| | | For subscribers | August 18, 2025 | | |
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An absurdist animated melodrama | | A scene from "Women Wearing Shoulder Pads," a new stop-motion animated series on Adult Swim. Adult Swim |
Dear Watchers,"Women Wearing Shoulder Pads," the latest twisted little series to arrive on Adult Swim, feels like what might happen if Pedro Almodóvar had a guinea pig obsession and decided to explore it with stop-motion animation. The first two episodes are now streaming on HBO Max. Adult Swim's first Spanish-language series (available subtitled), it was created by Gonzalo Cordova, who worked on "Tuca & Bertie" and "Undone," two earlier ambitious animated shows. It is set in Ecuador and centers on a mysterious Spanish business woman, Marioneta Negocios (Pepa Pallarés), who arrives in Quito with a dastardly plan. Her plot? To turn cuyes — guinea pigs — into desirable pets in a country that typically sees them as a culinary delicacy. Lest you think Marioneta is doing this for noble reasons, to save cute animals, think again. She is ruthlessly self-interested and will do anything to get her way. In the premiere, this includes seducing a stoic cuy fighter — think bull fighting, but with giant guinea pigs — named Espada (Kerygma Flores). Later, Marioneta recruits the animal-loving daughter of her enemy, a restaurateur who specializes in cuy. With its ridiculous scenarios, dramatic line readings and stop-motion aesthetic, "Women Wearing Shoulder Pads" seems initially like an odd, slight curio. But as the episodes progress, it becomes easy to get sucked into the mystery of who Marioneta is and what she is really trying to achieve with her quest for cuy domination. You also start to sympathize with those she has entrapped in her web, including her eager assistant, Coquita (Gabriela Cartol), and the lovelorn Espada. And the fuzzy guinea pigs are pretty cute, even if some are monstrously big. "Women Wearing Shoulder Pads" is intensely stylish, and the '80s-inspired clothing is exquisite. With her bright red suit and lined eyes, Marioneta evokes the Almodóvar stalwart Rossy de Palma. And while the characters have jerky movements that highlight the handmade aesthetic, their colorful world is precisely rendered, down to the artwork on the walls. The material — which includes detailed sex scenes, close-ups of real human hands and other surprising grace notes — is less laugh-out-loud funny than compellingly bizarre. But it is hard to find anything else like it on television. Also this week | | A scene from "Long Story Short," a new animated series arriving on Friday on Netflix. Netflix |
- Season 1 of "Are You My First?," a dating show in which all the contestants are virgins, is now streaming on Hulu.
- "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox," about a young American who was charged with and eventually acquitted of murder in Italy, premieres with two episodes on Wednesday, on Hulu.
- "Hostage," a British political thriller, premieres on Thursday, on Netflix.
- "Peacemaker," the DC Universe series starring John Cena, returns for its second season on Thursday, on HBO Max.
- "Long Story Short," the latest animated series from Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of "BoJack Horseman," premieres on Friday, on Netflix.
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