Gnomes, on CBC Gem

In the late 1970s, gnomes were bizarrely popular, thanks Will Huygen & Rien Poortvliet’s bestselling hardcover “field guide” gift book. A lot of people put gnomes in their gardens and forgot about them. Then, in the early 1990s, Leprechauns captured horror fans’ interest with a series of increasingly cheesy movies, over shadowing the gnomes. Those gnomes will kill for more attention in creator Joel Kohn’s six-part Gnomes, which premieres today on CBC Gem.

The Australian town of Nompton is only really known for its Gnome Festival, but for various neurotic reasons, police Sgt. Arnold Kipps is reluctant to leave. This year, Mayor Lachlan Morrison pulled out all the stops for Gnome Fest, borrowing a statue of the infamous Gnome Queen from a German museum, at considerable “unbudgeted” expense to the town. That would be the same Gnome Queen seen in the prologue, when desperate National Socialists officers tried to rouse her, to harness her power. They painfully failed at the latter, after successfully reviving her. Fortunately, her near dead caretaker managed to recast the containment spell, turning her back to stone.

Super awkwardly, Kipps inadvertently re-awakens the Queen after a rare night of drinking. It is hard to blame the guy. His ex, Ellie McKay, came back to Nompton with her obnoxiously woke boss, Superintendent Harvey Poll, to fire everyone and close the town’s station. He also still misses McKay, because she really was the one. Frankly, her departure is probably why his blood has the right purity to revive the Gnome Queen, if you follow.

The Queen immediately runs amok, turning the towns garden gnomes into her private army of little red capped maniacs. However, she will not regain her full strength until she wields her magic battle axe, which Kipps misplaced during his drunken wanderings.

Gnomes is a briskly amusing horror comedy that takes more inspiration from Gremlins than the Leprechaun franchise, which most fans will agree is a good thing. Asa Butterfield and Megan Smart have appealing chemistry as Kipps and McKay, while Brett Tucker is hilariously cringy as Poll. Plus, Oliver Edis. Leigh Lule, George Rayias, and Mila Hourmouzis evoke the right sort of Goonies/The Gate vibes as the slightly delinquent and/or dysfunctional neighborhood kids who end up helping Kipps.

Of course, the various gnomes are absolutely deranged, in diverse but consistently entertaining ways. In terms of tone, Gnomes is a lot like Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, but it skews somewhat younger. Viewers who can handle Gremlins should be comfortable with Gnomes. To its credit, it also expresses a healthy disdain for politicians and journalists. The breakneck pacing of the half-hour episodes also make it a lightning-quick binge. Highly recommended, it starts streaming today (12/23) in Canada on CBC Gem.