Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Neon’ On Netflix, A Comedy About A Small-Town Guy Trying To Become A Reggaeton Star In Miami

We’ve seen music-industry comedies in recent years, but a lot of them involve hip hop in some fashion. A new series explores a reggaeton artist, who already has a viral YouTube hit, trying to make his way in that world after he and his friends move from a small-town in Florida to Miami.

NEON: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A reggaeton artist named Santi (Tyler Dean Flores) hears his name being chanted as he goes out to sing in front of a huge audience. He comes off stage, gets a FaceTime from Daddy Yankee and gets propositioned by three groupies. Then he wakes up.

The Gist: In reality, Santi is in a car with his friends: Vanessa (Emma Ferreira), aka Ness, who is his manager, and Felix (Jordan Mendoza), his artistic director and social media manager. All three have been friends for years in their small Florida town, but they’re taking advantage of a music video they made going viral to see if they can jumpstart Santi’s career in Miami.

They have an apartment lined up, but the landlady tells them that they’ll have to pay rent for all the furniture and even the utensils, and they won’t be able to move in for two days. The next day, they have a meeting with someone from a record company, and a very tight budget, so they have to sleep in the car. But things come off the furniture rental list as they have to pay to have the boot taken off their car.

The trio meet with Mia (Courtney Taylor), a record label rep who has seen and loved their video. She tells them, though, that just because Santi has a video that went viral doesn’t mean he’s ticketed for success, and points out a waiter at the restaurant as an example. But when she says she thinks the label will really be able to build Santi’s career, Ness pushes back about the advantages of staying independent. Mia, after being taken aback by Ness’ assertion, gets a call about a party that night, then leaves.

Santi and Felix wonder why Ness might have sunk their chances with Mia like that, and she mentions that she was the first one to see Santi’s talent, and she feels a label would push her out. But she has an idea: They’re going to crash that party, and uses some social media ninja skills to find out where it is.

When they get there, Mia is surprised to see them. But Santi wonders if her “You actually came” is her being impressed or her being annoyed. The DJ ends up playing Santi’s song, which gets the crowd going, and Santi and Ness know at that point they made the right choice.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Neon, created by Shea Serrano and Max Searle, has elements of Atlanta, but doesn’t quite take itself as seriously as that show does. It also reminds us of Dave, but is definitely less raunchy than that show is.

Our Take: Neon’s story is pretty simple; Santi tries to become a reggaeton star with the help of his two best friends. But in that simple story are moments where the characters reveal their motivations, even in the first episode. Serrano and Searle manage to give their four main characters enough layers in the first 30 minutes to hook viewers in and see just how Santi’s story plays out.

We know that the series is going to show the ups and downs of the music industry, and that part of the show is almost predictable: Santi and company are going to have their successes and failures, and be shown just how record labels take advantage of ambitious fame-seeking artists. Of course, there will be 2020s considerations, like the idea that shunning a label might be a higher climb, but is entirely possible in a TikTok world, with much bigger rewards for those who succeed. But for the most part, we’ll see Santi and company preparing for showcases, dealing with music label executives, and the whole nine yards.

What appeals to us is the friendship between Santi, Ness and Felix, as well as seeing how Mia tries to get ahead in an industry where being Black and a woman is still pretty rare. Like we said, we saw elements of that in the first episode, and we think that this is where the better story elements, as well as the funnier moments, will come from.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any.

Parting Shot: We see that Mia is actually an assistant for an executive at the record label, as he calls for his coffee and dry cleaning, and she scrambles to respond.

Sleeper Star: At some point, Jordana Brewster will guest as a mysterious businesswoman that might bolster Santi’s career. Since we like Brewster, we figured we’d mention her here.

Most Pilot-y Line: “No, no, I didn’t say today. I said ‘two day,” says the landlady in a pretty obvious language barrier joke.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Neon is a funny look at the music business in 2023, specifically surrounding the genre of reggaeton.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.