I’ve been stumping hard for Adult Swim’s “Infomercials,” the 4am slot in their programming designed to frighten and confuse insomniac stoners with 10-minute, one-off shows meant to blend in with real infomercials. Too Many Cooks came out of this block, but there have been some other great entries, like Tom Scharpling’s Newbridge Tourism Board Presents: We’re Comin’ To Get Ya! or Smart Pipe, an infomercial for a product that tracks the amount of niacin in your system and maps the contours of your anus for social media purposes.
Now we have Unedited Footage of a Bear, which—as you may have guessed—is far more insidious than its title suggests. What I like most about this is that it’s not even remotely funny. It’s satire, for sure, but unlike Cooks—which also smeared the line between comedy and horror—this is purely frightening. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Adult Swim is putting up some of the boldest, most interesting programming of any network (and we’re in a golden age of TV, even). And for those of us in the throes of a nicotine-like fit over not being able to see the Black Mirror Christmas special, this is a bummed cigarette to tide you over.