You Should Be Watching YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL

You Should Be Watching YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL

By Chris La Vigna (@Chris_LaVigna)

Slacker demon Gary Bunda (Henry Zebrowski) and his co-worker Ben (Ben Bladon) are doin' a Party Hole thang. You wouldn't understand.

Life is Hell, right? That’s a sentiment we can all generally get behind, especially when it comes to our jobs, which seem to consume the majority of our existence on Earth. Well, what if the afterlife proved to be just as monotonous, mind-numbing, and (literally) soul crushing as your office job, with all those co-workers you hate and that supervisor that pisses all over you? That’s the premise of the Adult Swim show YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL, a workplace comedy about demons working in the pits of Hades, taking Satan’s orders to get more souls. The show wrapped its fourth season in early 2019, and in the interest of promoting it to get it some more eyeballs and possibly help secure a fifth season, allow me to dive into all the reasons this show rules and why you should be watching it, if you don’t already.

First off, let’s focus on the solid cast YOUR PRETTY FACE is working with. Henry Zebrowski, best known for being one third of the hosting power of the popular true crime/paranormal podcast LAST PODCAST ON THE LEFT, stars as Gary Bunda, a low-level demon who hates his job of torturing damned souls, and does his best to skate by doing as little as possible. Zebrowski plays Gary with endearing levels of manic energy and aloofness, the perfect spastic everyman to take the viewer through the myriad horrors and annoyances of literally working for The Devil. 

Satan (Matt Servitto) is not here for your bullshit. You're here for his.

Speaking of which, Satan himself is played by Matt Servitto, perhaps best known for playing the role of Agent Harris in THE SOPRANOS. Servitto balances his performance by playing Satan with the cold, calculating menace of a sadistic psychopath, while also displaying the same kind of detached condescension you’ll recall from every bored manager you’ve dealt with. The cast also features comedians like Eddie Pepitone, essentially playing a dirtier and literally more tortured version of himself, and respected Adult Swim alum like Dana Snyder (aka Master Shake from AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE) as Lucas, a former Big Tobacco lawyer.  

Then there’s Claude (Craig Rowin), Gary’s former intern-turned-smug-rival, who never fails to be a thorn in Gary's side. Every member of the supporting cast plays their absurd role completely straight, taking on the endless supernatural abuse with a hapless ennui to underscore just how much they are over this whole “eternal damnation” thing. The shock of being surrounded by flames and lakes of human excrement have worn off, and now it’s just a matter of doing whatever soul-stealing task you’ve been assigned to, so the boss goes a little easier on you when he cuts your arms and legs off.

The show’s visuals deserve some hefty praise too. It’s no secret that most Adult Swim shows work with limited budgets, but YOUR PRETTY FACE makes maximum use of what it’s got by utilizing a blend of VFX and practical. Among all the dull cubicles there’s always a blood red sky hovering overhead, with rivers of lava flanking the caverns and desolate fields where unholy monsters, like the Laughing Rape Spider (not sure if that’s the thing’s exact name, but that is what it does!) dwell. They manage to make the viewer feel that the Hell we’re being presented with is a (sur)real space, like “a Bosch painting on acid,” to paraphrase Servitto in a recent PBS interview.

All that hellfire, and they still manage to crank up the A/C too high...

Practical effects fans will have plenty to love here as well, from the awesome makeup jobs that have all the demons looking like completely professional monsters with their bright red skin and lopsided horns, to the brutal gore effects that give us everything from exploding heads and people skinned alive, to Hitler clones with too many arms, and hands with burnt penises for fingers.

But most importantly: This show is just plain hilarious. The plots of most of these episodes sounds like something cooked up in a teenage metalhead’s fever dream: What happens when an alien dies and gets sent to Hell? What’s the protocol on inter-office romance (between a demon a TV ghost girl)? What if Satan found out a metal band he rolled with in the 80s actually thought he was a loser? What happens when all the aborted fetuses in Hell get guns?! If any of those preceding sentences made you laugh and say “That sounds fucking sick”, then this show is for you. Each idea gets taken to the most insane conclusion possible, with the kind of deceptively-clever-yet-still-lowbrow humor that’ll resonate with you and the friends you invite over to watch it while going through some beers.

There's a special place in Hell for people who don't let the sound department get room tone...

While the show doesn’t traffic too heavily in any kind of long-term continuity— after all, it was created by Dave Willis of AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE and Casper Kelly, who gave us TOO MANY COOKS, both works of art not known for worrying about making sense—those who venture to watch the whole series to date will note some gradual changes. Gary, for example, starts off as being hell-bent (pun intended) on escaping the Inferno, but in the later seasons, he becomes more of a team player, more willing to band together with his co-workers and actually do some mischievous stuff in order to get some fresh souls. He still gets shit on (both figuratively and literally), but in a way it’s heartening to see Gary decide to embrace being a demon. Servitto has also given his portrayal of Satan more depth over time, allowing him to come off more insecure, more nakedly desperate to be feared and respected. 

We also get deeper back story for the supporting demons, like Troy’s aforementioned occupation, the fact that Benji (Dan Triandiflou) was a pedophile/serial killer/TV weatherman, and even some shocking truths about Satan himself. YOUR PRETTY FACE is the kind of show that pays dividends with repeated viewings. I should know, I’m pretty sure I’ve watched the whole damn thing three times over now.

YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL is the kind of blasphemous, irreverent comedy that we need more of. If any of this long, rambling editorial has convinced you to give it a shot, you can check it out at Adult Swim’s website, where they have an entire channel on their streams dedicated to it. Watch it here, and tell them Gary sent you. He really needs to up his numbers on those stolen souls.