Every now and then you’ll come across a show that defies explanation in all the right ways.
Meet “Bullet in the Face.”
The six-episode IFC series, airing over two nights next Thursday and Friday, springs from the fertile comic mind of Alan Spencer, best known to TV fanatics as the creator of “Sledge Hammer!,” his envelope-pushing “Dirty Harry” spoof which aired for two seasons on ABC (1986-88).
But if the cartoonish violence in “Sledge Hammer!” kept ABC censors awake at night, Spencer revels in the fact that “Bullet in the Face” — parts of which would make Sam Peckinpah blush — will air on IFC.
“There’s a point to the mayhem and . . . IFC allowed me a lot of freedom,” says Spencer, who wrote all six episodes. “They’re an iconoclastic network and I don’t have the pressure of [the broadcast] networks.
“Our target demo is 18-40-year-old sociopaths — and I’m including women in that group, too.”
The easiest way to explain the premise of “Bullet in the Face” is that gleefully evil psycho-killer Gunter Vogler (Max Williams) undergoes a lifesaving face transplant after having his face shot off during a jewelry store heist he and his pregnant girlfriend, Martine (Kate Kelton), undertook for one of two warring, big-city crime syndicates.
When Gunter awakens, he discovers that he’s now sporting the face of the cop he just killed — and is being paired with the dead cop’s weepy, dim-bulb partner, Hagerman (Neil Napier) and tasked with joining the cops to catch the bad guys.
“I think it’s rooted in Euro-thrillers, and graphic novels are probably an influence,” Spencer says in describing the show. “One of my favorite shows is ‘The Prisoner,’ which had a limited number of episodes but continues to fascinate and be ambiguous and mysterious.
“I was thinking a bit of that [with ‘Bullet in the Face’],” he says. “Maybe I’d describe it as ‘The Prisoner’ meets ‘The Princess Diaries’ meets ‘The Wild Bunch.’ ”
In addition to Williams, Napier and Kelton, “Bullet in the Face” also boasts a strong supporting cast: Eddie Izzard and Eric Roberts, who play competing crime bosses Tannhauser and Racken.
“Eddie responded to the material . . . he’s interested in serious, dramatic roles but he gave me more comedy in this than I ever imagined,” Spencer says.
“The character of Racken I wrote specifically for Eric Roberts, who’s wonderful and a lot of fun. I was thrilled when he said yes.”