Among the many reasons this blog has slowed to a crawl of late is the intrusion of a bunch of fun projects all at once, the sort of stuff I’d never have imagined I’d even try.

One of them, El Pantera, is a Mexican action/drama series whose first season has recently begun airing in the United States on Univision every Sunday night at 8.

I’ve been in Mexico City a lot recently, acting as sort of a creative story consultant as they enter the second season.  Not sure when the second season episodes will air in the U.S., but for those of you who hablan the español, you might still enjoy a peek in the meantime.

I had nothing to do with the current episodes, mind you; what you’ll see for the moment is simply the deep end of the pool I dove into.  Y no podía hablar español mucho mejor que usted, lo prometo.  So this was fascinating and challenging and fun beyond words.  In either language.

Obviously, it’s a completely different kind of storytelling than anything I’ve ever tried.  El Pantera is a major departure in many ways from the telenovela format which has dominated Mexican airwaves ever since they first got airwaves, but it’s still steeped in various cultural traditions and expectations that I’m only now starting to appreciate.  I was brought in to help the producers push the show further toward North American norms, but I’d give you pesos to panes dulces that they did most of the teaching.

I’ll probably mention this again as a heads-up when the second season starts airing here, whether that’s in a couple of months or sometime next year.

I’ll miss it, to be honest.  The folks there were as fun to work with as anybody in my whole career.