REVIEW: ‘Fantasmas’ Is A Surrealist Gem

Julio Torres’s (Problemista) imagination is immense and apparent in his latest series, Fantasmas. Created, directed, written by, and starring Torres, the six-episode series is somehow both stripped bare and heightened, indulging in high-concept mania. There’s a narrative undercurrent, but it’s slight, as the show is more engrossed with dream logic-fueled sketches that drift away from the main plot. With a tremendous group of guest stars, the series’ distinctive, disruptive tonality won’t be for everyone. Still, those aligned with Torres’ style of overtly stylized meanderings on life are in for a treat.

The plot itself for Fantasmas is hilariously to the point. Julio Torres (played by Julio Torres), is searching for his lost golden oyster earring. His journeying leads him to encounter all sorts of people and oddities along the way. There’s a reason, however, that Julio is fixated on this earring. It’s the exact size of his birthmark that he’s now convinced is cancerous. He needs the earring to confirm his fears that the birthmark has grown.

This fixation is a means to distract himself from other, more towering issues. He continuously receives messages and calls about soon being evicted from his apartment. To stay and/or find a new apartment, he needs something called “proof of existence,” something he’s abjectly against doing.

But even all of this is just the platform on which the other stories pivot. The underlying fear of “proof of existence” is probably the most potent, as we empathize with Julio’s fear and frustration at the idea of having to be logged into a system to be seen as human. His agent, Vanesja (the “j” is silent), played by the luminous and hilarious Martine Gutierrez, desperately tries to get him to focus on this, not his birthmark. While she’s trying to get him to star in an insincere Pride-style commercial for a credit card, he’s tracking down hamster-run gay clubs.

Fantasmas leans heavily into surrealism. There’s no hiding the peculiarities behind more traditional storylines. Instead, Episode 1 sees Julio watching an 80s-style sitcom, “Melf,” about an alien who arrives at a suburban home led by Paul Dano’s patriarch. And while the story is clearly a rip on Alf, where the story goes is, frankly, deeply uncomfortable, and it’s all the better because of it. The same episode sees a fantasy of the letter “Q” (Steve Buscemi) and the pressures he faces being so early in the alphabet when, in reality, he should be towards the end with the rest of the “avant-garde” letters.

Fantasmas captures magical realism through Hollywood frustrations.

Aidy Bryant appears as a toilet dresser, a woman who quite literally creates dresses for toilets based on the personality reads she gets from them. Dylan O’Brien is an actor in the 15th season of his teen-based drama. Bowen Yang is one of Santa’s elves suing for forced and unpaid labor. Producer Emma Stone even appears in a riff inspired by the Real Housewives franchise. The talent pool is immense; the guest stars can lean wholly into the silly premises they’ve been given.

These forays into flights of fancy make sense within the context of Julio’s character. Struck by lightning as a child, he can now feel the emotions of colors, shapes, letters, etc. He doesn’t have a job; he’s just Julio, and this entails everything from pitching story ideas to Hollywood-style execs to meeting with crayon producers to suggest that they develop the color clearly. Torres imbues his character with an impish aloofness, the perfect journeyman for this odyssey venture through the inner lives of the city’s strangest figures.

The energy of the plot is amplified by the set and costume design. Deliberately stripped down, there’s an off-kilter nature to each scene. A restaurant broadcasts pictures of food on screens above the patrons, with no actual food on the tables where they sit. A school, a doctor’s office, and a bank all share the same stage, with the pillars and lighting in focus as we watch characters walk in and off of the set. Julio’s apartment is a particular gem, with touchstones such as his bathroom mirror being cut in his silhouette and the lighting simplistic yet futuristic. It’s one nihilistic remark removed from being something panic-inducing.

There’s nothing quite like Fantasmas. Even its recent DIY contemporaries, such as The Peoples Joker or Strawberry Mansion, can’t compare because Fantasmas has an HBO budget. Torres is a singular vision, his tone continuing to develop and refine. While not every episode strikes the same comedic chord, with Episode 2, in particular, being a bit of a slog to get through, there’s no denying the thrill of watching something so refreshingly its own.

Fantasmas is available now on HBO.