This Fool – Season 1 Episode 1 “A Storm is Coming” Recap & Review

A Storm is Coming

Episode 1 of This Fool season 1 introduces us to Julio Lopez, a quintessentially nice guy. He’ll put the tarp on his mother’s roof when she says he will. He’ll run over his white picket fence to get to the road rather than force people to move out of his driveway. He lets his ex-girlfriend Maggie steal his car to do her own errands.

And he works at an admirable nonprofit organization called Hugs Not Thug, which helps once-incarcerated people and former gang members change their lives.

When Maggie takes his car to San Diego, Julio has no choice but to complete an important task by bus. Today, he picks up his cousin Luis from prison.

After serving an eight-year sentence, Luis is warmly welcomed by Julio’s mother, grandmother, and sisters. But Julio doesn’t much like how his family takes to comparing the men. Still, he wants to help Luis, so he gets him a spot at Hugs Not Thugs, with Julio as his case manager. As long as he attends the program, Julio’s mother will let Luis stay at her house with Julio.

Minister Payne, director of the nonprofit, leads Luis’ first class–making cupcakes. Luis ditches the class, claiming it’s embarrassing. This leads Julio to threaten to kick him out of the house. He tells Luis to bake him his best cupcake. But he hands him a fire extinguisher–in case his best isn’t good enough.

Just to spite his cousin, Luis makes beautiful pink cupcakes. Julio lies and says they aren’t good enough.

Then Luis accuses Julio of not truly caring about him. If he has a problem with him, why doesn’t he share it? So, Julio unloads. He yells at Luis that he wasn’t there for his mom when she got sick because he was in prison for doing stupid things.

Payne witnesses Julio’s outburst and takes him aside. He suggests that maybe Julio needs to focus on his own problems before he can solve others’.

Later, Julio gets a ride with Maggie (in his own car). They pull over when he sees Luis at a bus stop. He apologizes for what he said. He’s just been upset because Luis has constantly been mocking him. Luis apologizes too. Making fun of him just makes things feel normal after eight years in prison.

When they get home, the same men are blocking the driveway again. This time, Julio gets out of the car and confronts him. It’s time he stops letting people walk all over him. He tells them they can kill him if they want. Julio has a lot of problems he has to work through in his life, and honestly? He doesn’t want to.

It’s not Julio that makes them run off , however, but the sudden rainfall. They scatter–while Maggie again drives off with Julio’s car. 

The Episode Review

Co-created by and starring Chris Estrada, This Fool kicks off with a humorous introduction to Julio, the awkward nice guy with “lawyer hands”–who wants to make the world a better place.

The pilot offers a pretty solid introduction to both Julio and Luis. Both are going to have to work through their respective issues. Luis, on taking change seriously. Julio, on dealing with his own problems before he tackles those of others. He’s taken a step in standing up for himself. But seeing how he stood by as Maggie again drove away in his car, that’s still something he’ll need to work on.

Overall, This Fool’s cast of characters has a lot of charm, and the comedy writing is strong, if a little corny at times. I’m looking forward to seeing where the comedy series takes us.