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[skygiants]

Nobody told me about Los Espookys! I had to discover it completely by myself on the plane to Amsterdam! I'm a little affronted!

Anyway, I spent much of my recent sickbed time binging through the rest of Los Espookys (it's only six half-hour episodes so there's sadly little to binge) so let me tell you about Los Espookys, a surreal Spanish-language HBO comedy about a plucky troupe of Goths attempting to live their dream of creating fantastic horror special effects while occasionally being mildly inconvenienced by the actual supernatural.

Trailer:

"LOS ESPOOKYS Official Trailer (HD) Fred Armisen HBO" (Watch on YouTube)

The cast:

Renaldo, the heart of the team and token cheerful Goth, ever ready with a smile and a second backup plan when things go wrong! the team is his dream and he's sure they're a dream team. really wishes his mom would get off his back about dating; he's not interested in love, only horror!



Úrsula, the artist and also the pragmatist; has a dead-eyed stare and a dead-end job as a dental assistant and is going to make certain the team gets paid at the end of the day in something other than restaurant vouchers. a lesbian icon. Los Espookys knows what the people want.




Andrés, chocolate prince, the team's beautiful self-absorbed soul; all about the aesthetic; torn between his horror dreams and his family's pressure to marry his beautiful but mercenary boyfriend in order to unite their family's chocolate and cookie empires; seeking answers about his mysterious origins but, you know, kind of half-heartedly, there's a lot going on



And then there's Úrsula's sister Tati, token straight, token non-Goth, token ... normal is not the word I'm looking for here ... she experiences reality differently from everybody else, is all. she's not made for a nine-to-five.





It's about the power of imagination! The power of friendship! The power of a supernatural water demon who could the reveal dark secrets of your past but only if you make sure she has access to a high-quality download of The King's Speech, a wonderfully meticulous period drama starring Colin Firth!

Comments

[lirazel]

My show! I've been pressuring everyone on tumblr to watch it, but I haven't talked about it on dw much. It's so very, very weird and I love it so very, very much! I really did not anticipate loving all the characters so much. (Also I read Renaldo's "Horror is my only passion" scene as an ace coming out scene, and it's my favorite I've ever seen.)

[skygiants]

It's so fantastic! I love how the joke is never that they fail or the effects don't come off -- it's like the opposite of embarrassment squick humor, the humor is never at the expense of the Espookys, it all just comes straight from the incredibly weird turns of the plot. (I also read it that way FOR SURE, Renaldo is now my favorite ace character on television and I cherish him.)

[lirazel]

it's like the opposite of embarrassment squick humor, the humor is never at the expense of the Espookys, it all just comes straight from the incredibly weird turns of the plot.

I had not thought about it from that angle, but I think that's really insightful and probably one of the reasons I love the show. I can't stand embarrassment humor.

When I watched the first episodes I was immediately drawn to Ursula and Andres, but Renaldo grew on me so very much. What a sweetheart.

[skygiants]

In the first few episodes I kept bracing for the 'joke' to be that one of the effects doesn't come off -- like, Renaldo sends the fake head in the first episode and Gregoria is horrified, or Tati goes to keep up the sea monster illusion for the tourist town and messes everything up -- but instead the joke is that it always works! Gregoria loves the head! The town loves the ghost of Marilyn Monroe! And both of these things are actually funnier than if they failed -- so many sitcoms are based on the premise of people screwing things up, and Los Espookys just steps really gracefully beyond that. I agree, Renaldo might be my favorite at this point. What a genuine ray of horror sunshine!