In Julio Torres’s new HBO series, Fantasmas, even the goldfish have careers — and subordinates to bully. “The mayor said that if people were expected to keep the waters clean, fish and other water folk should pull their weight with labor,” a snide pet detective named Dierdre explains to Julio, after he hires her to trace his lost oyster-shaped earring at the bottom of the sea. Off Dierdre goes, but not before raging at her sweaty human assistant, Bryce, like an aquatic Miranda Priestly.
Torres casts America, and New York City especially, as a never-ending maze of humiliations — a place where residents must debase themselves in front of bad bosses and faceless institutions just to survive. In his feature-length debut, Problemista, Torres starred as an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador named Alejandro who scurries to secure a new work visa after losing his job at a cryogenic lab. Alejandro crashes on his apartment’s couch while renting his bedroom on Airbnb, dabbles in sexwork, and tolerates the abuse of a venomous art critic. Against all odds, he succeeds. The bleaker Fantasmas is similarly concerned with creative exploitation and bureaucratic bullshit. Torres plays a version of himself — an offbeat dreamer whose job is just “Julio,” which involves consulting with Crayola on a clear crayon and fantasizing about the inner lives of the alphabet’s letters. (Indeed, this is all very Julio.) He’s running out of time. He’s about to be evicted from his apartment complex, which is being converted into a General Mills café and residency. He can’t rent another one without a new form of government ID known as a Proof of Existence; exceptions are only granted to people who are Beyoncé-famous. Or schmucks willing to prostitute themselves to multinational corporations by cynically capitalizing on their own “diversity.”
Fantasmas is a mini sketch series filmed like a low-budget horror, with claustrophobic settings and sickly yellow lighting. It follows Julio as he tries to track down his special earring and battles the erosion of his individuality; along the way, it zooms into the lives of characters he encounters both in real life and on his feeds. Almost all of them are in the business of entertainment, whether they’re a beleaguered theme-park superhero or a miffed elf in Santa’s factory. They are pawns in a system that promises wonder but only cares about profit — where corporations pump out shallow reboots while their greedy executives hoard wealth from the 99 percent.
But hats off to the good guys at HBO, I guess, for letting Fantasmas fly. It’s a spectacular outlet for Torres’s antic imagination, featuring the many friendly faces in the Julioverse, some of whom you may recognize from Los Espookys, Problemista, and Saturday Night Live. (What other show would cast Tilda Swinton as the mystical voice of toilet water?) Maybe capitalism can breed innovation, because the workers of Fantasmas have the most miraculously odd jobs imaginable. So we’ve compiled a handy guide to all of the bullshit — and some not-so-bullshit — jobs in the series.
This post will be updated weekly as new episodes air on HBO.
Inspired
Character: Becca, customer-service rep at an insurance company
Played by: Alexa Demie
Description: Has a customer service rep ever been so cunty? A little authoritarian with a fuck-ass bob, headset, and pearl accessories, Becca lives to inconvenience “valued customers” including Julio, whose medical insurance claims she refuses to process. “Sorry, rules are rules,” she says, nearly shivering with glee. Like River Ramirez’s murderous Bank of America rep in Problemista, Becca is a capitalist foot soldier who’s scarily committed to the cause. Even when the company nepo baby gets promoted over her, that only briefly shakes Becca’s loyalty. She’s so evil — and yet I’d let her deny me service anytime.
Character: The Letter Q, misunderstood, avant-garde trailblazer
Played by: Steve Buscemi
Description: In the lovely imagination of Julio, the Letter “Q” is a forward-thinking iconoclast whose contributions to art went unappreciated because he debuted with the normies “P,” “R,” and “S” instead of experimentalists like “X,” “Y,” and “Z.” A punk dissenter during an era of pop palatability, “Q” was consigned to a life of squalor and misery. He nearly gave up, until one day cool-kid “Z” (played by Evan Mock, hot as always) acknowledged him on live TV. A rare victory!
Character: Edwin, Grubhhub delivery worker and fashion designer
Played by: Bernardo Velasco
Description: Edwin is an immigrant from Mexico who doesn’t have Proof of Existence. But no problem! Because he’s no ordinary delivery guy — he’s made an outstanding impact on humanity as the designer of “the Dress.” Yes, that’s right, the 2015 striped bodycon dress that divided the internet and made Taylor Swift “confused and scared.” Is it white and gold, or blue and black? Edwin is here to blow our minds: “It’s both.”
Character: Chester, cabdriver and aspiring lawyer
Played by: Tomas Mato
Description: Forget Lyft and Uber. Ride with Chester, the flamboyant, self-employed rideshare driver who shuttles Julio and acquaintances across the city. They’ve got their own app, sliding-scale payments, and a community board with Chipotle bathroom codes. No wage theft here, honey! All proceeds go to Chester’s law-school fund. To quote the poster on the back of the passenger seat: “I want to get all Elle Woods I got to save up.”
Character: Bibo, Julio’s robot secretary and wannabe actor
Played by: Joe Rumrill
Description: The virtue of robot assistants is that they’re efficient and obedient. Not Bibo, a glorified search engine on wheels who is on Julio’s payroll but mostly does whatever he pleases. (You may remember a robot assistant named Bibo from Problemista — unclear whether he switched his look or all robots are named Bibo in the Julioverse.) And what Bibo pleases is to go to the dentist even though he doesn’t have teeth. Oh, and to pursue an acting career. Life’s sweet when your boss is a pushover.
Complicated
Character: Vanesja, performance artist whose performance is being an agent
Played by: Martine Gutierrez
Description: Samantha Jones, is that you? Vanesja — the j is silent — is the series’ femme fatale, a corporate siren who is adjacent to the creative industry but has the megawatt mystery of a movie star. She’s Julio’s agent — or, rather, she’s a “performance artist” masquerading as an agent. So she is either an immersive genius, scaredy-cat in denial of reality, or just a girl making nine-to-five life bearable. (In any circumstance, being wined and dined by a rotation of handsome men doesn’t hurt.) She’s quite good at the job, landing lucrative corporate gigs for her clients. But how long can you pretend to be a suit before you ultimately are one?
Character: Vicky, founder of a mind-uploading company and scammer
Played by: Sydnee Washington
Description: For the affordable price of $999 a month and a minimum commitment of ten years, Vicky and her brother, Oscar, will relieve you of the burden of having a body with their “Mind Uploading Incorporeal Service” — a totally safe, totally been-tested process that does not look at all like they’re vacuum-sealing you in storage closet. The two were saddled with medical debt after calling an ambulance for their father, who they thought had passed away from heat stroke but had actually just fallen asleep. To pay it off, they run an internet cafe; ever enterprising, Vicky is also a Clinique saleswoman and a scam caller pretending to be a bank. She’d make a great multilevel-marketing director someday.
Character: Madame Victory, theme-park superhero and breakfast server
Played by: Kate Berlant
A Julliard-trained actor who returned to Florida to care for her ailing mom and has settled for a low-wage gig playing the bisexual historian superhero Madame Victory at the Zappos theme park. Adult superfans queue to take selfies with her, waiting for her to recite her signature catchphrase — “Stay Victorious!” Off hours, she’s a waitress at a breakfast spot. Touched by the passion of one fan, Carl, she tries to collaborate with him on a script, but his mind is stuck on Zappos franchises.
Character: Carl, Best Buy manager and Madame Victory superfan
Played by: Spike Einbinder
Description: A dweeby bisexual Zappos adult (the Julioverse version of a Disney adult) who idolizes Madame Victory and can’t grasp that corporations won’t love you back. A Best Buy manager, he dreams of working at the theme park’s SuperHuman SuperStore, but there are no managerial positions — so he takes a job in the stock room and ends up getting laid off. Though his fervor is misplaced, there’s something sweet about his commitment to Madame Victory. In the end, Carl ends up finding a better use for his talents, discovering Julio’s thrown-out script and becoming the production manager for his school show.
Tragic
Character: Dodo, Santa’s elf and media victim
Played by: Bowen Yang
Description: A pointy-eared proletarian, Dodo is the plaintiff in a highly publicized lawsuit against Santa, whom he accuses of exploiting elves for their unpaid labor. As Dodo testifies, not only does Santa have the financial means to pay his employees — he accepts corporate deals, and “gets cookies and milk for being who he is” — he also steals elf-made (sex) toys for private use with Mrs. Claus (played by Julia Fox, lol). Unfortunately, Dodo loses in the court of law and public opinion, smeared for “hating Christmas.” But he’s still a valiant crusader for workers (nonprofit staffers, creatives) exploited for their passions.
Character: Skyler, TikTok creator
Played by: Jaboukie Young-White
Description: A twink influencer who wiggles and winks all day for his fan base of “little consumers,” supported by bisexual visibility week Clorox sponsorships and desperate celebrities paying him to pose as their friend. Life is cushy when you’re cute and the algorithm favors you. But Skyler starting to fall behind the culture — the middle-schoolers have flocked to a new app, RealUs, which Skyler only discovered through his bodega guy. Might he have to get — shudder — a real job?
Character: Gina, trophy girlfriend and actress
Played by: Greta Titleman
Description: Gina is a tragic example of what happens when your safety net is your rich boyfriend. Hers has dumped her after putting her in the impossible situation of maintaining her figure while vacationing in Italy. Now she has to move out, and she has no clue what to do. At 32, she’s no longer a pretty young thing. All she has is her fake boobs, which are no good anyway — as she complains, natural is in these days.
Just Plain Weird
Character: Denise, custom-toilet couture saleslady
Played by: Aidy Bryant
Description: Tired of your toilet’s bland porcelain exterior? Denise — a potty whisperer with an indecipherable accent somewhere between Bridgerton royal and Paula Deen — will give yours a makeover. But it’s not up to you whether your toilet looks like a Vegas showgirl, rural homesteader, or tropical tourist. You must ring Denise for a consultation, then she’ll sneak into your home on her own schedule, interpreting your toilet’s gurgle for its desired aesthetic. You have to admire her entrepreneurial vision. At least she’s pursuing her life’s passion, which is more than you could say for these other folks.
Character: Alex, coat-check person at FuFus, “Studio 54 meets Berghain for gay hamsters”
Played by: May Hong
Description: Under the stage of the gay nightclub where Julio’s oyster earring went missing is another gay nightclub — for hamsters. (How else is a rodent supposed to relax after a strenuous day of running on its wheel?) At FuFu’s, the clientele are bitchy, entitled, and too liberal with the cocaine, just like their human counterparts. (John Early voices one diva regular.) Alex mans coat check until FuFu gets overtaken by a CVS. Happy Pride!
