Harina (Flour) is a 2022 Mexican Amazon Prime exclusive series based on a sketch of the same name
by comedy collective Backdoor.
The series follows two Mexico City cops, Lieutenant Edson Prieto and Officer Rosario Ramírez, after they both appear in a viral video where the former snorts cocaine from a drug bust while the latter watches in shock (said video being the original sketch, which actually went viral in real life). In the aftermath, Lt. Prieto has to deal with a messy divorce and the custody of his daughter Isabella (who admires him deeply). Back at the precinct, as punishment, he and Ramírez get reassigned to patrol “El Cagadero” note as partners. Frustrated by her partner’s cynical, crooked ways, and her new job as a glorified residential area security guard, officer Ramírez jumps at the chance to do actual police work when they discover a Serial Killer on the lose: A mysterious murderer that targets influencers and viral celebrities and cuts off their thumbs, dubbed “The Canceller” by Ramirez. In spite of direct orders, Prieto and Ramírez agree to pursue The Canceller, all while dealing with their own personal lives.
Dealing with generous amounts of drugs, sex, Black Comedy, and a fairly compelling mystery plot, Harina marks the first time Backdoor ventures into making a full length tv series, featuring recurring cast members from the sketches (which can be found on the official Backdoor Youtube channel). Due to the nature of the source material, the series offers a lot of meta commentary on the nature of internet fame and its influence on society (particularly Mexican society).
Although it is a comedy first and foremost, the plot revolves heavily around the mystery of The Canceller. As such, beware of spoilers.
A second season was confimed in September 2023.
Tropes in Harina
- Adaptation Expansion: Pretty much inevitable when a full TV series is based on a single web video sketch. In the sketch, the Lieutenant and Ramírez were simply called just that, "Lieutenant" and "Ramírez". In the series, we learn their names are Edson Prieto and Rosario Ramírez.
- Ambiguously Bi: Jorge acts overly flirty towards most women, but he also makes some dubious statements about men here and there...Jorge: I mean, I don't see men with lust, but making love with himnote must be a beautiful experience.
- Anti-Hero: Lt. Edson Prieto, full stop. His methods may be less than ethical (or legal), but he does want to stop the Canceller and do the right thing for his daughter's sake. Officer Ramírez grows into this, too, when it becomes clear the other cops won't help her stop the killer.
- By-the-Book Cop: Officer Rosario Ramírez, a naïve rookie cop who's determined to play by the rules and actually enforce the law, much to the annoyance of Lt. Prieto
- We later learn in flashbacks that Prieto used to be like this too, before the harsh realities of the job and the broken system soured him into the corrupt cynic we know and love.
- Cowboy Cop: Both Prieto and Ramírez are this to a degree, starting when they refuse to follow orders to drop the Canceller case.
- Dirty Cop: Everyone on the force save for Ramírez applies. Prieto is the most prominent example. His former mentor, Ramos, was even worse than him (he had to learn it from somewhere, after all). The other officers are not much better, as Trujillo, Irma, and JR are shown using actual physical force on a bouncer to enter a party.
- Dirty Old Woman: An old lady at El Cagadero flirts big time with Edson. Jorge ends up taking one for the team and hooking up with her so Prieto and Ramírez can investigate the house of one of the Canceller's victims.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Ramos, Prieto's former partner, loves to play pranks with subjects you just don't mess around with:
- Before even meeting Prieto formally, he puts a gun to his head and pretends to be a cartel hitman out to kill him and his family.
- When they meet again after years apart, Ramos comes out to greet him with sunglasses and blindly pointing a shotgun at the sky, then claims he went blind after catching syphilis from a prostitute both he and Prieto slept with. He only breaks out laughing after Prieto starts freaking out.
- And one last time, while he and Prieto are chilling in a hot tub, he talks about how his daughter won't talk to him anymore and then fakes a fit of grief, places a gun to his head and pulls the trigger, only to reveal the gun's unloaded and break into laughter yet again.
- Fingertip Drug Analysis / Title Drop: The comedy sketch on which this series is based has Lt. Prieto taste a package of cocaine, and getting very high on it while loudly saying it's definitely flour (harina) so he can stay with it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lt. Prieto. A crass, foul mouthed Crooked Cop that practices every vice under the sun, who also loves his daughter more than anything in the world and is willing to kick his addiction to keep her in his life.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Yayo Scheffer. An obnoxious Upper-Class Twit and compulsive liar who overstates all of his achievements. He figures out that Prieto is in recovery and calls him brave... Right before turning around and spiking his glass of water with something. Whatever it is, it gets Prieto high as a kite and he goes viral, again, something that gets him fired from the police and convinces his ex-wife of taking their daughter far away to the United States.
- Kicked Upstairs: A cop being assigned to "The Crapyard" amounts to this: Cops are sent to an upscale residential area with little actual crime where they can't cause too much trouble. It's very boring and tedious work, and according to Prieto, you miss out on "benefits" (i.e. bribes).
- Police Brutality: Trujillo, Irma, and JR use this at least once, on-screen. They are never punished for this.
- Ramírez is accused of this early in the series. She tackles a guy trying to break into a house which may or may not be hisnote . The suspect, an upper class white guy, then starts screaming "BLACK LIVES MATTER!"
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The series shows what happened to Prieto after starring in the viral (both in-universe and out) video that named the series, and turns out it's a pretty realistic outcome from what happens when someone makes a fool out of themselves while high on cocaine while they are supposed to be doing their job and is caught on video: He has to deal with messy divorce and custody proceedings of his daughter, and he and his partner Ramírez were punished by essentially being demoted (being reassigned to patrol a posh neighborhood with very little crime, thus meaning very boring and tedious work).
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Isabella, Prieto's 8-year-old daughter, is shunned by her friends. Why? Because she tied a boy to a chair and soaked him with a garden hose until he told her who had a crush on her. Lt. Prieto is specially troubled, because she thinks that's what he does to bad guys so they confessnote .
- Also there's this charming bit when the protagonists try to interrogate a little girl:
Girl: I didn't see anything, you damn pigs, and even if I did I wouldn't tell you!
