HeBGB TV review.
You’ve never seen anything quite like HeBGB TV. A non-stop ride of wildly creative concepts.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
HeBGB TV
Directed by Eric Griffin, Adam Lenhart and Jake Mcclellan
Written by Eric Griffin, Adam Lenhart and Jake Mcclellan
Starring Knucklehead, Willow Reiner, Van Reiner, Curtis Proctor-Artz, Andrew Bowser, Zenobia Decoteau and Josh Dorsheimer
HeBGB TV Review
Usually, we cover anthology films in a very specific way. We like to rank the segments within the movie from worst to first. That’s not going to be possible this time around. HeBGB TV is not your usual anthology film. It’s better described as an avalanche of like-minded ideas thrown at the screen from every direction. Sometimes…a brief commercial. Sometimes a short look into an episode of a television show. One time…a lengthy story viewed through the HeBGB TV on demond library. That isn’t a misspelling of demand. This is one weird movie.
Despite its unique way of delivering segments of varying length… HeBGB TV does stick to the tried-and-true framing story to explain what it is we’re watching. This is one of the better efforts at a wraparound story…if only because it is so integral to the movie. Without it, what little grasp we have on what is happening would be stripped away. Basically, a new cable box has hit the shelves, and it is sweeping the nation. HeBGB TV, as it is called, just began appearing in stores. The corporations benefiting from their sales never bothered to ask where they came from. Profit is profit…no matter what it costs the customer.
The framing story concerns two children sitting in front of a television watching their new cable box. The Purple Guy appears to hook up the device and serve as a host of sorts. The bulk of the movie is seen through the eyes of people flipping through the channels on the cable system. We pull out of the TV world from time to time…almost always to transition seamlessly back into it. The one exception is the children. As the world becomes transfixed by HeBGB TV…the two kids remain strangely immune to its power. The Purple Guy is there to try and give them a push.
Describing what you’ll see on HeBGB TV is a bit of a lost cause. The best I can do is tell you it’s like watching someone’s fever dream. Weird moments flash by quickly…almost always worth a smile or a chuckle. It’s honestly one of the strangest yet more fully realized visions I’ve seen. There are too many highlights to single them out. It’s not just the content…the transitions between them and world building inside of the programs is top notch.
As for what that content contains…imagine…everything. HeBGB TV offers a full slate of programming. A new network (PU News) where a new anchor covers the arrival and popularity of the cable box. Commercials for everything from Frankenstein’s Monster hocking hot dogs (Frank’s Franks) to Gunther’s bleach and sulfuric acid…perfect for those hard to clean murder scenes. An ad for Smokie’s Pest Control appears to pull out to the real world…until the world itself becomes part of the advertisement. HeBGB TV plays fast and loose with narrative rules. You can’t take your eyes off it. You never know where it will go next.
The snippets of TV episodes we see in HeBGB TV carry on the boundless creativity of the faux ads. From a Home Shopping Network riff with a talking pumpkin named Squash to a comedy channel showing performances from Boner’s Comedy Basement…there’s fun to be had everywhere. A phone sex operator known as Monster Girl takes calls from characters we’ve met in our watch-along before the whole thing turns into an emotional documentary style character study. An episode of a house makeover show shows us how to remodel a murder room.
It gets stranger. At one point we follow a piece of discarded candy corn to the bottom of a trick or treat bag. There, it joins a barbershop quartet of fellow cand corn singing about the plight of unwanted candy. There is a dance music video break and a channel that simply throws or drops blood on people. It’s called The Blood Channel. As mentioned, we also get a look at one of the On Demond stories on the cable box. The one lengthy story presented about a man trying to lose weight. It feels odd to stick with anything for a while after watching HeBGB TV for so long…but the end of this short makes the whole enterprise worthwhile.
There are so many little things to discover in HeBGB TV. Every interstitial moment has had a lot of thought and care put into it. A slew of clever commercials surrounds an endlessly creative set of narrative twists and turns…both inside of the programming and out. I can honestly say I’ve never had an experience with a movie like I had with HeBGB TV. It’s an endlessly joyful experience that continually presents moments you can’t see coming. Destined to become a spooky season staple.
Scare Value
HeBGB TV is a wild cavalcade of ideas. The creativity on display from brief commercials to longer segments is non-stop. Absurd, funny…and a perfect spooky season watch. It feels like you are flipping channels through someone’s fever dream. From segments that last seconds to one purposely longer story…HeBGB TV never loses its tone. Pure fun from start to finish.
4/5
HeBGB TV Link
Streaming on Screambox October 13
