I’m clearly not the audience for Bullet in the Face.In the abstract, I can see the humor (I did have a few big laughs, including one included in the trailer below)–and the cast is terrific, which makes the whole thing a bit more frustrating. But like its network partners Portlandia or The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, it feels more like something that should be enjoyable, rather than something enjoyable in and of itself.The show comes from Alan Spencer, also known for his work on the show Sledgehammer, and it’s a black comedy.Like, really black.The premise is that a serial killer in a dystopian city takes a bullet to the head which destroys his face but leaves him alive. In the gunfight that led to his disfigurement, though, he kills a police officer and three months later he comes out of his coma to discover that he’s been secretly kept alive and that the face of the officer he killed has been transplanted onto his skull.The killer, Gunter Vogler, is drafted into the service of the police, where he’s forced to pose as the cop he killed and use his knowledge of the underworld to help them bring a pair of dueling crime bosses to justice.The premise itself is promising, but in execution it’s just a bit too…zany?…for my taste. It doesn’t take itself as seriously as something like Man Bites Dog, but that’s the closest tonal comparison I can make. Part of what sold that film, though, is the fact that it was an absurd and shocking situation played straight. Bullet in the Face veers away from that from the word go. Everyone throughout the production is played as an insane person, and the performances are (intentionally) so over the top as to mimic soap opera, stage or silent film acting. Imagine the characters from Austin Powers superimposed over a world where there is death and blood and consequences, and one guy who has nervous breakdowns along the lines of Ray Wise from Twin Peaks.
