New Netflix series features a chupacabra as the ‘Terror of Tacoma’
A deranged scientist experiments on young people and inadvertently turns one into a snarling creature who becomes “The Terror of Tacoma”.
That’s the plot of the just released, 10-episode Netflix series, “The Imperfects.”
The series co-stars Mexican actor Iñaki Godoy as Juan Ruiz, a young graphic novel artist.
When Juan and his fellow test subjects are denied their mutant-suppressing drugs, they develop traits they struggle to control.
In Juan’s case, he becomes a chupacabra — a mythical Latin American werewolf-like creature. He is caught on video-surveillance cameras devouring wild animals and pets in the City of Destiny.
He’s soon dubbed “The Terror of Tacoma” by local media.
The show is set in Seattle, and it’s unclear whether Juan lives in Tacoma or just takes the #590 bus to Pierce County to carry out his attacks. He awakens in fields in the morning, covered in blood, with no memories of his monster carnage.
Regardless, Juan spends a lot of time in Jet City with his fellow mutants. We know that because of the frequent aerial shots of the Space Needle and the University of Washington. But the ground-level cinematography looks suspiciously like Seattle’s favorite body double, Vancouver B.C.
Juan’s cohorts include a young woman who becomes a succubus, a kind of human air freshener who gives off pheromones that make her irresistibly attractive to anyone who smells her. Cue the Tacoma Aroma jokes.
Another character, Tilda, is a singer in a Seattle band when she develops super hearing and the ability to break glass with her banshee voice. Given the number of busted and boarded up windows in Seattle and Tacoma, she is the show’s most realistic character.
The three characters were unwitting experiments of brilliant but demented Dr. Sarkov, played by scene-stealing Australian actor Rhys Nicholson.
Juan’s girlfriend, who has a monster fetish, likes his new alter ego and affectionately calls it Chupi, to Juan’s dismay.
He eventually embraces his internal monster.
“I’m the Terror of Tacoma,” he warns an evildoer who has taken him captive. “And when I transform, I’m gonna rip your throat out.”
Which he does, shortly thereafter.
‘The Imperfects’
Where: Netflix
Starring: Iñaki Godoy, Italia Ricci, Morgan Taylor Campbell, Rhianna Jagpal
Rated: TV-Mature Audiences
Time: 10 approximately 45-minute-long episodes.
