Bala Loca (originally Entero Quebrado) is a Chilean television series created by Marcos de Aguirre and David Miranda Hardy and produced by Filmosonido for Chilevisión. Bala loca means "stray bullet".
The series revolves around an investigation by a disabled journalist, Mauro Murillo (Alejandro Goic), and features a cast with both established actors including Alfredo Castro, Aline Kuppenheim, Julio Milostich, Catalina Saavedra, Pablo Schwarz, Ingrid Isensee, as well as younger actors such as Fernanda Urrejola, Mario Horton and Lucas Bolvarán.
The production was the recipient of the annual grant from Chile's National Television Council in 2014. It premiered on television on July 4, 2016. The first season ended on September 4, 2016, with a double episode.
Contents
Plot
The main protagonist is Mauro Murillo (Alejandro Goic). After fighting the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, he became a celebrity journalist, a fact which some of his colleagues still do not forgive. At the peak of his career, he suffered a car accident that left him in a wheelchair. The rejection of his latest project by a television executive is causing him to reflect on his career. In addition to his career problems, Mauro also deals with his separation from Ángela (Aline Kuppenheim), a journalist who works at a newspaper; an abandoned teenage son, Daniel (Víctor Quezada), who begins to struggle with changes as a teenager; and a sexually dissatisfied girlfriend, Valeria Sánchez (Fernanda Urrejola), a younger woman who has a communications consulting company.
At fifty years old, the only possibility he sees of changing his situation is to invest the profits from his past ten years of stardom doing celebrity journalism, and to establish an online journalism site that fearlessly confronts the powerful of Chile. He clings to the possibility of working with Patricia Fuenzalida (Catalina Saavedra), a widely respected professional journalist who writes an independent blog, a platform she uses to unmask corrupt entrepreneurs. However, she rejects him again and again, disenchanted with his lack of professional ethics. In the midst of his desperate attempts to change her mind, she dies in a strange assault on a supermarket.
Mauro's instinct tells him that something else is hiding behind the supposed stray bullet (bala loca) that ended the journalist's life. Thus, he turns to Oscar (Mateo Iribarren), Patricia's husband, to help him discover what the journalist was investigating. Finally it is Víctor (Nicolás Durán), her son, who gives him the folders holding the murdered journalist's investigation. Thus, Eugenio 'Coco' Aldunate (Alfredo Castro), a powerful businessman who owns a health insurance company, becomes the main suspect. The magnate maintains political ties with Julián Torres Becker (Marcial Tagle), a liberal and progressive senator from the PPD who is a close friend of Murillo. Aldunate is also the main suspect of Nelson Iturra (Pablo Schwarz), a police investigator who takes the case of the reporter's death.
Mauro assembles a new team: Gabriela Vuskovic (Trinidad González), an experienced journalist and a demanding leader; Antonia Serrano (Ingrid Isensee), a journalist who worked at the newspaper with Murillo's ex-wife, but left her comfortable job to do more challenging journalism; Andrés Villanueva (Mario Horton), a journalist with technology skills, highly committed to justice and truth; and Alejandra Mujica (Manuela Oyarzún), a young professional with a reporter's nose, whose tenacity makes her a daring investigator. Mauro announces the premise on which their new EnGuardia.cl website is founded: Is it possible that in today's Chile a journalist is killed for investigating the powerful?
Production
In 2014, the series produced by Filmosonido was awarded the grant of the National Television Council of Chile,
worth CLP$437,914,700 (US$767,802 in 2014), for its production. Recording occurred from January 11 to April 23, 2016.
Cast
Main
Alejandro Goic as Mauro Murillo
Trinidad González as Gabriela Vuskovic
Ingrid Isensee as Antonia Serrano
Mario Horton as Andrés Villanueva
Manuela Oyarzún as Alejandra Mujica
Fernanda Urrejola as Valeria Sánchez
Catalina Saavedra as Patricia Fuenzalida
Pablo Schwarz as Nelson Iturra
Aline Kuppenheim as Ángela Schmidt
Marcial Tagle as Julián Torres Becker
Víctor Quezada as Daniel Murillo
Alfredo Castro as Eugenio "Coco" Aldunate
Roberto Farías as Alexis Vilches
Recurring
Nicolás Durán as Víctor Paredes Fuenzalida
Mateo Iribarren as Óscar Paredes
Julio Milostich as General Larrondo
Willy Semler as General Arismendi
Hugo Medina as Julio Osorio
Erto Pantoja as Oliverio Farías
Iván Álvarez de Araya as Agustín
María Paz Grandjean as Mariana Lobos
Víctor Montero as Félix Morales
Sebastián Ayala as Technician
Luis Uribe as Rapist
Daniel Candia as Mario Palazzo, Hitman
Simón Pascal as Assailant
Francisco Ossa as Daniel's School Inspector
Gaspar Rosson as Felipe
Benjamín Westfall as Supermarket Guard
Mario Ossandón as Aldunate's Lawyer
Lucas Bolvarán as Rodrigo
Rodrigo Soto as Uncle Carlos
Alex Draper as Peter
Román Wilson as Dylan
Thomas Bentin as Mikael Ivelic
Christián Farías as Secuaz
Guests
Pablo Cerda as Fabio
Alejandro Sieveking as Pedro Cisneros
Michael Silva as Joel Medina
Boris Quercia as César Fantini
Celine Reymond as Juliana
Sergio Hernández as Mr. Murillo
Eyal Meyer as Man X
Pablo Striano as Pelao Fernández
Ximena Rivas as Luisa Arismendi
Andrea Martínez as Commentator
Javiera Torres as Victoria "Vicky"
Jack Arama as Doctor Materán
Daniela Torres as Reporter
Laura Olazábal as Shooting Club Secretary
Rodrigo Lisboa as Forensic Technician
Elvis Fuentes as Ramírez
Silvana Hardy as Marta
Vittorio Yaconi as Pablo Miller
Andrés Rillón as YouTube Journalist
Eugenio González as TV Politician
Eduardo Squella as TV Politician
Ignacio Santa Cruz as Ricardo Rojas
Manuel Peña as Hugo Céspedes
Cameos
Sergio Campos
Francisca García-Huidobro
Felipe Vidal
Carolina de Moras
Claudia Schmidt
Kika Silva
Paulina Rojas
Botota Fox
Macarena Pizarro
Karina Alvárez
Karim Butte