Adult Horror-Comedy ‘Little Demon’ Struggles to Possess Its Audience in Lackluster Debut
With what I can only describe as The Omen meets Kramer vs. Kramer with the artistic stylings of Rick and Morty, Little Demon is the newest animated series in the FXX content catalog. Yet the premiere of the horror-comedy this last Thursday proved to be lackluster, riddled with poor attempts at humor and overall mediocrity that suppressed the few minutes of redemptive material that could have prompted a religious weekly returning.
Produced by Rick and Morty mind Dan Harmon, Little Demon follows pre-teen Chrissy Feinberg (Lucy DeVito), the daughter of single-mother and badass Wiccan demon slayer Laura Feinberg (Audrey Plaza) and Satan himself (Danny DeVito). After discovering she is the devil’s spawn, Chrissy must learn to navigate life between an overbearing witch mom and a demonic father planning for the end of days, all while surviving middle school in a new town. The premise alone should be a homerun hit for FXX and guarantee continual viewership, especially with the actual family affair of the show in father-daughter duo Danny and Lucy DeVito voicing the main characters and son Jake DeVito as an executive producer. However, Little Demon is as dead as hell itself, a taxidermied corpse disemboweled of its potential and stuffed with unnecessarily gratuitous humor and underwhelming adequacy.
Perhaps one of the sharpest nails in the sitcom’s coffin is its crude attempts at humor. Bathroom humor plagues the first two episodes of Little Demon, constantly talking about defecating (a guy gets hit in the face by his dog’s excrement as it floats upward to a portal created by Chrissy) or flatulence. In the show’s first few minutes, Laura notices her daughter is down and tries to feel her developing breasts in an attempt to name the problem. There’s even a scene with pointless full-frontal nudity as Laura, during a ritual, strips naked in front of her neighbor and shoves random objects up her vagina. The only “reasonable” usage of this type of humor comes from pre-teen Chrissy herself, particularly in the second episode, “Possession Obsession”. In it, the pre-teen antichrist learns possession from her devil dad and, throughout the episode, tends to use the phrase “pee pee poo poo” in the bodies she inhabits as a bit of embarrassing fun. Given that Chrissy is a seventh-grader, inappropriate humor from her makes sense. Even the over-repetitiveness of the joke is on par with a cringy middle schooler, but reality does not equate to humourous.
This does not mean the horror-comedy is devoid of laughter and is at its strongest in moments of absurdity. Notably, the Feinberg neighbor Darlene (Lennon Parham) is a source of many laughs from her rambling chatter, bringing a rather amusing juxtaposition to the supernatural around her as she rants about the mundane. The pilot episode “First Blood” has talkative Darlene gossiping to Laura about a fellow neighbor blaming a blackhole on her cheating husband, all while Laura is sacrificing a chicken for a ritual to return her daughter from the “metaphysical realm”. Even the constant mentioning of “Shayla Rosenblatt’s birthday after-party at the abandoned Taco Chateau on Concord Pike” earned some chuckles out of me, distinctly when lauded by Access Hollywood and the devil himself. Given the insane concept of the story itself, it’s no surprise Little Demon shines when it steers away from shock factor and leans into the absurdity built into the show’s foundations. Despite this, the horror-comedy cheapens itself and delves into middle-school humor.
Beyond the poor choice in the jokes, Little Demon struggles to possess viewers’ attention with its overall bland and uninspiring design. Despite the creative media of animation, the characters are anything but enjoyable to stare at for 30 minutes. Perhaps it’s to play into the absurdity of the antichrist in suburbia, but it does more to hinder the story than enhance it. Satan is primarily portrayed as a middle-aged dad with a receding hairline, which has its comedic moments. It’s quite an interesting way of illustrating how he tries to earn Chrissy’s trust and love through a seemingly ordinary facade. Yet, when the show attempts to lean into its horror elements and demonstrate Satan’s evil, conniving reality, Little Demon refuses to consider the devil’s danger or even give him a terrible Lovecraftian form. Similarly, there was a chance to show a physical change in antichrist Chrissy upon earning her demonic powers or at least create a frightening variation of her that is brought to light whenever utilizing her abilities (beyond just the pitch-black eyes she has). The most exciting design choices lie in the so-called “metaphysical realm” where Satan currently resides, reminiscent of a bad acid trip filled to the brim with creatures straight from Hellraiser.
Despite the downfalls of Little Demon, there is a possibility of the show sitting amongst adult animation royalty of the likes of Bojack Horseman. Satan is developing genuine concern and love for his daughter, Laura is trying to rebuild a fractured relationship with Chrissy after loathing her existence, and antichrist Chrissy is questioning if her satanic relation makes her inherently evil. There’s a chance that the FXX show could delve into the deepest parts of the human (and inhumane) psyche as these characters learn to navigate their new lives. Let’s hope Little Demon has the guts to be more than average.
