Netflix’s Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld has one scene I can’t stop thinking about

I love a good show about teenagers battling supernatural entities while also facing the horrific ordeal of a high school student. That is, the one from Netflix Jentry Chau vs. the underworldin which a teenage girl with superpowers not only fights demons, but also… Also draws from Chinese mythology, it seems like it was created in a laboratory just for me. From the first trailer I had high expectations. With bright, bold colors and character designs, compelling character relationships and some very funky monsters and action scenes, it really ticked all my boxes.

But there’s one particular scene that I keep thinking about because it so perfectly illustrates the tone of this show and why it works so well.

(Ed. remark: This post contains spoilers for Jentry Chau vs. the underworld.)

Jentry Chau vs. the underworld begins when 16-year-old Jentry (Ali Wong) discovers that a demon is after her because of the forces she has suppressed for most of her life. She must return to her hometown in Texas with her great-aunt Gugu (Lori Tan Chinn) to close a portal to the underworld and prevent more monsters from wreaking havoc in the world. Meanwhile, she tries to fit in with her new (old?) classmates and slowly learns more about her own past and Gugu’s refusal to reveal more about her parents.

About halfway through the show, Jentry discovers that Kit (Woosung Kim), the new boy at school with big, dreamy eyes, is actually a Painted skin demon from Chinese mythology. This means that he is actually a shadowy, long-limbed demon who must construct elaborate disguises out of human skin to conceal his true form. Jentry initially feels hurt by this revelation, but eventually seeks his help to create a skin mold in her image for a heist.

Cue a montage of the two of them carefully sewing together a Jentry skin in Kit’s dimly lit workshop as a soft romantic song plays. Kit cuts a roll of meat to best mimic Jentry’s body, then gently tilts her face upward so he can measure her chin. Jentry is mildly disgusted when Kit rummages through a bin of body parts and asks him to warn her if he picks at the eyes, to which he replies that he already knows the exact match for her eyes because he’s imagined them so many times – and Jentry blushes.

It’s a bit dirty. It’s incredibly intimate. It’s creepy yet super romantic. It’s admirably reminiscent of a budding high school romance, and also like something out The silence of the lambs. But it’s emblematic of how showrunner Echo Wu has wonderfully leaned into the wonderfully strange, both with the paranormal elements and the more grounded stakes.

The show leans quite heavily on the more terrifying aspects of Chinese mythology, such as a journey to Diyu, the Taoist version of hell, where souls are tortured for centuries. The bright colors and cartoonish character designs help plant the show firmly in PG territory, but it gets a little freaky in a good way. For example, at one point the house ghosts need to generate some more ectoplasm, so one of them volunteers to be brutally mutilated – off-screen, but with some screaming – to generate just a splash of magical ghost fluid. And even with those darker elements, the tone never becomes too somber, and much of the fun comes from the strange situations and paranormal entities that Jentry and her friends encounter.

And because Wu taps into a cultural mythos that American animation has yet to fully explore, none of the supernatural storylines feel overdone (do we really need another brooding vampire when we can have a Painted Skin demon?). American cartoons have long flirted with Chinese mythology, without actually delivering on anything. American Dragon: Jake Long And The Life and Times of Juniper Leetwo animated shows that aired in the mid-2000s also featured a young Chinese-American protagonist, accompanied by an older relative, fighting monsters – but both shows primarily prioritized Western mythology and only occasionally brought in Chinese legends. Jentry Chau does the opposite: by default, everything Jentry encounters comes from Chinese mythology, mixing in other cultural perspectives without assuming the default is Western. It’s a unique lens that really makes the show shine and avoids banal clichés.

But even with the fun paranormal side, Wu never loses sight of the more realistic lines of the show. Ultimately, Jentry is a teenage girl who just wants to be normal. Her relationships with her friends, her mysterious great-aunt, and her own self may be colored by the paranormal, but they all feel very rooted in realism. The scene with Kit works so well because even though it’s a demon making a skin suit, it’s also about teenage crushes and complicated feelings (and the fact that those complicated feelings come from the fact that your crush is actually a demonic creature). Jentry Chau vs. the underworld is certainly not the only supernatural high school romp, but Wu makes sure to balance the fantastical elements with the real.

Yet the show works so well because Wu isn’t afraid to get weird. As both a coming-of-age story and a supernatural show, Jentry Chau could easily fall into some of the genre’s clichéd pitfalls. But Wu doesn’t let that happen, simply embracing the funkier beats and really making them sing. It’s in the little details in the background, like Jentry’s Lisa Frank leopard poster and Gugu’s crocodiles. And it also shows up in the bigger scenes, like that romantic moment between Jentry and Kit, set against the sewing of a suit of meat. Now that is something special – and the whole show is a special, weird gem that sparkles with neon intensity.

Jentry Chau vs. the underworld is now available to stream on Netflix.