{{for|the Mexican adaptation|Los simuladores (Mexican TV series)}} {{More citations needed|date=March 2011}} {{Infobox television | image = Los Simuladores (Argentine TV Series).jpg | caption = Promotional poster | genre = {{Plainlist| * Comedy drama * Suspense * Mystery * Black comedy * Satire * Thriller }} | camera = Multicamera setup | runtime = {{Plainlist| * 40–69 minutes * 109 minutes (series finale) }} | creator = Damián Szifron | director = Damián Szifron | writer = {{Plainlist| * Gustavo Malajovich * Diego Peretti * Damián Szifron * Patricio Vega }} | producer = | executive_producer = Juan Carlos Cabral | cinematography = Alejandro Silva Corbalán | voices = | starring = {{Plainlist| * Federico D'Elía * Alejandro Fiore * Diego Peretti * Martín Seefeld }} | narrator = | open_theme = "Cité Tango" by Astor Piazzolla | end_theme = | country = Argentina | language = Spanish | company = Telefe Contenidos | network = Telefe | first_aired = {{start date|2002|3|21|df=y}} | last_aired = {{end date|2004|1|5|df=y}} | num_seasons = 2 | num_episodes = 24 | list_episodes = }} '''''Los simuladores''''' ({{langx|en|italic=yes|The Pretenders}}) is an Argentine television series created by Damián Szifron for Telefe. Starring Federico D'Elía, Alejandro Fiore, Diego Peretti, and Martín Seefeld, it follows 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 2004. It was very popular and highly acclaimed, winning a Golden Martín Fierro Award.
Following its original run, the series was occasionally shown in reruns on Telefe. Remakes were produced in Chile, Spain (with D'Elía reprising his role), Russia, and Mexico.<ref>[https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982319.html?categoryid=1043&cs=1 SPTI to make series for Televisa] Variety.</ref>
A feature film sequel to the series was announced in March 2022, with the main cast returning and Szifron serving as the screenwriter and director.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-03-18 |title=Vuelven Los simuladores: confirmaron para 2024 el estreno de la película con el elenco original y Damián Szifron como director |url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/cine/vuelven-los-simuladores-confirmaron-para-2024-el-estreno-de-la-pelicula-con-el-elenco-original-y-nid18032022/ |access-date=2022-03-18 |website=LA NACION |language=es}}</ref> Originally scheduled to be released in 2024, it was later delayed indefinitely and ultimately cancelled.
==Premise== The series centers on a team of four associates who run a "simulation" business, solving the problems and needs of their clients by staging ''simulacros'' ("simulations", or confidence tricks) aimed at staging events that help the client come on top of the situation. The price the team charges for its services is exactly twice the cost of the simulation, as well as the client's promise to participate in future simulations. This leads to characters who appeared in previous episodes reappearing 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 is 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 is introduced. This group, known as the "B-Team" and composed of former clients of the original team (who had appeared on season 1), has 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 árboles mueren de pie'' (1949) by Alejandro Casona. This show shared elements with American 80s series like ''Stingray'', ''The A-Team'', ''Vengeance Unlimited'', and ''The Equalizer''.
==Cast and characters== ===Main=== * Federico D'Elía as Mario Santos:<br />The head of the team, responsible for planning, logistics and contacting the clients. He is the most refined member. He is fond of drinking Earl Grey tea, listening to classical music, reading classic French literature, and eating fine, cosmopolitan cuisine. After each successful operation he appears smoking a cigar, often lit by the person that was fooled. He is the only member of the team to be a widower, since his wife died roughly five years before the start of the series. * Alejandro Fiore as Pablo Lamponne:<br />The member in charge of finding the materials and elements needed for the simulations. He has a black mixed-breed dog, "Betún" ("Shoe Polish"), who plays a role in several simulations. He is the most reserved member of the team, being very uncomfortable talking about his feelings or his private life. * Diego Peretti as Emilio Ravenna:<br />The team's leading "actor", who does most of the characterizations required for the simulation. He usually takes the name of "Máximo Cozzetti", which he took from a fraudulent lender who ran an illegal lending business. He's a charismatic playboy, shown to be dating multiple women at the same time. * Martín Seefeld as Gabriel Medina:<br />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. He is the most sensitive member of the team, appearing to be very tough and stoic in public, but in truth being very openly emotional and kindhearted with his friends and family. He became divorced shortly before the time when the show takes place, something that he copes with throughout the first season.
===Recurring=== * Pasta Dioguardi as Martín Vanegas * Juan Carlos Ricci as Arturo Gaona * Jorge D'Elía as José Feller * Fernando Sureda as Lucio Bonelli * Claudio Rissi as Bernardo Galván (season 1, guest season 2) * Humberto Serrano as Juan Dumas (season 1, guest season 2) * Miguel Dedovich as Miguens (season 1, guest season 2) * Martín Coria as Roberto Ávalos (season 1, guest season 2) * César Vianco as Franco Milazzo (season 2, guest season 1) * Daniel Valenzuela as Hugo Maresca * Chang Sung Kim as Tamazaki * Boy Olmi as José Zarazola * Patrick Aduma as Douglas Jones * Beatriz Thibaudin as Ravenna's mother (season 2) * Alejandro Awada as Marcos Molero (season 2)
==Episodes== {{Series overview | seriesT = Season
| color1 = #689CCF | link1 = #Season 1 (2002) | episodes1 = 13 | start1 = {{Start date|2002|03|21|df=yes}} | end1 = {{End date|2002|06|19|df=yes}}
| color2 = #415F3A | link2 = #Season 2 (2003–2004) | episodes2 = 11 | start2 = {{Start date|2003|05|26|df=yes}} | end2 = {{End date|2004|01|05|df=yes}} }}
===Season 1 (2002)=== {{Episode table |background=#689CCF |overall=5 |season=5 |title=32 |airdate=18 |episodes= {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 1 | EpisodeNumber2 = 1 | Title = Tarjeta de Navidad | RAltTitle = {{small|(Christmas Card)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|03|21|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team–Mario Santos, Pablo Lamponne, Emilio Ravenna, and Gabriel Medina–helps struggling artist Bernardo Galván get back together with his estranged wife Claudia.{{Episode cast}} Carola Reyna, Claudio Rissi | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 2 | EpisodeNumber2 = 2 | Title = Diagnóstico rectoscópico | RAltTitle = {{small|(Rectoscopic Diagnosis)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|03|28|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team helps Martín Vanegas to get rid of loan shark Fernando Laguzzi and his thugs.{{Episode cast}} Manuel Vicente, Pasta Dioguardi | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 3 | EpisodeNumber2 = 3 | Title = Seguro de desempleo | RAltTitle = {{small|(Unemployment Insurance)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|04|04|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team helps José Feller to get his job back after being unceremoniously fired by his boss Romagnoli for being too old.{{Episode cast}} Jorge D'Elía, Luis Machín | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 4 | EpisodeNumber2 = 4 | Title = El testigo español | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Spanish Witness)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|04|11|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team helps Alicia Corsiglia to get rid of her nosy, Spanish former lover Carlos Villarreal who is trying to pressure her into restarting their affair.{{Episode cast}} Andrea Politti, Osvaldo Santoro | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 5 | EpisodeNumber2 = 5 | Title = El joven simulador | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Young Pretender)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|04|18|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team is hired by architect Miguens, whose wife is sick and needs to relax, so that they can help his son Matías to pass seven hard exams in a single week, thus keeping him from flunking the year and stressing out his sick mother.{{Episode cast}} Nazareno Casero, Miguel Dedovich | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 6 | EpisodeNumber2 = 6 | Title = El pequeño problema del gran hombre | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Big Man's Small Problem)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|04|25|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team must help the President of Argentina, Agustín Mendilaharzu, to get his self-esteem (and his sexual performance) back up.{{Episode cast}} Héctor Bidonde, Marita Ballesteros | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 7 | EpisodeNumber2 = 7 | Title = Fuera de cálculo | RAltTitle = {{small|(Out of Calculations)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|05|02|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = While trying to extract some blackmail material from a safety deposit box, Santos and Lamponne get caught up in a botched bank robbery and must help the thieves escape in order to save their lives and those of the other hostages.{{Episode cast}} Emilio Bardi, Vando Villamil, Joselo Bela, Martín Adjemián, Jorge Prado | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 8 | EpisodeNumber2 = 8 | Title = El pacto copérnico | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Copernicus Pact)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|05|15|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = Adulterous lawyer José Zarazola hires the team to make his wife Laura ''want'' to leave him, clearing his conscience for cheating on her.{{Episode cast}} Boy Olmi, Claribel Medina, Gabriel Goity | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 9 | EpisodeNumber2 = 9 | Title = El último héroe | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Last Hero)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|05|22|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team works to take all the money from Franco Milazzo, 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.{{Episode cast}} César Vianco, Daniel Valenzuela, Santiago Bal | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 10 | EpisodeNumber2 = 10 | Title = Los impresentables | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Unpresentables)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|05|29|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team helps Clara Molina's crass, lower-class family look good for a dinner with her boyfriend Federico's upper-class family.{{Episode cast}} Érica Rivas, Cacho Espíndola, Mabel Pessen | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 11 | EpisodeNumber2 = 11 | Title = El colaborador foráneo | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Foreign Collaborator)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|06|05|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team helps a neighborhood get rid of corrupt police officer Diego Crucitti who terrorizes the vicinity.{{Episode cast}} Lorenzo Quinteros, Fabio Aste, José María Rivara | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 12 | EpisodeNumber2 = 12 | Title = Marcela & Paul | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|06|12|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team helps Marcela, a recently divorced woman, get over her depression by arranging a romantic night with whom she believes to be Paul McCartney.{{Episode cast}} Mónica Galán, Malena Solda | LineColor = 689CCF }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 13 | EpisodeNumber2 = 13 | Title = Un trabajo involuntario | RAltTitle = {{small|(An Involuntary Job)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2002|06|19|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team must work for free to free Santos from a mobster who kidnaps him after refusing a job request.{{Episode cast}} Rolo Puente, Tony Vilas, Pachi Armas | LineColor = 689CCF }} }}
===Season 2 (2003–2004)=== {{Episode table |background=#415F3A |overall=5 |season=5 |title=32 |airdate=18 |episodes= {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 14 | EpisodeNumber2 = 1 | Title = Los cuatro notables | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Remarkable Four)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|05|26|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = 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.{{Episode cast}} Norberto Díaz, Atilio Pozzobón, María Marull | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 15 | EpisodeNumber2 = 2 | Title = Z-9000 | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|06|02|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team convinces Beatriz Ledesma's abusive husband Carlos Lorenzo that he has a murderous clone stalking him.{{Episode cast}} Mónica Villa, Luis Luque | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 16 | EpisodeNumber2 = 3 | Title = La gargantilla de las cuatro estaciones | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Necklace of the Four Seasons)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|06|09|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team is contacted by engineer Alejandro Barack who can't stop thinking on sleeping with other women while in a relationship with Corina Lázaro; however, they pretend to refuse the case and he becomes part of the simulation.{{Episode cast}} Federico Olivera, Eleonora Wexler | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 17 | EpisodeNumber2 = 4 | Title = El clan Motul | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Motul Clan)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|06|16|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = Simulating a vampires story, the team saves a retirement house from being sold by its owner Luis Torrejón.{{Episode cast}} Mario Alarcón, Guido Gorgatti, Sandra Di Milo | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 18 | EpisodeNumber2 = 5 | Title = El vengador infantil | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Child Avenger)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|06|23|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team helps young comic-book lover Pablo Herdel to gain self-esteem and resist a bully.{{Episode cast}} Luciano Acosta, Pablo Iemma, Fernando Caride, Alejandro Awada | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 19 | EpisodeNumber2 = 6 | Title = El matrimonio mixto | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Mixed Marriage)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|06|30|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = A Jewish boy, Gustavo Brosky, and a catholic girl, Paula Rivera, hire the team to convince their respective parents that a mixed marriage is not a bad idea.{{Episode cast}} Jimena La Torre, Nicolás Mateo, Raúl Rizzo, Rita Terranova, Juan Manuel Tenuta, Alejandra Da Passano | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 20 | EpisodeNumber2 = 7 | Title = La brigada B | RAltTitle = {{small|(The B-Team)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|07|07|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = 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.{{Episode cast}} Jorge D'Elía, Juan Carlos Ricci, Pasta Dioguardi, Fernando Sureda | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 21 | EpisodeNumber2 = 8 | Title = Fin de semana de descanso | RAltTitle = {{small|(Holiday Weekend)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|07|14|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = Taking a small vacation, the team unmasks a crime being committed by a couple, the Sherlock Holmes way.{{Episode cast}} Atilio Veronelli, Verónica Llinás, Sergio Lerer, Pepe Monje | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 22 | EpisodeNumber2 = 9 | Title = El debilitador social | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Social Debilitator)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|07|21|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = The team simulates a trial against model manager Manuel Garriga that encourages girls into unhealthy eating habits, charging him for "pre-crimes against Humanity".{{Episode cast}} Jean Pierre Noher, Marcela Kloosterboer, Nicolás D'Agostino | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 23 | EpisodeNumber2 = 10 | Title = El anillo de Salomón | RAltTitle = {{small|(The Ring of Solomon)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2003|08|04|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = Famous orchestra conductor Alejandro Horvat hires the team to get rid of Fabián Charbone, an obnoxious classical music fan.{{Episode cast}} Villanueva Cosse, Carlos Santamaría | LineColor = 415F3A }} {{Episode list | EpisodeNumber = 24 | EpisodeNumber2 = 11 | Title = Episodio final | RAltTitle = {{small|(Final Episode)}} | OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2004|01|05|df=yes}} | ShortSummary = Milazzo 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, Diego Manzione, 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.{{Episode cast}} César Vianco, Alejandro Awada, Gerardo Chendo, Adriana Salonia | LineColor = 415F3A }} }}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|id=0316613|title=Los simuladores}} * [http://www.canaltrans.com/lalinternamagica/014.html ''Los Simuladores'' Argentina] Brief review {{in lang|es}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071206224034/http://www.nachobarahona.tv/ ''Los Simuladores'' Spain Official Website] Nacho Barahona Film Editor (1st Season) {{in lang|en}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061107020451/http://www.cuatro.com/microsites/simuladores/ ''Los Simuladores'' Spain] Homepage at Cuatro {{in lang|es}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simuladores}} Category:Golden Martín Fierro Award winners Category:2002 Argentine television series debuts Category:2003 Argentine television series endings Category:Argentine drama television series Category:2000s Argentine television series Category:Fictional con artists Category:Television series by Sony Pictures Television Category:Television shows set in Buenos Aires