Fantasmas

Fantasmas is a fantastically creative and theatrical little diamond – and more pensive than an initial sense of gimmick-reliance might suggest.

By the end of its run, Fantasmas establishes itself as a powerful rebuke to mid TV. This is long-form, sketch-like episodic television at its most inventive. With this wild ride of a show, Torres continues to prove he’s one of our most astute storytellers working today.

Torres has successfully forged a platform for his uncompromised, unfiltered voice. But between the lines, “Fantasmas” hints at how hard he’s had to fight to stay himself, even if his work suggests Torres couldn’t be anyone else if he tried.

If his other recent work has come with a noticeable melancholy amid the surrealism, Fantasmas offers pure, playful glee.

There are certain themes and stylistic motifs that Torres returns to again and again — Swinton plays a water spirit who lives in Julio’s commode(*), just as his Los Espookys character frequently sought answers from garishly-dressed spirits. But they work more often than not (the Santa trial is one of the few that lands almost entirely flat) because they’re so obviously specific to this creator-performer, and because they’re done with such imagination even when he’s returning to old ideas.

Where this could feel cloying in less dexterous hands, the way it is all wrapped up in a series that is never lacking flair or creativity makes it work.

In each episode we’re also taken inside the TV shows that Julio is watching, and these bits play out as little sketches, usually with capitalism and the workplace as a theme. Occasionally, these are funny. .... More often, though, the sketches aren’t funny even though they should be.

Os primeiros dois episódios são devastadores, devido ter um foco maior no Júlio e com poucos personagens. Quando a série começa a lotar de persongens secundários, perde muito da sua força, não exatamente pela inventividade e criatividade do roteiro, que é esperta do início ao fim, mas sim pela velocidade da edição, que nã dá tempopara a conexão necessária. Ainda assim diverte muito. É como estar dentro de uma mente ansiosa, acelerada, cheia de divagações. Júlio vai tentando sobreviver no meio da produção de conteúdo, tedo que lidar com relacionamentos, saúde e um mundo onde não há identidades fixas, cuja volatilidade é evidente e ameaçadora. As pegadas surrealistas funcionam, mesmo que a fotografia escura canse. É preciso ser esperto: muitas ironias serão disparadas por minuto.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

These critics today can’t be trusted, this show is not that good, I can see some liking it or at least finding it entertaining, but not the majority of people and the ones liking it not more then a 6 or 7 Rating at most.

NOT FUNNY, WEIRD. WRONG FOR HBO TO SHOW THIS . YUCK Do not waste your time, I would rather look at boiling water..