Stream It Or Skip It: ‘This Fool’ Season 2 On Hulu, Where It’s Always Sunny And Foolish In South Central L.A.

Previously on This Fool…the first season ended with Michael Imperioli’s Minister Payne shutting down Hugs Not Thugs after failing to cash in on an indecent $15 million proposal, Frankie Quinones getting a new job as a security guard, Chris Estrada’s Julio breaking up with Maggie once again and shacking up with Luis in the garage next door to Julio’s mother and grandmother. So now what?

THIS FOOL – SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “The Rooster” episode then opens with a close-up of an actual rooster, which we see and hear crowing in the driveway outside of the garage where Luis and Julio have decamped.

The Gist: Having woken up at 5:57 a.m. by the rooster, Luis starts his day by stretching, ironing his uniform, drinking coffee, only to be interrupted by tripping over Julio’s clothes on the floor. The roles have reversed from season one’s opener, as Luis now yells at Julio: “Get a job!” To which Julio retorts: “You should try giving up. This shit is tight.” 

Darius, their neighbor across the street, however, wants the rooster gone, as he works the graveyard shift and can’t sleep when he gets home. Darius warns the rooster might reignite the race wars of the 1990s, but again, Julio cannot bring himself to care. Instead, he goes back inside, watching Ice Road Truckers and stalking Maggie’s Instagram. Their landlord, Don Emilio, meanwhile, is packing heat and threatens to kill anyone who touches his rooster.

At the suit store, Luis practices his intimidation tactics on a mannequin, only for the owner, John (Carl Crudup) to suggest he calm down: “Just go sit on your stool and be cool, man.” If he needs to expend energy, he can scrub the phallic graffiti off of the glass windows. Following Luis home from work, we see how much he wants to throw down with anyone in his path, until he gets to his nightly stop at the grocery store, where the cashier Ruby (Ivana Rojas) has caught his fancy. She tells Luis she’s going to Norway, but how? “I’ve got a system.” She saves her earnings from the supermarket, and works one day a week at the airport baggage claim to score free flights anywhere, which makes her a regular “Antonia Bourdain” in Luis’s eyes. The flirting seems to be working, but that’s interrupted by another customer ringing the bell to order ice cream.

Julio does care enough, though, to assemble a neighborhood gathering to confront Don Emilio about the rooster, where Darius and his wife reveal it’s impacting their sex life, another neighbor says he left El Salvador because of death squads…and the roosters, and they again threaten a race war and warn not to force Mr. Chen to pick a side. When they suggest they might expose Don Emilio for illegally renting his garage out, he fires back by revealing he knows all of their secrets. Stalemate?! Later overnight, someone attempts to lure the rooster away with a worm on a fishing hook line, but Don Emilio fires his gun. At dawn, Don Emilio wakes everyone up with mariachi music on his boombox.

Back at the suit store, Luis tricks a customer into stealing a tie so he can handcuff him, only for the boss to let him go, running away still cuffed to a mannequin. John counsels Luis, suggesting he settle down with a nice woman, lest he continue following a path of violence and turn into James Bond, killing 597 people and having sex with 58 women: “oh I counted.” Or at least scrub off another graffiti penis from the window.

But Luis gets bumped at the supermarket, dropping the flowers he bought for Ruby, and goes off on the guy while bystanders film him. Ruby blasts him with a fire extinguisher to cool the situation, yells at both of them to leave the store, but not before she can write her phone number on Luis’s arm.

That night, the whole neighborhood comes for the rooster, but a drunken Don Emilio draws his gun to make everyone scatter. Darius dares him to shoot, either him or the rooster. Julio swoops in to take the rooster. “He’s all I have.” Not really, though. He still has Luis, too.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of?: Now that they’ve left Hugs Not Thugs behind, presumably that gives Luis and Julio more time to cast off on any number of misadventures based on bad ideas, right? The second season gives off vibes of both It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and at one point, even shades of both Atlanta and Curb Your Enthusiasm?

Our Take: The first episode of this season feels like a completely different show, or hints at evolving into something very different from what the second season ultimately becomes. So take “The Rooster” for what it’s worth. Which is a lot of crowing.

That does say something for where Julio and Luis are at, at this point in their lives. Whether employed or unemployed, they both find themselves this close to yelling at the skies, much like the rooster parked outside their makeshift home.

I found myself streaming the whole season in a day, in part just to find out where the second season was heading. Because the second episode made that even less clear, somehow. Eventually, several of the characters you’d come to know and love from the first season to make their way back into the lives of Julio and Luis. More thugs. Less hugs. More…rhymes with hugs?

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: A closing card pays tribute to a mountain lion that roamed Griffith Park in Los Angeles for more than a decade: RIP P-22 “An L.A. Legend (2010-2022)”

Sleeper Star: Ivana Rojas as Ruby, Luis’s potential love interest, brings a much-needed spark to the proceedings. She seems like she’s got things figured out with her system, but can any of that rub off on Luis, or even Julio? Only time will tell.

Our Call: You’ll just have to STREAM IT like I did to find out why I made those comparisons to It’s Always Sunny, Atlanta and Curb.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.