\n\u2018Women Wearing Shoulder Pads\u2019<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Cordova, who cut his teeth as a writer on animated series like \u201cTuca & Bertie\u201d and \u201cUndone,\u201d first had the vague ideas for what would become \u201cWomen Wearing Shoulder Pads\u201d a few years before he pitched it, when he went to a puppet show at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater in Los Angeles. Around the same time, he had been watching Almod\u00f3var films on the Criterion Channel, and wondered what would happen if the two were mixed together.<\/p>\n
Prior to working on the show, Cordova had been a fan of melodramas: He cites women\u2019s pictures of the \u201940s like Joan Crawford\u2019s \u201cMildred Pierce\u201d as movies he adores, and said Almod\u00f3var\u2019s films like \u201cWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown\u201d speak to him because of their mix of camp and sincerity. Cordova said that, while trying to depict Ecuador on the show, he felt that tone was one that felt appropriate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up hearing all these family stories about Ecuador, and about things that happened in my family, and they were all so melodramatic and over the top and exaggerated,\u201d Cordova said. \u201cFor me, it had a connection to his world, to the way his films in the \u201880s are very colorful and over the top. And I wanted to see if I could put pluck a character from his world, and kind of put it in that world and see what would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
To capture the \u201980s aesthetic, Cordova researched the decade at the Downtown Los Angeles library, where he looked at design books from the time period to help him craft the bright outfits and fabulous power suits that give the show a distinctive look. One thing he wanted to set out to avoid was making a show that looked \u201cmovie \u201980s,\u201d a parody of the decade with jeggings and poofed up hair, but instead create something that felt like a piece of media from the actual time period like \u201cWorking Girl.\u201d To ground the fantasy, he and his team did research into Ecuador, taking research from the city to design the streets and<\/p>\n
Animation for the series was done by Cinema Fantasma, a Mexico City-based studio operated by brothers Arturo and Roy Ambriz. Working on the show was a challenge, Arturo said, because of the unusual scope of the series for a stop-motion production. He estimated about 60 miniatures were used during the creation of the series, many of which had multiple costume changes. \u201cEvery day we were running and trying to figure out where this puppet was required, if maybe the hand had become loose and it had to be replaced, which animator was going to be animating on which scenery,\u201d he told IndieWire.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually when you see stop-motion productions, there is one set with two characters and with the same clothing. But for this production, we needed to create a lot of different sets,\u201d Roy Ambriz told IndieWire. \u201cSome sets were used only for one shot or for one scene, but that creates and helps the melodrama. They\u2019re real people working, but they are miniatures, they are toys. So I think that\u2019s something comedic in the medium, this kind of animation is used to create a parody of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\u2019Women Wearing Shoulder Pads\u2019<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Through the full eight-episode season, \u201cWomen Wearing Shoulder Pads\u201d has plenty of laughs stemming from its absurdist fantasy world. But Cordova and his writing team keep the overall plot heightened drama, resulting in a series where the humor and the serious moments are often completely intertwined.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the stuff that made me laugh the most is going to be the stuff that people think is dramatic. This speech that is so emotional is what I was laughing about,\u201d Cordova said. \u201cIt\u2019s all done with puppets. That\u2019s the funny element of the show is to treat it dead serious, but then have this disconnect between real life and the reality of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen Wearing Shoulder Pads\u201d has not yet been renewed for a second season, but Cordova already has ideas for where he wants to take these characters should he get more episodes to play around with them. One of his plans? To slightly tone down the melodrama next season in favor of a full season that takes inspirations from other genres, including but not limited to film noir.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn researching this I got really into erotic thrillers,\u201d Cordova said. \u201cI think I want to go in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talking about his creative philosophy while making the series, Cordova cites his experience working with \u201cTuca & Bertie\u201d creator Lisa Hanawalt as particularly influential for how he went about running the series. The most important advice he learned from her? That it\u2019s OK to throw anything at the wall if you\u2019re bringing your own passions and obsessions to the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to show my whole ass,\u201d Cordova said. \u201cIt\u2019s okay to do something and just not be sure if it\u2019s gonna work, but you like it. I really tried to hold on to that while making the show. This show\u2019s not made to please anybody except me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen Wearing Shoulder Pads\u201d airs Sunday nights on Adult Swim. <\/em><\/p>\nBest of IndieWire<\/strong><\/p>\nSign up for Indiewire’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every episode of \u201cWomen Wearing Shoulder Pads\u201d averages out to around 11 minutes, but the show packs a lot in with what little time it has. In its first two episodes, which premiered August 17, the Adult Swim series includes murder plots; steamy lesbian sex scenes; a little girl riding around the streets of Quito, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1968577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[349285,349284,349283,349208,349213],"class_list":["post-1968576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-cordova","tag-ecuador","tag-gonzalo-cordova","tag-shoulder-pads","tag-women-wearing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u2018Women-Wearing-Shoulder-Pads-Channels-the-Spirit-of-Pedro-Almodovar.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1968577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}