‘Nothing to See Here’ Netflix Series Review - A Charming and Steamy Comedy

The main purpose of Nothing to See Here is that it wants to normalize jokes about disabled people. It kind of mocks the "woke" attitude of the current generation, which looks for various euphemisms to say simple things. It's also a sweet coming-of-age story where a father matures emotionally by realizing he cannot look after his son for his whole life. The series also takes aim at the law, which requires its citizens to be bureaucratically disabled if they want to park their vehicle at a spot reserved for the disabled. Nothing to See Here also makes fun of those pretentious people who are moved by faux inspirational speeches. The show is also a love story where the lovers don't see each other as caretakers but as equals in a relationship. Finally, the beating heart of this series is the friendship between Charly (Kike Vázquez) and Alexis (Alexis Arroyo).

Alexis is blind, and Charly has cerebral palsy. One day, after an incident at a club, the former decides he wants to do standup comedy (this professional path is foreshadowed through the sounds of laughter that can be heard when we cut to the face of an adult Alexis). Thus, the friends head towards Mexico City with a car as well as dreams as wide as the city. Alexis' father, Yuyo (Alejandro Calva), though, isn't yet ready to give his son his privacy. His fatherly instincts are too suffocating, and he spies on Alexis in Mexico City. But unbeknownst to Yuyo, his wife, Lolis (a wonderful Verónica Merchant), also secretly keeps an eye on him. In one amusing scene, we see Yuyo following Alexis and then Lolis following her husband. Nothing to See Here is filled with chuckle-worthy moments.

The audience's reaction to Alexis's "motivational speech" is genuinely funny. Other scenes, like the one where Lalo (Raul Villegas) wears a mask and robs Alexis and Charly, make you smile. A group of people take out their guns with such perfect timing that their action seems to arise from natural instinct. The best punchline, however, arrives when the characters suddenly remember they had a dog with them. Not every joke in Nothing to See Here has you in stitches, but they all definitely leave you smiling.

A series like this generally offers comfort to the audience. Nothing to See Here does that precisely before going one step further after a point. After another incident at a club, the pleasant vibe of a sitcom is replaced with something more real. We are basically told that if you remove the laugh tracks, the feel-good tone of a sitcom, its characters will look irritating and self-absorbed. Earlier, Alexis' voiceover during Azul's (Paola Fernández) rap performance felt like an honest confession. Now, you see that Alexis can be egocentric - "an asshole," as Charly puts it. Nothing to See Here doesn't shy away from focusing on its sharp edges. It not only dispenses blind jokes but also hits you with a scene where some kids refuse to play with a young Alexis. But that also doesn't mean this boy is a saint or something. He cries when a girl refuses to date him due to his disability, and then he refuses to date a girl with a disability.

Nothing to See Here is charming and even steamy. These aspects, though, cannot hide the fact that the standup material is downright poor. Couldn't they have come up with good jokes to make us believe that Alexis is actually talented? I also wanted to hear Azul's rap, but we merely got to hear a line or two from her one-and-only stage performance. The last episode is the worst thing about this show, as the happy ending feels heavily contrived. If you really want to have a good time, stop after the sixth episode. As for episodes seven and eight, well, there is nothing (joyful) to see there.

Final Score- [7.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times