Los Simuladores

Los Simuladores (The Pretenders) is an Argentine television series about a small team of con artists for hire, who use their skills to solve common people's life problems. The show ran for two seasons, from 2002 to 2003. It was very popular and highly acclaimed, winning a Golden Martín Fierro Award. A number of remakes have been produced for various markets worldwide. There are also plans to release a film based on the series.

The original series was produced and aired by the Argentine network Telefé, and ran for two seasons (the first one with 13 episodes and the last one with 11) in 2002 and 2003. The series is occasionally shown in reruns on Telefé. Remakes were soon produced in Chile and in Spain (the latter produced by Cuatro), using some of the same actors and production members. Another remake was made in Russia. Since 2008, Sony Pictures Television International has produced a remake for Mexican television network Televisa;^[1] as of late 2010, early production is starting on a third season, in which Salma Hayek is scheduled to appear.

Plot

The premise of the series centers on a team of four associates who ran a "simulation" business, solving the problems and needs of their clients by staging simulacros ("simulations", or confidence tricks) aimed at confusing whoever is giving their clients a problem (bosses, criminals, spouses, unscrupulous businessmen, etc.), thus helping the client come on top of the situation. The price the team charges for its services was exactly twice the cost of the simulation, as well as the client's promise to participate in future simulations (this led to characters who appeared in previous episodes re-appearing in later episodes as secondary actors and helpers for the team, giving the show a degree of continuity). The underlying philosophy used by the team was that sometimes what's legal is not fair, and sometimes what's fair is not legal.

In the second season of the show, a second Simuladores team was introduced. This group, known as the "B-Team" and composed of former clients of the original team (who had appeared on Season 1), had been created to take over "smaller" cases and free the original team for larger and more demanding assignments.

The show is influenced by the literature work Los Arboles Mueren de Pie, by Alejandro Casona. This show shared elements with American 80s series like Stingray, The A-Team, Vengeance Unlimited and The Equalizer.

Cast and description of characters

• Mario Santos (Federico D'Elía) (Logistics and planning): The head of the team, responsible for planning, logistics and contacting the clients. He is the most refined member, drinking exclusively earl grey tea. After each successful operation he appears smoking a cigar (except in episode 2.8, where he smoked a pipe), often lit by the person that was fooled.
• Pablo Lamponne (Alejandro Fiore) (Technology and transportation): The member in charge of finding the materials and elements needed for the simulations: props, costumes, vehicles, anything. He has a black mixed-breed dog, "Betún" ("Shoe Polish"), who takes singing lessons (episode 2.8) and plays a role in several simulations.
• Emilio Ravenna (Diego Peretti) (Characterization): The team's leading "actor", who does most of the characterizations required for the simulation (even though the other members also play acting roles). He usually takes the name of "Máximo Cozzetti", which he took from a fraudulent lender who ran an illegal lending business (episode 2.8).
• Gabriel Medina (Martín Seefeld) (Research): The team's investigator, in charge of obtaining information about the team's clients, the intended targets of the simulation and the elements of the problem the team must solve. His character is ambiguous, in the sense that he appears to be very tough during the simulations but in numerous occasions he displays himself as the most sensitive.

D'Elía, Seefeld, Peretti, and Fiore met while making an old action series, "Poliladron" in the mid-90's. Diego Peretti is a psychiatrist in real life. The actor who plays Feller, Jorge D'Elía, is in real life Federico D'Elía's (Santos) father. Santos is played by the same actor in the Argentine and Spanish versions.

Most of the characters' last names are from people known by Damian Szifron (producer), in most cases from his childhood in Ramos Mejía. "El asistente" ("The assistant"), is the member of the B-Team that does not have a name. However, in the episodes "Fuera de cálculo" and "La Brigada B", this character's last name is revealed to be "Gaona".

On the remakes of the show in other countries sometimes the names of the main characters are conserved.

When "Los Simuladores" are summoned by Santos, their cell phones ring like the show's opening theme, the tango "Cité Tango" (originally by Ástor Piazzolla, but the show uses the version by Gotan Project as soundtrack).

Episode guide

Season 1 (2002)

1. Tarjeta de navidad ("Christmas Card"): The team helps a struggling artist to get back together with his estranged wife.
2. Diagnóstico rectoscópico ("Rectoscopic Diagnosis"): The team helps a man to get rid of a loan shark and his thugs.
3. Seguro de desempleo ("Unemployment Insurance"): The team helps an old man to get his job back after being unceremoniously fired by his boss for being too old.
4. El testigo español ("The Spanish Witness"): The team helps a woman to get rid of a Spanish nosy lover who intends to settle in Argentina.
5. El joven simulador ("The Young Pretender"): The team works to help a young high school student to pass six hard exams in a single week.
6. El pequeño problema del gran hombre: ("The Big Man's Small Problem"): The team must help the President of Argentina to get his self-esteem (and his sexual performance) back up.
7. Fuera de cálculo ("Out of Calculations"): The team helps a pair of inexperienced thieves survive a bank robbery.
8. El Pacto Copérnico ("The Copernicus Pact"): A lawyer hires the team to make his wife want to leave and divorce him, clearing his conscience for cheating her.
9. El último héroe ("The Last Hero"): The team works to take all the money from a swindler who poses as an artistic agent, convincing him to enter a fake Survivor-like reality show which will keep him in the Chaco jungle for a full year.
10. Los impresentables ("The Unpresentables"): The team helps a girl's humble family look good for a dinner with her boyfriend's "perfect" family.
11. El colaborador foráneo ("The Foreign Collaborator"): The team helps a neighborhood get rid of a corrupt police officer who terrorizes the vicinity.
12. Marcela & Paul ("Marcela and Paul"): The team helps a recently divorced woman get over her depression by arranging a romantic night with whom she believes to be Paul McCartney.
13. Un trabajo involuntario ("An Involuntary Job"): The team must work for free to free Santos from a mobster who kidnaps him after refusing a job request..

Season 2 (2003)

1. Los cuatro notables ("The Remarkable Four"): To help the family of an ailing man, the team tries to convince an HMO doctor-turned-businessman that he has been nominated to the Nobel Prize for an old idealistic paper he wrote in his youth.
2. Z 9000 ("Z 9000"): The team convinces an abusive husband that he has a murderous clone stalking him.
3. La gargantilla de las cuatro estaciones ("The Necklace of the Four Seasons"): The team is contacted by a man that can't stop cheating on the woman he loves; however, they pretend to refuse the case and he becomes part of the simulation.
4. El Clan Motul ("The Motul Clan"): Simulating a vampires story, the team saves a retirement house from being sold.
5. El vengador infantil ("The Child Avenger"): The team helps a young comic-book lover to gain self-esteem and resist a bully.
6. El matrimonio mixto ("The Mixed Marriage"): A Jewish boy and a catholic girl hire the team to convince their respective parents that a mixed marriage is not a bad idea.
7. El Gran Desafío ("The Big Challenge"): U.S. agents capture the members of the B-Team after taking them for terrorists -which they were pretending to be for the purposes of a simulation-, leading the original team to try to infiltrate the FBI itself to free them.
8. Fin de semana de descanso ("Holiday Weekend"): Taking a small vacation, the team unmasks a crime being committed by a couple, the Sherlock Holmes way.
9. El debilitador social ("The Social Debilitator"): The team simulates a trial against a model manager that encourages the girls into unhealthy eating habits, charging him for "pre-crimes against Humanity".
10. El anillo de Salomón ("The Ring of Solomon"): A famous orchestra conductor hires the team to get rid of an obnoxious classical music fan.
11. Episodio final ("Final Episode"): A two-part episode. The victim from the ninth chapter of the first season comes back from the jungle seeking to kill the team for having tricked him and stolen from him almost one million pesos (at that time, almost USD200,000). The team then makes a simulation to make him believe that it was a test, and then train him to kill Osama Bin Laden. The team also works to convince an ambitious corporate employee to return home and help his father and sister with the family business. This is the team's final job, as they decide to quit for some time and go their separate ways.

References

External links

• Los simuladores at the Internet Movie Database
• Los Simuladores Argentina Brief review (Spanish)
• Los Simuladores Spain Official Website Nacho Barahona Film Editor (1st Season) (English)
• Los Simuladores Spain Homepage at Cuatro (Spanish)