by Jason Lees, MoreHorror.com

FEARnet’s brand new “Twisted Comedy” block, comprising of TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL (Jason Mewes) and PSYCHOVILLE (Dawn French), premieres next week.

FEARnet was kind enough to give us a sneak peak at the series as well as an EXCLUSIVE clip to share with everyone in celebration of the August 2nd debut. You can check out the EXCLUSIVE clip, as well as trailers from both shows under the reviews below. Enjoy!

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil Review:

I kept reading this title and always got it confused it with “Tucker and Dale VS Evil” and I have to admit, that’s a pretty stupid mistake. That’d be a shame to miss out on this fun little Canadian TV series coming to FEARnet next week. What we have here is basically a “sitcommish” take on “Idle Hands” with a little bit more emphasis placed on setting up the bizarre world of high school.

The series opens with Todd trying to win the heart (and rack) of the hot girl in school, but the only way he can do that is to follow his head banging elders’ lead and seek out the Book of Pure Evil. Obvious, right? The book turns him into a heavy metal god and changes his whole life. For about ten minutes. Then we’re off on the next adventure so it seems.

Yea, “Todd…” is definitely a high concept series which will follow our leads as they hunt down that damn evil book, but it’s not a very serious quest. I miss the days when I really dug dick and fart jokes. Sadly, that’s kind of behind me, but “Todd…” had me laughing out loud more than a few times at some well stated phallicly flatulent inspired wordplay. And it’s hard to not like a show that doesn’t pull its punches when one character threatens to make another bleed out of his ass. No, we’re not talking about AMC’s next high octane human drama. We’re talking about 22 minutes of pure absurdist humor set in a world where thirty year olds pass for teenagers. Ahem, Canadian teenagers.

Psychoville Review:

Quirky. Odd. Offensive. Confusing. Just plain weird. BBC’s half hour comedy “Psychoville” is coming to the states via FEARnet, and it’s not exactly what you’d expect. From the ads I’ve spotted, it looked like a cross between Stephen King’s IT and Bob Goldthwait’s “Shakes the Clown,” but after watching the pilot episode, I have to say it is its own beast.

The promos push the character of Mr. Jelly as he’s the one with the most visual flair, a drunken angry clown whose inappropriate behavior at children’s parties provides the laughs, but there’s a lot more going on here. The series begins with a hidden figure mailing out mysterious and threatening letters to seeming strangers. We follow the letters to each of the principles and slowly realize that the clown is the least of the odd. We have a nurse who believes her dolly is alive, a mother/son team who are REALLY into serial killers, a former dwarf porn star trying to go legit, and a blind shut in with the world’s largest collection of… something.

Yea, it’s a weird mix, but unlike a lot of series that try too hard to catch your attention with their opening few minutes, “Psychoville” presents itself in a very ‘take it or leave’ way. Some series are almost begging you to tune in, while this one seems to say that if you don’t, go to hell. Somebody else will watch.
It’s fun stuff, if you plan to keep watching the series, and with most BBC shows, it won’t be a long run. They like to keep their season short and sweet and get they tend to get to the point really fast. I’m looking forward to seeing where this one goes, if only to find out just what those letters mean. I know it’s a cheap ploy to get me to keep watching, but it works.

Just be careful, like a lot of British genre fair, it’s highly quotable and the accents tend to be damn infectious, so don’t be surprised when you keep saying ‘bollocks’ for days after watching it, but it’s less annoying than continually quoting “Monty Python.”

But it all works. Now excuse me while I go adjust myself and fix what little hair I have left. I’m going back to high school. Care for a toke?

The following is an exclusive clip and still of PSYCHOVILLE’s Maureen Sowerbutts, played by Reece Shearsmith (fun fact: Shearsmith also plays Mr. Jelly).

Character description from official FEARnet website:

Maureen is David’s over-involved mother; she dresses him, feeds him and loves reading him his favorite book about serial killers. She also happens to believe David committed a murder in front of several others, and vows to not let him return to a mental institution. This sets her and David on a path to becoming the serial killers he’s always dreamed of being. There’s only one problem... that “murder” he committed was in reality just part of a murder-mystery dinner.

Exclusive clip of Maureen Sowerbutts

TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL Trailer

PSYCHOVILLE Trailer