Overview: Gary is a demon, serving under the forces of Satan, who tasks him with corrupting the living and taking their souls. The only problem is, Gary is a massive idiot, and his fellow demon compatriots aren’t much better. Gary’s schemes rarely succeed and he gets abused and tortured constantly, not that that ever keeps him down. Our Take: Adult Swim really seems to be nailing their short-form web content lately. Though this is an 8 episode season, each episode is only around 3-4 minutes, so you can watch the whole thing in less than half an hour. This brisk pace is absolutely a massive benefit to the show. There is zero wasted time here, it’s just rapid-fire jokes nonstop, and it’s hella funny. There’s no ongoing story or any sense of continuity here, not that it needs it. There’s even an amazing joke they make about the show’s lack of continuity that caught me off guard. I thought Aqua Donk Side Pieces were absolutely hilarious, and it is very nice to see them revisit this concept with another of their top series. I would be very interested to see what other series could get the webisode treatment.I like Gary as a protagonist. He’s a self-motivated guy who wants to succeed, but he’s too slow and too damn stupid to do anything right. He has that classic “sitcom dad” energy, even though he doesn’t have any kids. I think he’s a perfect fit for this type of show. He’s very nice for a demon, a feeling made especially true with Henry Zebrowski’s wonderful vocal performance. He makes Gary come off as the most wholesome and nerdy guy in the universe. You want to see Gary win, but you always laugh when he inevitably loses.Unlike most depictions of hell, it’s a gargantuan office, with all of Satan’s minions clad in khakis and polo shits. While this does mean that the demons often look very similar to one another, it’s a unique premise that they often take to some interesting places. Some of the episodes are framed as training exercises or workplace bets, and though exaggerated, feel very believable. I like this idea of taking something horrific and making it mundane. I personally think hell would be more like this, because who doesn’t hate giant stuffy bureaucracies?The art style fits Williams Street’s unique brand of ugliness well. The execution is well done for what it is, the characters are well animated, the backgrounds are very imaginative, and there are some other creative flourishes that I really liked, like a lot of the show’s visual gags. That and the fact that nearly every episode features a giant magma-pissing statue prominently in the background. It’s a very striking image, simultaneously comical and menacing, one that perfectly fits the sort of vibe this series is going for.If you’re squeamish when it comes to gore, then I can tell you right away that this show is something you should avoid like the plague. Massive amounts of gore appear in nearly every episode, and the main characters die repeatedly and in very creative ways. One episode had all of the demons learning their own Mortal Kombat style finishing moves, and boy howdy were they amazing. I’m not the most familiar with Mortal Kombat, but I can safely say that these are a bit excessive even by Netherrealm’s incredibly high standards. The episodes in general tend to follow some absurd concepts that make great use of our character’s abilities. Probably my favorite episode of the set focuses on a demon who made a large bet on a football game, so he decides to go to earth and possess one of the players to ensure that he wins, only to discover that every other player on his team is also possessed by a demon, and the demons are forcing them to lose and also do incredibly embarrassing things like pull their pants down. So it’s up to him and Gary to save the day and help him win that bet. It’s a wild idea and the ending is equally hilariousThe only concept that I thought didn’t work was this series trying to do an extended Thundercats parody. It’s the only two-parter episode in the set, and while I appreciate the concept and the sex positivity that comes from it, it feels overdone and it has a plot twist that, while funny, kinda deflates the whole thing. It would have been much better squeezed down into one part, especially if they axed part 2, which dives into some incredibly basic humor at the expense of Social Justice Warriors that I was not a huge fan of.Voice acting is very solid. As with Aqua Teen Hunger Force, also co-created by Dave Willis, voice of Master Shake, Dave voices one of the show’s major characters, and he’s always a fun guy to be around no matter what he’s in. I like Satan as well, her perfectly conveys the sense of annoyance that one would have when their underlings repeatedly fail them.“Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell: The Cartoon” is another massive win for Adult Swim. It’s gross and disgusting and absolutely hilarious. If you at all love any of Adult Swim’s other shows, you owe it to yourself to take a trip to their youtube channel and watch this series right now. It may be short, but I think I don’t really want more. I think it’s great as is. It’s so short you can watch the whole thing in a lunch break. It’s so short you can probably watch it on your daily commute. It’s so short that you can probably watch it in the time it took you to read this review of it. And you should. Because it’s awesome.
