Julián Cerati
Overview
An inept magician pulls off the trick of his life: accidentally disappearing a wanted criminal during a police raid. Now he's going to pay for that.
Seasons
- Status
- Returning Series
- Seasons
- 2 seasons
- Episodes
- 15 episodes
- First aired
- May 15, 2020
Cast
7 people
Reviews
6 min readThe Magician Who Couldn’t Disappear Himself
I keep thinking about the first time Juan "Juanquini" Morales makes a man vanish. It’s not the trick itself that lingers—it’s the look on his face. There he is, mid-performance in some dingy Bogotá nightclub, sweat staining his sequined jacket, his hands trembling as he pulls the curtain shut.
The audience (what’s left of it) groans. The cops burst in. And then—poof.
The drug lord Nato is gone. Not in the way magic tricks usually work, with trapdoors or sleight of hand, but in the way bad luck works: suddenly, inexplicably, and with consequences Juanquini never saw coming. The camera lingers on his face, a mix of panic and the faintest flicker of hope, as if he’s just realized he might finally be good at something.
It’s the best moment in The Unremarkable Juanquini, and it’s over in seconds.
The problem is that the rest of the series can’t decide what to do with that moment. Is it the setup for a darkly comic crime caper? A family dramedy about scraping by in a city that’s left you behind?
A satire of Colombia’s underworld? The Unremarkable Juanquini tries on all three like ill-fitting costumes, and the result is a show that’s as tonally unsteady as its protagonist’s magic tricks. One minute, it’s a broad farce about a man on the run from both the law and a cartel; the next, it’s a sentimental story about a father trying to reconnect with his estranged son. The shifts aren’t just jarring—they feel like the work of a show that’s afraid to commit to any one idea, lest it alienate some hypothetical audience.
That indecision is a shame, because when the series leans into its absurdity, it’s genuinely funny. Take the scene where Juanquini, desperate to prove his innocence, breaks into a police station to steal evidence. The plan is simple: distract the officer at the front desk with a magic trick, then sneak in.
The execution is anything but. The trick—a sad, half-hearted card flourish—fails to impress. The officer stares at him, unimpressed.
Juanquini, sweating through his cheap suit, tries again. Another flourish. Another blank stare.
It’s the kind of scene that could’ve been a quick gag, but the show stretches it out, letting the silence grow until it’s almost painful. And then, just as you’re about to look away, Juanquini does something unexpected: he gives up. No punchline, no last-ditch effort to save face.
Audience Opinions
Audience 7.5/10
"A lighthearted Colombian comedy with charm but predictable humor that keeps it from standing out."
Viewers appreciate the show’s playful tone and the cast’s comedic timing, particularly Julián Cerati’s portrayal of the bumbling magician Juanquini. However, the humor often relies on familiar tropes, leaving some wishing for more originality or depth in the storytelling. The series works best as a casual, undemanding watch rather than a laugh-out-loud hit.
What viewers praise
- Charming lead performance Julián Cerati’s portrayal of Juanquini is widely seen as the highlight, bringing a goofy yet endearing energy to the role.
- Lighthearted tone The series is praised for its easygoing, feel-good vibe, making it a decent choice for relaxed viewing.
- Fun premise The accidental disappearance of a criminal during a magic act provides a quirky and amusing setup for the story.
Common complaints
- Predictable humor Many find the jokes and situations too familiar, lacking the freshness needed to make the comedy truly memorable.
- Thin character development Supporting characters often feel underdeveloped, leaving the story reliant on Juanquini’s antics rather than a richer ensemble.
Recommended for
Fans of light comedy Julián Cerati admirers Casual TV watchers Colombian comedy enthusiasts
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsA party magician vanished a wanted man, then the lead vanished for two weeks of Covid
The English catalog title is The Unremarkable Juanquini. The Spanish title is Chichipatos. Dago Garcia created it. Caracol Television produced it for Netflix. Juan Camilo Pinzon directed. latestnetflix.com's read is that Antonio Sanint plays Juan Morales, called Juanquini, a kids-party magician who accidentally makes a wanted criminal disappear during a raid and cannot put him back.
,
Wikipedia files two seasons and 15 episodes. Season 1 is seven episodes, all dated 15 May 2020. Season 2 is eight episodes, all dated 30 April 2021. Runtimes sit between 24 and 39 minutes. Maria Cecilia Sanchez plays Margot. Julian Cerati plays Samuel. Mariana Gomez plays Monica. Julio Cesar Herrera plays El Capi Gonzalez. Biassini Segura plays El Nato. Netflix's own page still bills Sanint, Sanchez, and Gomez first, with Garcia as creator. ,
The first season's joke is incompetence. The second season's gossip is the kidnap. El Universal printed the logline in April 2021. El Nato Orduz kidnaps the Morales family and parks them in the same hideout as his own. He tries to put Juanquini on the payroll. Lucho hunts them with Captain Gonzalez. Sanint told the paper another family member would end up with powers. He also said they shot a Christmas prequel in the middle of Covid, then spent six months on season 2, then stopped for 15 days because he got infected. He recovered and they went back.
El Tiempo talked to Biassini Segura the day before the season 2 drop. "The only thing my character wants is to be loved and accepted," he said of El Nato. Viewers abroad told him Chichipatos "has the tone of what the country is and what they miss about it." He said Dago Garcia reads Colombia through family. He had taken heat for playing a narco. He called it a stereotype with many sides and said they could laugh at it. He wanted Orduz to get a shot at redemption.
AS Colombia noted the first season's three India Catalina nominations before the 2021 ceremony. La Opinion's nominee list puts Chichipatos in Mejor Produccion Audiovisual de Humor. Hernan Garcia is up for art direction. Biassini Segura is up for best antagonist. Those are nominations, not wins. ,
Producer credit on the El Universal piece also names Maria Isabel Paramo. The English title is a shrug. The Spanish title is a local insult for cheap hustlers. Garcia's shop has been selling Colombian farce for years. Netflix kept the Spanish name on the season 2 trailer card even while the US row says The Unremarkable Juanquini. Sanint's two-week Covid halt is the production fact the interviews actually gave. The rest is a magician who cannot reverse the one trick that worked. ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
Series
Similar Series
Related series ranked by rating and popularity.
