La Máquina has all the tools to be a roaringly entertaining comedy thriller. It unites Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, so effective together in Y Tu Mama Tambien and a handful of other movies, for the first time on the small screen, as an ageing boxing champion and his beloved but deeply dodgy manager. Few duos are better at playing best pals competing to see who is the more lovable screw-up.
Episode one is indeed a riot, dominated by Luna as Andy, a showboating pillock who bluffs through every moment of every day. Clearly addicted to cosmetic surgery – he is described with cruel accuracy as “condom-faced” – and happy to sport a cravat with wet-look hair, his default term of endearment for anyone he speaks to is “asshole” and his motivation is always to earn bigger bucks. At home, however, he is burdened with a wife who is desperate for a child Andy can’t provide and a mother whose close relationship with her son really is much too close. “Only two men have known how to touch me: you and your father,” she says as he dutifully gives her a foot massage.
