"Los Espookys": Who You Gonna Call?

I've been posting about a lot of disappointing tv series -- gay teases that don't follow through, gushing praise that masks endless boy-girl kissing.  It's high time we get to a series that it's actually good -- interesting, humorous, gay inclusive -- Los Espookys (well, that title could use a little work).

In an unspecified Latin American country, one of those magic-realism places where weird things happen so often that they're normal, Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco) creates a horror-themed quinceañera for his little sister.  It is so impressive that his Uncle Tico (Fred Armisen), the world's greatest car parker (he can even park two cars at the same time), suggests that he make a career out of creating horror-themed events.

Renaldo conscripts his best friend, the weird blue haired Andrés (Saturday Night Live writer and Great North boyfriend Julio Torres), into the business.

Andrés is the heir to a chocolate empire, immensely wealthy and powerful (what if they started making sugar-free chocolate? every dentist in the country would be unemployed).

His parents and his bulging swimsuit-clad trophy boyfriend (telenovela star José Pablo Minor, top photo) disapprove of his interest in horror, but he agrees to participate.   

By the way, it's not a subtext: they are a canonical gay couple.

Next they conscript their friend Úrsula (Cassandra Ciangherotti), a Goth dentist's assistant; and her delightfully obtuse sister Tati (Ana Fabrega), who has a variety of odd jobs, like running a hand-cranked fan or breaking in people's shoes. (Welcome to the new economy)

They expect to plan horror-themed parties, but for their first gig, Father Francesco (Luis Grieco), the priest at the local orphanage, complains that his new, hot, hip associate Padre Antonio (Cristobal Tapia Montt), is stealing all the glory...of running an orphanage?  He wants to conduct an exorcism to get back into the spotlight.  So Los Espookys create an exorcism for him.

Next up: a millionaire's dying wish is to give his fortune to whoever can spend the night in a haunted house.  Los Espokys are hired to create the house, and ensure that the millionaire's son does not win.

They have found their niche, creating fake paranormal events: a sea monster for a seaside town to use as a tourist attraction; an alien autopsy for a UFO researcher to show her bosses; a magic mirror for "the American ambassador"; a fake dream for an insomniac.

Along the way they have the usual daily hassles of magic-realism life.

1. Andrés is pressured by his family to marry his trophy boyfriend (so his cookie empire can be combined with their chocolate empire).

2. Renaldo is pressured by his mother to get a girlfriend or boyfriend, even though he has explained that he only wants friends.  He's openly asexual!

3. Ursula, who is a lesbian, has any number of hookups.

4. Tati keeps expecting the guys she meets on dating apps to look like their photo.  So the quirky, odd comic-relief is heterosexual.  

Only 6 episodes, but fortunately Season 2 is already in the works.

My grade: A+

Netflix wants you to think that "AKA" is a queer romance

 

Aka (or AKA, "also known as?), a 2023 action-adventure movie, has an  icon on Netflix that looks like two guys about to kiss and a potentially gay blurb: "A steely special ops agent (Alban Lenoir) finds his morality put to the test when he infiltrates a crime syndicate and unexpectedly bonds with the boss's young son."  

How young?  Early 20s?  A queer mafia romance?

The Netflix trailer begins with Aka (actually named Adam) shoving his hand down his pants, an action guaranteed to draw the interest of gay men.

Then he interacts multiple times with a blond young man in a baseball cap: they hack into a computer, and then drive off in a car together.  The boss's young son?  

No women are shown in the trailer.  It's all about Aka/Adam and the blond guy.

But the trailer on IMDB shows a lot of fighting and explosions, the standard scene in a naked-lady club, Adam cuddling with, comforting, and preparing to kiss a red-haired lady, and Adam bonding with a little boy.  The blond guy is absent.  It looks like a completely different movie.

IMDB doesn't have photos of most of the cast, so I googled images of everyone, looking for the blond guy in the baseball cap. The male cast members are mostly black; not a blond among them.  But 4th billed Natalya (Sveva Alvit)  has blond or red hair.

 

A blow-up of the Netflix trailer reveals that the blond person might be a woman dressed as a man.   So the Netflix trailer drew the shot of Adam shoving his hand down his pants, to imply that there are penises.  Then it drew two scenes where Natalya is disguised as a man and omitted redhead-lady scenes, to imply that Adam is involved in a gay romance. Why?  Surely not to entice gay men and fangirls to press "play."

Or maybe that's exactly what Netflix has in mind.  Look how they advertise Boss Baby.