I was really looking forward to watching this series,
especially since they had done such a great job with the initial series. But as
each episode unfolded here I was less and less impressed. Where was the pulp
fiction found in the penny dreadful books on which the series was based? It was
as if that was all tossed aside. And what it was replaced with was social
justice preaching wrapped in Mexican culture instead.
Set in 1938 Hollywood, the series involves the battle
between two Mexican folklore icons. Santa Muerte is the guide to the great
beyond and caretaker of the dead. Her sister is Magda, a demoness who believes
mankind is evil. As the story opens Magda is determined to make her point to
her sister and involves herself in many forms and ways to change what
transpires, mainly using the members of one Mexican-American family.
Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto) is the first Mexican-American to become a detective on the police force of Los Angeles. Derided by his fellow officers and insulted about his ethnicity he is befriended only by his partner Detective Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane). Michener is Jewish and has his own run ins with the same group and thus feels a kinship of sorts with Tiago.
Tiago’s family is the main center around which the story
takes place. Tiago was touched by Santa Muerte years ago when he ran to save
his father and carries her handprint on his chest. His mother Maria (Adrianna
Barraza) is a believer in Santa Muerte and worships her faithfully. Raul Vega
(Adam Rodriguez) is Tiago’s older brother and a union organizer for the local
factory. Mateo Vega (Johnathan Nieves) is the youngest brother, a hot head
prone to outburst and action without thinking of the consequences. And Josefina
Vega (Jessica Garza) is the youngest of the Vega clan, an innocent in a dark
world.
Tiago’s first case involves bodies found in a riverbed, stripped of their clothes and faces and painted in Day of the Dead style makeup. The city is at a boiling point with the Mexican-American populace at present and violence erupts when the city has determined to build a freeway through the Mexican-American neighborhood that the factory and Vega home are found. The workers protest and stop the bulldozers from plowing through. A face-off between police and the workers is pushed forward by Magda as she makes an officer fire his weapon. In the melee Tiago is forced to shoot his brother Raul.
Raul survives but is forever changed. So is Tiago, torn
between his heritage and trying to carry the weight of his position on a
blatantly racist police force. Mateo having watched the shooting takes matters
into his own hands and joins a gang of zoot suit wearing Chicanos. All of this
will come around and collide before the series ends.
In the meantime the investigation of the bodies by Tiago and Michener leads them in different directions, none of which the police department wants to tackle. The first is to a hugely popular faith healer named Sister Molly Finnister (Kerry Bishé) whose radio program and following are massive. Her mother Adelaide (Amy Madigan) runs the business side of things and protects her daughter at all costs. Clues have led Tiago and Michener here but it isn’t long before an attraction between Tiago and Molly begins to develop.
The other lead involves a case Michener has been
investigating on his own. This one involves Nazis implanting themselves here in
the states. One of their big targets is an ambitious and conniving city council
member who is pushing for the freeway. The fact that he is gay in a time when
it was far from acceptable gives them a way of controlling him.
So it sounds like none of this would work well together and to be honest in the long run it doesn’t. There are too many things that feel like coincidences that take place here. The acting is great and the look of the show is above average and appealing. What it lacks is a story that’s believable. And this is from someone who found more belief in the previous series involving vampires and Frankenstein.
The biggest problem with the story I found is trying to
impose political drama from current times into that of another period. There is
zero subtlety used here in trying to compare the complaints of President Trump
as a racist when it comes to immigrants to the story that takes place. That the
racist politician is connected with Nazis shows the heavy handedness of how
they connections are made. Political commentary is one thing but when you try
to blend it into entertainment it takes a deft touch. Unfortunately you won’t
find that here.
Nor will you find the horror elements in this series like there was in the first and that was its main attraction. Instead we’re presented with an unstoppable evil with no counterpoint to oppose her. Magda inserts herself in the lives of all on display here while her sister Santa Muerte does nothing to oppose her. This leaves little but a one sided battle and that gets boring.
All of the loose ends depicted here come together in a
culmination that is so far-fetched and coincidental that it is beyond belief.
It’s as if the makers of the show realized they only had one episode left to
finish the story so they jammed it all into one last hour. The end effect is a
show that doesn’t entertain, doesn’t frighten and doesn’t offer much.
I should take one part of that back. The dancing sequences at the club the zoot suit gang hangs in were tremendous. Too bad it was such a small part of a ten episode series.
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