Curtis’ robot hand; and Jenny has become just a whiney annoyance. In addition, all of the female characters, lead or support, seem to be the targets of humiliating gender-bending in episode after episode. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised: if the producers trawled their audience for direction, then they were only going to receive input and suggestions from a crowd of Beavis and Butthead clones.

What began as gross but genuinely clever fun, has become something less; maybe “Todd and the Book of Puerile Evil”?

Quite apart from the gross-out factor, this season is suffering from ill-adapted “Monster of the Week” issues: each episode is just another in a series of ‘Book appears; Mayhem ensues; all is Resolved’ sequences that do little to move the series forward as a whole. Sure, there are some funny bits: Atticus translated into “Snaketicus” in the episode where the world turns into a video game is very amusing and the revenge of the AV Club in “Loser-Generated Content” has some cleverly imaginative moments. However, any intricacies of plot or character development have been lost.

What happened to Jimmy the Janitor? His role as the Slacker Angel up against the Demon Douchebags of the Carpark just evaporated. In this season, he’s running in place, getting pervier and pervier. Jenny’s dad got disposed of quickly in the course of a single episode and Jenny’s raison d’etre went along with him. Todd seems to be trying to outdo “The Wild Wild West’s” Robert Conrad in the Getting One’s Kit Off stakes (a goal that’s eminently futile in trying to challenge) and Atticus, while he has some funny moments early on, has just become an impotent figure of derision.

So, yes: Season Two has “More Blood”. The Gang are still “Fighting Evil with Mixed Results”. Also with more pooh-jokes, masturbation references and chicks with dicks. If this is your cup of tea then by all means go for it. After all, there won’t be a Season Three.

One-and-a-half tentacled horrors.