Diablero review: Is the Netflix series the new Supernatural?
Netflix’s Diablero season 1 shines as the newest demon obsession, but is it as good as The CW’s Supernatural?
Supernatural fans can catch the older seasons on Netflix and the new season is currently streaming on the CW, but what if you are all caught up and still need your demon fix? Enter the Netflix original series Diablero, which was released Dec. 21, 2018, and if you haven’t binged the first season yet, you should.
Angels and demons were once able to influence human decisions, but when the angels left, the demons took over. When a young girl goes missing, a fallen priest, a demon hunter and an incredible girl who can hold the souls of demons inside her, attempt to rescue the missing girl and take the demons down.
Both series focus on demon hunter siblings, Sam and Dean in Supernatural and Elvis and his sister Keta in Diablero. In this world, Diableras (female Diablero) are not allowed.
Keta spends the season fighting her gifts when I wish she had been allowed to embrace them. This series also looks more at the Bruja witchcraft and other cultural demonology that may not be as familiar to American viewers.
The strength of the series is the fact it is introducing a different side of demons and that world, versus the more Americanized ones we are used to seeing. Obviously, Supernatural does take elements from all mythologies and cultures, but by focusing on the Mexican culture, this show stands on its own.
Nancy may well be one of the most fun to watch female characters on-screen currently. She is a young woman who Elvis previously saved from possession, and now she can control the demons inside her. There is something really cool about seeing this woman take the biggest, most dangerous demons and control them like a puppet.
She is, at times, used as the “romantic interest” trope with Father Ventura, our fallen priest. Her attitude and charm make you forget that she is sometimes just a plot piece. Father Ventura feels like a typical “fallen Priest,” and I want to smack him upside the head at times for idiocy, but he does move the story forward.
The series is based on the book by Mexican writer Francisco Haghenbeck entitled El Diablo me obligó, and it was filmed in Mexico City. While the original language is in Spanish, Netflix automatically gives you the dubbed version.
I’m the type of film viewer who prefers subtitles to dubbing, but I watched this one with the dub just to see how it was. Many times, the voice actors don’t have the emotional inflection in the words that match the actor’s actions.
In Diablero, Netflix must have gone all out on the voice actors because it has the best dubbing I have heard on a foreign series/film. The voice actors match the tone and emotion of the actors on-screen and after a few minutes, the dubbing seems natural.
I will never stop watching Sam and Dean kill demons, angels and the like in Supernatural, but this show is exciting and different enough to get you hooked. So, if you are hunting for more demon shows, be sure to check out this Netflix original and get to hunting!
Have you watched Diablero yet? What did you think? Sound off in the comment section below.