Within the opening moments of La Maquina, Hulu’s new six-episode boxing drama that’s additionally its first-ever Spanish-language collection, a Botoxed, spray-tanned, and snappily dressed supervisor performed by Diego Luna is scolding an assistant for bringing him the unsuitable drink. The assistant, it seems, couldn’t find the right model of refreshment — a minor slight, you’d assume, however one which however causes Luna’s Andy to have an impromptu meltdown. “This isn’t a recreation, asshole,” Andy growls on the underling, as they head inside a Las Vegas area the place a struggle night time is below manner.
Andy is an impresario sort who’s imparting a lesson about boxing — concerning the significance of not solely the combatants within the ring, but additionally the myriad intricacies, shadowy gamers, and even one thing as prosaic as the suitable drink that may affect the result. On this case, the getting old boxer who Andy works for, nicknamed La Maquina (The Machine), has a superstition that includes consuming a selected drink model earlier than each struggle. However now, there’s no time.
Andy scratches the label off of this one. A drink is a drink, proper? The boxer, in fact, notices — and, quickly sufficient, we meet up with him laid out behind an ambulance. Superstition confirmed, it will appear.
The plot of La Maquina is easy: Gael García Bernal, Luna’s real-life buddy since delivery (literally), portrays Esteban, the boxer. Luna is his plastic surgery-obsessed supervisor and greatest buddy andy. Esteban is getting older and decides he has yet another struggle left in him. Truly, it’s Andy who decides that for him, decided to get his buddy again on high. The factor about Andy, although, is that he’s lengthy labored with dangerous dudes to repair fights, together with ones involving Esteban. And now, the piper have to be paid.
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The underworld goons ship phrase: “Esteban tiene que perder.” Esteban has to lose — particularly, he has to throw his upcoming match, or they’ll kill each Andy and Esteban. Which implies that, amongst different issues, the latter can be making an attempt to mount a comeback of kinds whereas additionally juggling private demons, along with defending his household. It’s a household that features his ex-wife Irasema (Eiza Gonzalez), a journalist who’s on her personal collision course with the darkish facet of boxing.
Picture supply: Camila Mata Lara/HuluBoxing virtually at all times makes for satisfying, edge-of-your-seat drama. Such fights are as primal because it will get; two guys slugging it out, and it’s merely a matter of who can endure. As if all the above wasn’t sufficient, although, the troubles are compounded by Esteban’s blackout consuming, Andy struggling to conceive a toddler along with his spouse, and Irasema’s journalistic probing of boxing’s shady puppet masters. Between the drama and the chic technical decisions right here, which embody marvelous single-takes firstly of two episodes, there’s greater than sufficient to inexorably draw you into the world of La Maquina — and to maintain you invested.
Clearly, the “most important occasion” of this collection, because it have been, is the reunion of Luna and García Bernal, whose first collab was 2001’s coming-of-age Y tu mamá también. Their longtime friendship makes for a compelling on-screen duo with oodles of chemistry, a lot in order that you might virtually think about them sharing a sort of Pitt-Clooney dynamic (in one other decade or so, in fact). Hulu’s new collection will maintain you in your toes largely by their on-screen magic, which is greater than sufficient to ship a small-screen knockout.
