Clean the dog's garbage? Sorry, there's a crime being committed in the city! In the other side of the city! Have to go, For Great Justice!
The Neighbor (Spanish: El Vecino) is a 2019 Spanish superhero TV series.
The actor Franz Perea has to spend a night at a haunted house to inherit it, but he's a busy and important person, so he asks his friend Javi to do it for him. He goes with his girlfriend Lola, and suddenly an alien crashes in the house. He leaves a gold device that allows to have instant superhero suit, and another device with pills that give superpowers.
Javier starts trying to be a superhero, but he's completely useless at it. He reveals himself to José Ramón, an exchange student living with Julia (BFF of Lola), and keeps going to talk to him about his problems. José Ramón, however, just wants to study, because he has an important exam in a few days. Lola's decaying Instagram account suddenly goes viral when she accidentally films a guy that flies, who eventually introduces himself as "Titán". She eventually discovers that it is Javi, who kept this secret from her. Julia creates the "Karma Police", to react to jerks with petty vandalism, and eventually gets Lola to join her.
Not to be confused with the American series The Neighbors (in plural). Although it has a superhero named "Titan" (and two later on), it has no relation to the series Titans (2018) either.
Tropes:
- Aesop Amnesia: The Karma Police frequently avenges some evil action they happened to notice, and then realize that they judged too quickly (because the guy actually has good reasons, or was misblamed). The next episode, however, they are as reckless as ever.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Those Reptilian-detecting glasses are cool, but when they watch TV with it, they realize that the Reptilians are everywhere. The news anchor, the mayor of Madrid, and many others are secretly Reptilians in disguise. Even Donald Trump!
- Call It Karma: Julia is troubled because Laser-Guided Karma does not happen so frequently as it should, so she created the "Karma Police", to help the balance of the cosmos: if someone does an evil action, she will answer with some petty vandalism, to realign the karma. Needless to say, Karma does not work that way (and neither Laser-Guided Karma, now that we are at it), that's just vandalism!
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: The assistant of the mayor is actually a Reptilian, an evil alien race. Tucker, however, knows nothing about Reptilians and how to deal with them: he's just a bureaucrat. Fortunately, there's someone who knows everything about Reptilian aliens: the owner of the bar and his group of nutcases.
- G-Rated Stoner: Litos lives in a constant state of drug-induced stupor.
- How Do I Shot Web?: The alien left no instructions manual on how to use the powers from the pills, or even what to do with them. Even how to start flying takes learning.
- Insistent Terminology: You can't simply talk about the "Karma Police" to Julia. She will insist and emphasize that it is "The F*** Karma Police!"
- Is This Thing Still On?: The mayor introduced Titan to the world. He's flying out there, with all the news agencies filming and recording him... and Lola, with superpowers and in her "Karma Police" suit, flies up there to berate him. Javi tells her that she looks so hot when she flies, and Jose Ramón immediately calls him to the cell phone, to remind him that all the world is watching them. "What are you going to do, ask her to have sex?"
- Liar Revealed: Javi kept a Secret Identity, because that's what superheroes do. Lola got mad at him for keeping such a secret from her, and the usual superhero reasons for a SI are bullshit: there are no supervillains anywhere, and he has no enemies.
- Missed the Call
- First, Javi had barely adjusted himself to the superhero life when Lola, after learning what happened, protested that perhaps The Chosen One was her and not him. Her point is further proved after taking the pill, as she also got superpowers and not the violent adverse reactions that José Ramón suffered when Javi gave him a pill.
- And then, Javi and Lola were still trying to adjust to sharing the pills when Tucker, a new alien, came to check on the new Titan. He was outraged to find that there were two ("do you have an idea of the bureaucratic nightmare that would be?"), and after making tests and failing to figure out which was supposed to be the intended Titan he returned to his planet to seek the archives and clarify that. It turns out that it was neither of them: Titan was always meant to be Franz Perea, the owner of the house where the landing took place, and who should have been there that night. Too bad he stupidly killed himself before Tucker returned with the news.
- Mistaken Identity: José Ramón, an exchange student, has just arrived to the city, to his arranged house, to Litos refuses to let him in. He's waiting for someone else, someone named "José Pamón". After a brief discussion, José took the sticky note from Litos' hand and showed him: that's an "R", not a "P", the small diagonal line is just too small, but it's there. Litos excuses himself, sometimes he does not understand his own handwriting.
- Shout-Out
- An alien falls from the sky and dies, but before that he transfers his powers to The Chosen One. That's the origin of Green Lantern.
- With Lola having superpowers, the Karma Police should aim higher! What to do now? Take over the Royal Mint of Spain? Nah... that has been done.
- A series of unfortunate coincidences start the rumor that the actor Franz Perea is Titan. The mayor organizes a press conference where Perea will deliver a well-crafted explanation of the misunderstanding. But, in the hour of truth, he dropped the papers and said "Truth is... I am Titan" (cue end episode credits).
- Spoiler: After taking the pill, Julia got psy powers by touch. As long as she keeps touch with José Ramón, she can hear his thoughts. He does not want that, but she won't let him go, so he thought "In the last episode of Stranger Things...). She released him immediately.
- Super Loser: Javi got Flying Brick superpowers, but he's still the same loser he has always been. Superpowers only allow him to embarrass himself in new and more spectacular ways.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: After taking the pill and with seemingly no effects, José Ramón takes the garbage bag out of the apartment, and Litos crashes into him in the corridor. "What? Am I invisible?". He was still unaware that the pill made him invisible. Which means that Litos saw a garbage bag floating in the air, heard a voice apparently coming from nowhere, and dismissed all of it as some weird side effect of his drugs.
- Vast Bureaucracy: Tucker is back at his home planet, and needs to know who was the champion assigned to Earth. Unfortunately, the online system is down, and the data was lost. He had to spend some days seeking the info at the physical archives.
- We Are Everywhere: At the end of the second season it is revealed that there are reptilian alien infiltrated everywhere.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Javi wants to tell Lola right away, but Jose Ramón says no. Superheroes have to protect their Secret Identity to protect their loved ones from supervillains and enemies. When Lola finds out herself, she does not buy it. Which super villains? Titan is the only person in the world with superpowers. Which enemies? All he did with his powers was save people falling from buildings, catch falling structures before they do damage, save kittens trapped in tall trees... good actions, yes, but nothing that will send the underworld after him.
