If you’re looking to feel transported to another world this September, HBO Max has an excellent and weird new show for you to check out — but get ready, because it’s truly like nothing you’ve seen before.
The Warner Bros. platform is the streaming home of a bizarrely wonderful new animated series, Women Wearing Shoulder Pads, which combines comedy, mystery, cultural criticism and romance in eight tightly written, 11-minute episodes not unlike Robot Chicken.
Find out why the Watch With Us team is recommending this new show below.
‘Women Wearing Shoulder Pads’ Creates a World Both Like and Unlike Ours
The Adult Swim series, created by Ecuadorian-American writer Gonzalo Cordova and produced by the Mexican animation studio Cinema Fantasma, takes place in Quito in the 1980s. As the title suggests, the fashion sensibilities are pulled straight out of a Madonna music video, with big shoulder pads, bright colors and other familiar markers of the era — but nothing is as you’d expect it.
The biggest difference between our world and that of Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is the animal that drives the bulk of the story — the cuy, a guinea pig that is a real part of traditional Ecuadorian cuisine. In the series, however, the rodents are more like cows than hamsters — some of them are small, but others are big enough for a human to ride or battle in a toreador match.
The lead character, Marioneta Negocios (Pepa Pallarés), whose name in English means “Business Puppet,” has a plan for these creatures — she wants to rebrand them as pets instead of food. This brings Marioneta, who is Spanish rather than Ecuadorian, into direct conflict with the cultural norms of Quito, as well as with several animal rights groups.
The show blends realism — emotionally complex relationships, Ecuadorian culture and historic references — with surreal, magical touches. (In one scene in the first episode, Marioneta and her lover’s night of passion is so intense that it literally lights the bedroom on fire.)
It’s a Culturally Specific First for Adult Swim
Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is Adult Swim’s first Spanish-language series, and it’s difficult to imagine the story being told any other way. In the pilot episode, Marioneta declares that Quito is the “center of the world,” despite her being from Spain — implying that this show is decidedly less Eurocentric than global culture at large. The story is firmly rooted in Latin American traditions, from the magical realism in the storytelling to the New Year’s Eve traditions the characters celebrate in episode 5.
If you’re a fan of foreign films and you’d like to see Adult Swim continue to promote more experimental animation from other countries, check out Women Wearing Shoulder Pads.
It’s a Genre-Bending Mystery That Leaves You Hooked
While the animation of Women Wearing Shoulder Pads sort of resembles Robot Chicken at first glance, the story has little in common with the long-running comedy sketch show. Instead, Marioneta’s story is full of serialized twists and cliffhangers. From a mysterious stalker who takes her prisoner to the businesswoman’s complex relationship with her mother and her lover, each episode veers in unexpected directions, combining comedy, drama, mystery and telenovela soapiness in ways that feel wonderfully absurd — but it’s never absurd to the characters.
Whatever genre it’s playing in at any given moment, Women Wearing Shoulder Pads takes itself seriously. It’s not a satire or a parody — it’s something unique and unexpected.
If you’re looking to be surprised, amused and maybe even a little titillated, check out Women Wearing Shoulder Pads on HBO Max.
