Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld premieres December 5 on Netflix.
By Elazar Abrahams
Not every show is for everyone, and Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld quickly made it abundantly clear that it is not for me. This animated series might have its niche as a loud and flashy tribute to Chinese folklore mixed with modern teenage angst, but it left me aggressively disliking it.
The premise is solid: Jentry (voiced by Ali Wong, who also serves as executive producer), a Chinese-American teenager, discovers she has supernatural powers just as a demon king starts hunting her down. With the help of her eccentric great-aunt Gugu and a vampire, she battles underworld creatures while navigating the usual high school drama. On paper, it sounds like a fun, culturally rich coming-of-age tale. In execution, though, it’s loud, overly stylized, and grating.
Again, I’ll be the first to admit this show isn’t aimed at my demographic, and maybe that’s the problem. It feels like a series tailor-made for the kind of online nerd culture that thrives on meme-worthy quips and hyper-stylized visuals. I can appreciate what it’s going for, and it’s nice to see the showrunner’s culture so lovingly represented, but I couldn’t make it through more than a few episodes before tapping out.
That’s not to say everything is a wash. Bowen Yang is reliably funny as Jentry’s sidekick, and Lori Tan Chinn’s hilarious line delivery as Gugu steals every scene she’s in. If anything, I wish the show leaned more on those two performances. But beyond that, the relentless energy and aesthetic felt like an assault on my senses. Maybe I’m just getting older and crankier, but this kind of hyperactive storytelling isn’t for me.
If you’re part of the intended audience — those who live for chaotic, fast-paced animation packed with pop culture references — you’ll probably have a blast. But for me, Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld is a hard pass.
I give Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld a D+.
TV and City 