TV Guilty Pleasures # 11: 'Todd & The Book of Pure Evil'

There seems to be an unspoken rule in society that grown-ups shouldn’t watch “teeny-bopper” shows about teenagers and their “end of the world” drama, like who’s taking whom to the prom, and how Tom can’t believe Eric made captain of the debate team instead of him. Once you’ve been out of high school for a few years you’re supposed to have outgrown that stuff, right? That’s why we have guilty pleasures! Adults can’t live off of only watching “NCIS,” “Law & Order” and “Jeopardy.”

We need variety in our lives, so it’s fun to go back and watch a show about teens every now and then. It’s also a good way to make you feel old and laugh at the ridiculous things they experience. Of course, if it’s “Todd & The Book of Pure Evil” you won’t just find the stereotypical teenage drama, you’ll also find teens fighting zombies, trying to gain dominance over a gang of Neanderthals, and being turned to stone because they looked at someone’s gigantic, cursed “member.”

We’ve highlighted several British and American guilty pleasures, now let’s see what the Canadians have to offer. “Todd & The Book of Pure Evil” premiered on Space Channel back in 2010. It only received an order for a total of 26 episodes before getting the axe. It will always remain a mystery why someone would cancel a show with awesomely named episodes such as “Fisting Fantasy,” “See You Later, Masturbator,” and “2 Girls, 1 Tongue.”

“Todd & The Book of Pure Evil” takes us back to high school, enabling us to reminisce about all those horrible, cough, I mean wonderful teenage feelings like self doubt, loneliness, and mind-blowing horniness. (Well, at least one of those doesn’t go away as you get older.) In this horror/comedy, four students fight evil…with mixed results. They learn about a book of pure evil that seemingly grants a person what they desire the most, but always ends up twisting it around until everything goes completely off the tracks, and, more often than not, someone ends up bleeding.

The show will hook you within the first minute of the pilot episode. In it, you see a crowd of students chanting “jerkoff” while going the extra mile to mime it. Then, later in the episode – while you’re still trying to wrap your head around what kind of show this is – the lead character, Todd (Alex House), follows through on a promise he made to one dude, “I’m gonna make you bleed out your ass.”

The fun doesn’t stop there. Todd, Jenny (Maggie Castle), Curtis (Bill Turnbull), and Hannah (Melanie Leishman) vow to save the school/town from this wretched book and end up fighting homunculi, reasoning with giant babies and trying to escape from being trapped inside a video game. For a show from a country known for its gentle, polite people, “Todd & The Book of Pure Evil” ain’t shy about stacking up the profanity and gore. In fact, there’s so much blood in each episode that the janitor of the school has a designated “blood mop.” In one episode, he catches a student with the Book of Pure Evil in the janitor’s closet and says, “You already started reading the evil words, didn’t you? Then could you pass me my blood mop? I’m gonna need it later.” Each episode also has an alternate, “clean” version, but who the hell wants to watch that? If you’ve got Netflix, though, you get the full majesty of the uncensored version. So check it out there if you have the option.

One delightful surprise is that the janitor spoken of above, Jimmy, is none other than Jason Mewes, most famously known as the loquacious half of Jay and Silent Bob. Todd often asks Jimmy for advice and getting such gems as: “Chicks love danger and dudes who aren’t afraid to face it. And remember, if she’s not in danger, be sure to put her in danger.” He also told Todd that in order to get a girl named Jenny to notice him, he should make her jealous. Okay, sounds pretty standard, but then he goes on to say, “Seek out the sexpot known as Marcy and bang her ‘til Jenny sees the light.” Yes, get it on with one girl to woo another. What eloquent logic.

While the teens are great characters in their own right, the supporting characters shine just as brightly. One of the antagonists is the ever-so-inappropriate guidance counselor, Atticus Murphy Jr. (Chris Leavins). Being the guidance counselor makes it all the more hilarious when a Satanic cult tasks Atticus with getting a picture of Todd’s penis to see if he has the mark of the chosen one. And his being a guidance counselor makes it even funnier to hear him respond to the many obscenities hurled at him, like when he gets called a dickbag: “Dickbag? Tell me, do you just take random obscenities, and pair them up with equally random nouns? “C**k Lamp?” “Ass Taxi?” “S**t Rooster?” Is that the way it works?”

If you’re going to watch a “teeny-bopper” show, give this one a try. It’s surprisingly smart, and mixes in some magical/horror elements while not being afraid to get gruesome. An Indiegogo campaign raised enough money for the showrunners to create an animated film currently titled Todd & The Book of Pure Evil: The End of The End that will act as the series finale. 2014 is the estimated release date, so you’ve got more than enough time to catch up. Grab your blood mop today and sit down for a marathon of “Todd & The Book of Pure Evil.”