I caught it tonight, and loved it. I’m not familiar with the primary writers of the series (other than Fred Armisen as the co-writer of the premiere). But, I’m inclined to see what I can find from Julio Torres and/or Ana Fabrega after seeing the first episode. It had the perfect mix of creepy/surreal, a bit of strangeness and mysticism, man-vs-man pathos, and straight up humor. I believed and liked even the most outlandish and manipulative characters.
It’s primary language is Spanish, and even the English portions are subtitled in Spanish. That makes it even greater in my opinion, since it includes a pretty captivating Spanish lesson.
So, did you see it? What’d you think? I’m not holding you to withholding spoilers after my post, so feel free.
I really enjoyed the first episode. The dry yet surreal humor is pretty much calibrated exactly to be the sort of thing I enjoy. Stylish presentation too, and I love the music choices. I’ll be watching as they are released.
I’ve always enjoyed an intentionally overly telegraphed joke (think the Stonehenge in Spinal Tap). The conversation about the “glossy lips” followed by seeing that character made me laugh out loud. The pool guy coming out completely dry was also great.
In a way it felt like it was drawing from (parodying? paying homage to?) a type of entertainment I’m not familiar with, but it still worked well without knowing that context. It felt educational in that respect.
I really like this show! The humor and general vibe are really clicking with me, and it’s beautifully shot. I can tell I’m going to be sad when it’s over!
I’m also enjoying picking up new Spanish vocabulary words (chamba = gig!) in a casual and more Latin American context, since my high school Spanish classes were largely focussed on European-style Spanish.
Speaking of Spanish vocabulary, if anyone speaks Spanish in this thread there’s a specific question I had about the business card Renaldo handed out.
The card says
LOS ESPOOKYS
NO SOMOS CASAFANTASMAS . . . ES DIFERENTE
Casafantasmas doesn’t seem to be spelled correctly; the first s should be a z: cazafantasmas, which means ‘ghost hunters.’ Los Cazafantasmas is the title of Ghostbusters in Spanish language releases, and in fact the subtitles in the show translate the card as
LOS ESPOOKYS
WE’RE NOT GHOSTBUSTERS . . . IT’S DIFFERENT
So the card is (mistakenly?) using casa® (to marry) instead of caza® (to hunt).
Confusing cazar and casar is a common enough mistake for beginning students of Spanish, but it doesn’t seem like a mistake these writers would make. Could it be a production error by the props team? A pun (you could parse it as casa-fantasmas which could mean ‘haunted house’)? Could it imply that Renaldo didn’t get a good education? Something else?
We’re supposed to believe that Renaldo spelled it wrong, missed the typo when he picked up the card from the printer, or noticed the typo when he picked up the card from the printer but didn’t care enough to get it reprinted.
Could casafantasmas mean “haunted house/s”? What Los Espukys do isn’t ghost hunting. They’re not paranormal investigators. They use theatrical effects to set up fake hauntings … like in an amusement park haunted house.
Yes, I know that makes the slogan, “We’re not haunted houses … it’s different.” That might fly in English (“We’re more than just haunted houses.”), but I don’t know about Spanish.