As it seeks to preserve its prestige with the next “Game of Thrones” or “Succession,” HBO will occasionally provide the most valuable service of investing money in what might best be called an artistic project: John Lurie’s “Painting With John,” the film Terence Nance. “Random Acts of Flyness”, “The Rehearsal” by Nathan Fielder.
Martine Gutiérrez plays Vanesja, Julio's partner in “Fantasmas.”
(Atsushi Nishijima/HBO)
The network's latest crazy bet, premiering Friday at 11 p.m. Pacific Time (also airing on Max), is Julio Torres' “Fantasmas” (the last one was “Los Espookys,” co-created with Fred Armisen and Ana Fábrega , canceled after two seasons). an absurdist queer comedy presented as Luis Buñuel by way of Gregg Araki. Written, directed, and starring Torres, it's a sweet work of loving weirdness that feels both abstract and personal. “Food Party” by Thu Tran, “The Midnight Gospel” by Duncan Trussell and Pen Ward, “Joe Pera Talks With You,” “At Home With Amy Sedaris” (featured here), and “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” works for me ”. ” – shows that may not all air for years, but shine brightly while they do. I can't give higher praise.
Torres, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer and performer who also wrote, directed and starred in the 2023 film “Problemista,” stars here as a version of himself, that is, a writer and actor who makes or tries to make a living in show business, which presents him with mostly bad decisions. (His own ideas for it – a remake of “The Lion King” from a zebra's point of view, a remake of the Tooth Fairy as an addiction story – aren't particularly promising.)
His most important work, however, is that of “a Julio… I wake up and I am a kind of Julio.” (This includes consulting with Crayola about a clear crayon he would call… Ghosts.) He is in his mid-30s, but looks decidedly young; His air is expressionless, confused and often frustrated. He sometimes feels inspired to make a bad decision, but, like the silent comedians of yesteryear, the universe will manage to save him.
There are running lines in the series involving the loss and search for an earring; the need to find a new place to live; and Julio's concern about a birthmark that he insists on calling a mole. (Torres is a melanoma survivor.) There's his attempt to acquire “proof of existence” (he can't rent an apartment or ride the subway without it) that he refuses to request. He investigates a service that promises to make him incorporeal, to “get rid of the burden of having a body,” I guess because of that “mole.”
He is helped or hindered in these activities by his femme fatale, his multitasking agent Vanesja (Martine Gutiérrez) and his robot assistant Bibo (voiced by Joe Rumrill), who will eventually conceive the desire to act. (Bibo asks Julio for a raise to pay for acting lessons, headshots “and a membership at Soho House to socialize with industry experts.”) These arcs meander in and around a variety of tangential or unrelated short stories; “sketches” would not work for them. justice, which could make their way into other stories in the future. Some are horror stories, others have a film noir tinge. Some are framed as television shows. Some move strangely. Several will meet at the end, quite beautifully.
There are dreams, but they are not essentially different from the rest of what we see. Sets are merely suggestions for sets. The projections, intended to look like projections, provide the backdrop for street scenes and subway platforms.
Bowen Yang as an elf who sues Santa Claus in “Ghosts.”
(Monica Lek / HBO)
Along the way, we meet Bowen Yang as an elf who sues Santa Claus for wages, presented as a “Court TV” broadcast; Aidy Bryant launching bathroom dresses; a nightclub for gay hamsters, “where they could come in, dance, misbehave, and forget about the tedious, endless loop of their exercise wheel,” and also a CVS for hamsters; sirens answering a call center; a small blue Smurf-like figure who becomes Julio's inept social media director; an abusive executive goldfish; and Paul Dano in a sexualized parody of “ALF.”
Emma Stone (executive producer), Rachel Dratch, Cole Escola and Rosie Perez appear as “The Real Women of New York,” a parody of “Real Housewives.” Kate Berlant plays an actress playing a theme park version of a bisexual superhero (“I went to Juilliard,” we hear her think), who becomes involved with a fan whose life the character changed (Spike Einbinder, Hannah's brother). Steve Buscemi embodies the letter Q, too edgy for its place in the alphabet (it should be with W, X, Y and Z, not between P and R) and angry about it.
“There is no market for weird,” says Q. But judging by the very existence of “Ghosts,” there is.
