(Photo: Tyler Golden/Hulu)
Inspired by the life and standup career of star and co-creator Chris Estrada, the 10-episode Hulu series, This Fool, centers around 30-year-old Julio (Estrada), who almost dementedly attempts to avoid conflict at all costs. Living and working in South Central Los Angeles, Julio navigates his way through a series of codependent relationships with his family Grandma Julia Vera and mother Laura Patalano, who he lives with; his girlfriend Maggie (Michelle Oritz), whom he’s been dating since high school; his older cousin Louis (Frankie Quinones), who has just gotten out of prison and is now living with Julio’s family, and his co-workers at Hugs Not Thugs, a South L.A. gang rehabilitation center. The comedic elements come from Julio’s inability to avoid dealing with his problems, punctuated immensely by the colorful portrayals of his castmates.
In fact, the opening episode relies too much on the off-the-wall antics of the people who inhabit Julio’s world. Estrada’s adept timing happily allows the others to shine, keeping the action moving non-stop. In the process, we come to see that Julio is clearly one of the more miserable characters to be on a sitcom, while proving Estrada to be one of the most effective straight men working in television. In viewing the chaos of living in a troubled neighborhood, one wishes that Julio would try harder to rise above the situations that converge against him. But the character is often no match for the people in his life. While Julio struggles to be sane and rational with his supposed girlfriend, Maggie dominates, at one point casually taking his car, steamrolling his protests with breezy aplomb. In the meantime, Quinones’ Louis is a bombastic loudmouth who reduces his cousin to the timid little boy whom he has dominated all his life.
What saves Julio is how he spends his days working at Hugs Not Thugs, trying to help reformed gang members and ex-cons make successful re-entries into society. He proves himself to be a worthy, insightful helpmate, even though his workdays don’t always move along smoothly, especially when dealing with his boss, the less than holy and highly unconventional minister-in-charge of Hugs Not Thugs, portrayed with dead-pan humor by Michael Imperioli. But it is at this rehab center that Julio manages to occasionally rise above the chaos of his life, even managing to outwit his cousin, using Luis’ pride and ego to cajole him into making the rehab center’s famous cupcakes for an important sale. It also shows another side of Luis, from a wisecracking joker to a man looking to improve himself.
If the series manages in its ensuing episodes to rise above the over-abundance of gang banger sight gags and sad sack jokes, placing Julio on more of an even keel with the people in his life, then This Fool has a chance of sustaining itself. Chris Estrada is a masterful comedian, who has created an intriguing premise and a potentially worthy hero that the viewing audience should be cheering on to succeed. It can be funny when Julio falls victim, but it would be more rewarding to witness the basic decency and goodness of the man when he helps those souls around him to build better lives for themselves. This Fool, which debuts August 12, is written and executive produced by Chris Estrada, Pat Bishop, Jake Weisman and Matt Ingebretson. Jonathan Groff and Fred Armisen also serve as executive producers on the series. The Hulu comedy is produced by ABC Signature.
