Diablero

This Mexican fantasy series seems to be reaching for Stranger Things territory with its dark and otherworldly storyline, but it's too deliriously bonkers to be taken as seriously. Here are just a few things that exist in the same place and time in Diablero's world: vengeful demons who can possess any human at any time but whose essence can be captured in a soda bottle, a "demon appraiser" in a rough part of town that tests the quality of imprisoned devils by injecting the evil potion into dead animals, and an organized fight club in which participants allow themselves to be possessed for the duration of the battle, just for kicks. Whew! And we haven't even gotten to the part about the Upside-Down-like chasm underneath the church, where dark forces are holding a (Eleven-like) young girl for mysterious reasons.

It's goofy and kinda dumb, but it's fun anyway, particularly for viewers who will relish the slanted bits and pieces of Mexican culture that slips through the supernatural goings on. When two fellas meet to talk over a personal problem, they watch soccer and sip tequila; ranchera music, not hip hop, is the background at a tough-guy party scene; Elvis hangs out at a pulqueria (which serves an ancient Mexican booze known as pulque), not a bar. The characters are weird and interesting too, including plenty of intriguing women: two menacing female bruisers who operate as muscle for their gangster dad, the searingly cranky partner of the demon appraiser, the by-turns scary and sympathetic Nancy. This show may be a guilty pleasure, but it's a pleasure nonetheless.