Season 1 |
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Episode Guide
13 episodes at 23 minutes long
Every now and then a little hidden gem on Netflix comes along and catches you completely off-guard. This is especially true when it comes to Netflix’s animated department. For some reason, they seem to have adopted the Apple TV+ method of either producing really great content… or really poor content. There’s no in between. Thankfully, Jentry Chau VS The Underworld is very much the former.
The story is simple enough and revolves around a teenager called Jentry Chau. Not only is she going through puberty, she’s also dealing with spiritual powers too. All of this escalates when Jentry’s Gugu (her chirpy great-grandmother) whisks our girl off from her settled home in Seoul to the other side of the world in Texas.
You see, Jentry needs to harness her powers because there’s a Mogui hunting her. This comes in the form of a monstrous, haunting spirit called Mr Cheng. After 16 years, he’s back to fulfil a deal made by Jentry’s family – he’s here for her soul.
With the battle lines drawn, Jentry tries to come to terms with her new-found powers, trying to prevent certain death, all while navigating the difficult pitfalls of starting school again in a strange new world. If that wasn’t bad enough, it seems like Gugu is keeping secrets from her, while her parents too have a dark secret waiting to be uncovered.
While Jentry goes on the hunt for answers across the 13 episodes, there’s also issues at school too. Between a very on-again/off-again relationship with her new friend Stella, there’s romantic implications between Jentry and Stella’s boyfriend Michael. Michael and Jentry actually have history together, which makes this all the more dramatic, while a charming kid called Kit also enters the fray too.
Alongside all of this bubbling drama and teen angst is a well worked comedic jiangshi, coming in the form of Ed. This undead demon does his best to try and make the others afraid of him, and he has his own little arc where he starts to grow a social media following. It’s all pretty amusing but he does have some sentimental moments too, so he’s not a complete buffoon just for the sake of it!
The show has a wicked crackling wit and visual style, and the aesthetic pops with a mix of pastel colours and more imaginative styles, depending on where Jentry ends up.
For example, in the diyu realm, there are way more neon and high-contrast colours depicted compared to the real world. Meanwhile, the scenes in the underworld are shot in black and white, with tiny pockets of glowing blue or red for added effect. These are small touches but they work extremely well to give this a unique aesthetic.
This uniqueness extends out to the music and sound too, which is excellent across the board. While not every song is an instant hit, there are a ton of musical montages here, usually depicting some big dramatic spike in action or significant moment in the story. There’s an excellent one midway through the show where Jentry discovers the extent of her powers, and this whole segment is so well constructed.
The action, on the whole, is pretty good and there’s a nice pacing to a lot of the episodes as there’s usually a dollop of action in every chapter. While the show does follow a serialized storyline, it also throws in some episodic content too. Some of these do feel a bit redundant or slow, but those episodes usually end with a big twist or a nice reveal that will entice you to carry on watching to find out what happens next.
The show excels with its depiction of Chinese mythology and seeing a lot of the legends brought to life – like the jiangshi, yaoguai or nine-tailed fox – actually add a bit of educational element to the series, which is quite surprising. A lot of this is delivered smoothly through bites of exposition as Jentry looks over a book depicting these different myths and legends.
Where the show is less endearing however, is the way it tries to mix this in with Texan history. Compared to the rich pool of Asian myths and legends to draw from, Texas has, well, the Alamo and cowboys. While these do work quite well within the context of the story, they’re almost always the weaker episodes and pale compared to the Chinese myths.
The story is also a bit tropey at times too, with love triangles, teen angst, misunderstandings and the usual pitfalls you’d expect from a drama like this. It’s not a complete deal breaker though because where Jentry Chau slips up with these moments, it more than makes up for with its ability to pull the trigger and kill off major characters.
This is something more shows should be willing to do if the story calls for it and it works surprisingly well in Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld just to ratchet up the tension. When the show draws nearer to the end and we see all manner of drama, including demon attacks on the school and a last-gasp fight between Jentry and the mogui – it makes everything that much more tense because you genuinely don’t know who’s going to walk away from this one and who’s going to fall by the wayside.
Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld is an absolute delight and despite a few dud episodes and a couple of overdone tropes, propels itself into the running for one of the best TV shows of the year. Funny, sharp and incredibly moreish; Je8ntry Chau is a must-watch.
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Verdict - 8.5/10
8.5/10