Los Simuladores



"" Why should you stop solving problems, when you know you have a gift for it?"

Mario Santos, Insufferable Genius"

Los Simuladores is one of Argentina's greatest TV shows (having a 9.4/10 rating on IMDB.com), with excelent acting, outstanding scripts, and awesome production. Also, you probably never heard of it.

Los Simuladores (, or more accurately ) are four-man secret organization that can "solve all kinds of problems"... for a fee. And no, they're not the bad guys.

This group helps people who are desperately in need, by doing something they call drills which involve complex plans that one way or another solve the problem. This may or may not involve deceiving the person with said problem, and always involves deceiving a whole bunch of other people.

The sufferings of the person in need range from "owning money to the mob" to "having to introduce your family to your future in-laws", but could still ruin their life. Then some former client has to tell him/her how to contact Los Simuladores, who in turn will see if his/her problem is worth their time. Said person is usually charged a huge sum of money for the drill (twice the costs), but the group is willing to help those who can't pay it. Also, since those people are now in debt with Los Simuladores, they might have to provide help in future drills, which is an awesome resource of continuity nods.

A comedic action/adventure show with moments of psychological drama, it is a cult series in Argentina. Here you can see the article (which is really complete) on The Other Wiki.

Not related to The Pretender.

Los Simuladores includes examples of these tropes:

 * Air Vent Passageway: to help a boy pass an Apathetic Teacher's one-mistake-and-you're-screwed exam.
 * Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: The team has a plan to make them look likable.
 * Asshole Victim
 * Badass Normal: If they aren't, they pretend so.
 * Balanced Harem: Ravenna in the second season, altough it isn't a major plot in the series. He lives with three beautiful (and highly intellectual) women, who are deeply in love with him. However, he seems not to have the same feelings for them.
 * Bank Robbery: They help foil it.
 * Batman Gambit
 * Bittersweet Ending: At the very end of the series, Lamponne organized a meeting where, for the first time, they opened up emotionally to each other. Consequently, Medina couldn't help expressing his feelings, eventually he breaks into tears after telling his fellows, one by one, that he loves them. Much to Lamponne's shame, of course.
 * The Bully: The team helps a young comic-book lover resist one.
 * Catch Phrase: All by Mario Santos:
 * Stay calm
 * Be punctual and go alone
 * Comes in 3, 2, 1...
 * Got a light?
 * First, we plan an operative. Then we make a budget for it and you would pay exactly the double, for logistics and labor.
 * Celebrity Impersonator: The guys pick two Paul McCartney impersonators (one look-alike and one sound-alike) to help a woman leave her post-divorce depression.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Subverted. Through the entire second season, one of the members of the secondary brigade wears a black glove on his left hand. When asked about it in the finale, he just answers he hadn't realised the other glove was missing.
 * Cleopatra Nose: Maybe one of the reasons why Ravenna is so popular with women.
 * Cliff Hanger: The original first season finale.
 * Con Artists (siding with fairness, though)
 * Continuity Porn
 * Credits Jukebox: The closing credits feature real songs which are related to each episode. The song for the first Season Finale is "The Great Pretender".
 * Dark and Troubled Past:
 * Darker and Edgier: Most stories deal with daily problems, however, there are episodes which deal with bigger and significantly darker issues than the rest:
 * "An Involuntary Job" (13x01, in which the team is hired by a mobster who wants to free his partner from jail, responsible for the deaths of children in meal centers by buying spoiled food, and Santos decides not to take the case, only to ).
 * "The B Brigade" (07x02, where the team infiltrates the FBI to free their fellow partners of the B Brigade who ).
 * In the second season, there's the B plot of Milazzo trying to find the four protagonists to get revenge for what they did to him in "The Last Hero". Altough the second season has lots of comedy, there are small segments showing Milazzo and his tireless search for the team, all this in a very dark tone with noir/thriller elements.
 * The fate of.
 * Dirty Cops: Both authentic and fake.
 * Dub Name Change: OK, this trope only applies fully for the Russian version, but...
 * In Mexico, Ravenna is called Vargas, and Lamponne is called López.
 * In Spain, Ravenna is called Jota, and Lamponne is called León.
 * In Chile, Lamponne is called Lorca, and Mario Santos is called Ernesto Santos.
 * Exactly What It Says On the Tin: The final episode of the Argentine version is called... Final Episode.
 * Foreign Remake: For Chile, Mexico and Spain. Oh, and there is one remake for Russia as well, called Kings of the Game.
 * Jerkass: generally the victims of the drills, like in "The Last Hero", "The Spanish Witness", "Unemployment Insurance", "Z 9000" or "The Social Debilitator".
 * Four Man Band:
 * The Smart Guy: Santos (Logistics and Planning)
 * The Normal Guy: Medina (Research)
 * The Pervert/TheCasanova: Ravenna (Characterization)
 * The Big Guy/The Butt Monkey: Lamponne (Technics and Transportation)
 * The original project included a fifth member (the Token Girl).
 * Good Smoking Evil Smoking
 * I Have Your Leader:
 * The Matchmakers: In the very first episode.
 * No Export for You: Not only it was never translated to English, but it was barely exported to other Spanish-speaking countries (no one knows why). Instead, remakes were made.
 * Needs More Love
 * Once an Episode: Santos gets his cigar lit up just after a plan is sucessful (usually by an unsuspecting victim or a client). With a few crucial exceptions.
 * Our (Fake) Vampires Are Different
 * The Plan
 * Picky Eater: Cultured and refined people may have selective tastes in food, but Santos takes this to the extreme. The only tea he drinks is Earl Grey, and his water must be non-carbonated and sodium-free, among other quirks. But he's picky not only with food, but aestethically too. When he works on a plan, he's specific at such extremes as the type of wood and style of the chairs he sits on and the format and recording company of the music he hears.
 * Tear Jerkers:
 * Mariana's emotional breakdown on "The Social Debilitator",
 * Santos remembering his father in tears.
 * Manzione's crying because of
 * The last reunion, in which
 * The Power Of Music: Frequently used to trigger mental states and emotions in unsuspecting "victims".
 * Power Walk : The opening and closing credits.
 * Product Placement: Very well integrated, mostly businesses and vehicles.
 * Pseudonym / Nom De Guerre: In the simulations, the guys use names taken from their past victims (like "Máximo Cozzetti", always used by Ravenna), or even names from the show's crew (like "Juan Carlos Cabral").
 * In the second season we learn that name is a pseudonym too.
 * Real Song Theme Tune: Astor Piazzolla's "Cité Tango", which the team uses as their ringtone.
 * Reality Show: The guys arrange a fake, Survivor-like reality show
 * Refuge in Audacity: The script calls for very seldom gay kisses or blowjobs.
 * Regular Caller: Santos
 * Coupled with quirky Day in The Life-style sequences from the other 3 guys.
 * Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: Could apply in the very last episode. First we got the conclusion of Milazzo's story arc; a thriller/suspense plot where he is determined to take revenge on the team. The opening scene is quite intense with a creepy atmosphere, flashbacks, distorted sounds. Milazzo is not only a very inmoral guy, he's very skilled with weapons and martial arts (what makes him extremely dangerous too) and because of the team, he's erased from existence; he doesn't have an identity, home or belongings, and of course he's pissed as fuck. But  This does not mean it is bad, in fact, is an excellent episode and great series finale.
 * Special Edition Title: The series finale.
 * Starfish (Fake) Aliens
 * Team Pet: Betún (Lamponne's dog) in the second season, an Almost Normal Animal.
 * The War On Terror: Terror Alert Level ranging between Blue and Yellow.
 * Those Wacky (Fake) Nazis
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome
 * What the Hell Hero: Lamponne tends to this.
 * After "saving" a (deceived) mobster's life, the thankful wiseguys offer repaying the favor to him (who's disguised as a doctor)..
 * In the second season, after hearing about a particularly gross case of domestic violence,
 * Later, he finds a man who bullied him in middle school
 * The B-brigade sub-leader tells Santos about a male kindergarten teacher who beats the kids. Santos considers the case's not worth a plan, and instead he