Review: The High Life “Wizard of Weed”;“Genie in the Bong”;“Bull in a Bong Shop”

Overview (Spoilers):

“Wizard of Weed”

The premiere episode of Supatoonz new animated series features full-time pothead, Stevie Stoner. Accomplishing anything for burnout is impossible even tasks as simple as getting groceries and making it to his job as a DJ. Most of his time is spent daydreaming about things like a cannabis-themed parody of Wizard of Oz.

“Genie in a Bong”

Despite being arrested for allowing his drum-playing, talking dog drive, Stevie makes it to open mic night with the band, Supatoonz. After the show, Stevie is gifted a magical bong which releases genie Bud Gnarly.

The magic manifests into the Supatoonz landing a powerful new manager.

“Bull in a Bong Shop”

New band manager, Sir Robert Hansen, scores the Supatoonz some fresh exposure in the form of a photoshop at the Glass Emporium. Things end up more destructive than expected. Their national television premiere doesn’t go much better after they are dismissed by the judges of America’s Got Jamz.

Our Take:

Ralph Michael Brekan is an accomplished actor landing gigs in everything from Westworld to Baskets. He is also more famous as an artist with fine art pieces being exhibited in all corners of the globe. Somewhere in his deep creative mind, Brekan has also found the time to become an animator,

The High Life is the artist’s second attempt at creating an animated series after a moderately successful YouTube run. He is hoping to find a larger audience with a new collaboration with Social Club TV, a streaming network devoted to cannabis-related content.

The show features Brekan not only responsible for most of the behind-the-scenes manufacturing but also starring as Stevie Stoner. An incompetent burn-out who manages to make his way through life by dumb luck. Having a responsible girlfriend and a talking, drum-playing, car-driving dog doesn’t hurt either.

Unfortunately, Stevie Stoner does not make for much of an interesting star character. Despite being a radio DJ and being the lead singer for a reggae band, Stoner cannot uphold a dialogue without referencing marijuana at least twice per sentence. Smoking weed is not a personality trait, but that seems to be all that he is about. Which would be fine were it not for the misplaced stereotypes about cannabis smokers that are outdated and downright insulting.

If anything, this show seems as if it were created by someone who had never been around a joint before trying to entertain a group of friends he knows smoked pot once.

For appearing on a streaming channel that supplies insightful content on cooking, growing, and destroying stereotypes about cannabis, The High Life almost retracts from what they are accomplishing. Stoner-comedy has long moved past the disparaging ideas that someone who smokes a lot of weed has lost all their brain cells.

The only thing The High Life accurately depicts about modern cannabis culture is that the police only target the black characters in their ‘drug sting’ operation. Which, if not done intentionally, is even more damaging.

Stevie Stoner and The High Life could most closely be compared to classic Beavis and Butt-Head. Incompetent characters that want nothing out of life except for what comes to mind at the moment. This happenstance storytelling worked for the hit 90s sitcom because of hilarious miscommunications and the fact that Beavis and Butt-Head truly loved to get under people’s skin. Where Stevie Stoner’s excuse for everything is that he got high. The joke runs thin fast.

We don’t need to get into the more technical issues with the show like the inconsistent voice recordings and lazily done backgrounds. To be fair, this show is likely operating on less money than it costs to buy a nights worth of weed.

And not everything is negative about the show. Although it did not seem like it within the first couple of episodes, a whiff of a plot has begun to form in the series. Additionally, the reggae jams are a great feature, and it would be nice to hear more than the two songs repeated. There is even potential that this show would be humorous to viewers that know nothing about cannabis. Perhaps your grandpa with dementia?

There has been a rise in low-budget animation recently, thanks to the influx of streaming websites across the internet. A surprising number of them will impress you with clever writing or impactful humour.

Unfortunately, The High Life has nothing to offer anyone looking for entertainment. If we were still in the ‘War on Drugs’ and trying to scare our children into never smoking pot, showing them these three ten-minute episodes could be a useful tactic.

You can catch The High Life on Social Club TV available through Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Roku, and more.