December 21, 2022
HBO Greenlit Out Comic Julio Torres' Latest Series
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
"Los Espookys!" may be gone, but Julio Torres, one of its stars and co-creators, will be back on HBO with a new series.
Variety announced that "HBO has greenlit comedy series 'Little Films' (working title) from creator, director, star and executive producer Julio Torres."
"Over six episodes, Torres tells the tale of when he lost a little golden oyster," adds Variety. "The people he encounters as he searches for it, and the musings he has along the way, become points of departure for introspective, often eerie comedic stories about outsiders navigating an increasingly corporate and rapidly dysfunctional New York City."
That sounds like Torres, who role on the recently canceled paranormal satire often found him in conversation with celestial beings. On the show he played a spoiled, blue-haired Millennial who is left to fend for his own after a fight with his wealthy parents. He is also a member of "Los Espookys!," a group hired by individuals with paranormal problems they help solve, largely on their knowledge of horror movie tropes.
Torres rears from San Salvador, El Salvador. He relocated to New York City to study at the New School and to pursue a career in comedy writing. He worked at "Saturday Night Live" from 2016 through 2019, where he, as a member of the writing team, received four Emmy nominations. "He feels like he comes from another world," says Ana Fabrega, who, along with him and Fred Armisen, co-created "Los Espookys!"
"When you see his work, it really does feel like he doesn't belong here and he's giving his observations on us, she told Vulture. "Torres is an aesthete, and his comedy is born in part from his highly attuned sensitivities," the interview continues. "What might seem like mere style to the rest of us has more profound meaning to him. Take, for example, the fact that Torres, who is a brunet, dyes his hair to match his mood. Blond Julio is for when he's having success and feeling playful. He's having more fun! Dark-haired Julio is for when serious times require a serious look, like in 2012, when he was struggling to get a work visa to stay in the country."
What makes for the best example of Torres's style is "My Favorite Shapes" his HBO special, in which he sits before a conveyor belt that contains ordinary objects whose inner life he describes.
"More often, though, they are full-fledged stories about objects, sometimes so detailed that they become breakout segments of their own" writes Vulture in their review. "'My Favorite Shapes' will work not for everyone. There is a high bar of weird to clear in order to enter into its world, and Torres has little interest in toning anything down or making himself or his ideas more accessible. But for those who are really tickled by Torres's comedy, the special will become exactly what one of those precious, beloved objects is to him: something resoundingly idiosyncratic, with a personality that not everyone can see. Once you see it, though, you will not forget it."
