Community Squad (Spanish: División Palermo) is an Argentine television series created by Santiago Korovsky. Produced by K&S Films and distributed by Netflix, the series centers around a group of people who represent social minorities and are hired to form a neighbourhood protection guard.
| División Palermo | |
|---|---|
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| Spanish | División Palermo |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Santiago Korovsky |
| Written by | Santiago Korovsky Ignacio Sánchez Mestre Florencia Percia Martín Garabal Mariana Wainstein Ignacio Gaggero Martina López Robol |
| Directed by | Santiago Korovsky Diego Núñez Irigoyen |
| Starring |
|
| Country of origin | Argentina |
| Original language | Spanish |
| Production | |
| Producers |
|
| Production location | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Cinematography | Román Kasseroller |
| Editors | Nicolás Goldbart Ana Remón |
| Production company | K&S Films |
| Original release | |
| Network | Netflix |
| Release | February 17, 2023 |
The series criticizes tokenism in organizations through a screenplay that resignifies offensive humor to place judgment on companies and governments that discriminate against minorities.
The title of the series is taken from the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Palermo. In September 2024, it was announced as a nominee for the 52nd International Emmy Awards.[1]
Premise
editA marketing campaign to clean up the image of the metropolitan police security forces creates a division of the Urban Guard composed of minorities. The recruiters (Subiotto and Hendler, the latter with a prosthetic arm) select a trans woman (Licciardi), a girl in a wheelchair (Gamboa), a blind man (Bogarín), an elderly deaf man (Marticorena), a dwarf (Cuevas), a Bolivian immigrant (Condori Sangalli) and the protagonist Felipe Rosenfeld (Korovsky), because he is Jewish.[2]
Cast
editMain
edit- Santiago Korovsky as Felipe Rozenfeld
- Daniel Hendler as Miguel Rossi
- Pilar Gamboa as Sofía Vega
- Marcelo Subiotto as Julio García Reynoso
- Martín Garabal as Esteban Vargas
- Charo López as Paloma Palo Gutiérrez
- Julio Marticorena as Bernardo Romero Zimmerman
- Valeria Licciardi as Vivianne
- Facundo Bogarín as Edgardo Torres
- Nilda Sindaco as Betty
- Hernán Cuevas as Johnny De Moraes
- Renato Condorí Sangalli as Mario Quispe Gonzales
Recurring and guest
edit- Carlos Belloso as Dogo
- Alan Sabbagh as Gabriel Kermann
- Iair Said as Ariel Kermann
- Fabián Arenillas as Daniel Rozenfeld
- Gabriela Izcovich a sAdriana Rozenfeld
- Agustín Rittano as Franco Palacios
- Sergio Prina as Sergio Núñez
- Camila Peralta as Paula Pauli Martínez
- Mike Amigorena as Luis Mansardi
- Daniela Korovsky as Julieta Rozenfeld
- Valeria Lois as Carolina Pozzo
- Rafael Spregelburd as Osvaldo
- Chang Sung Kim as Chino
- Sang Min Lee as Chang-Cho
- Alicia Labraga as Judith
Reception
editCritical response
editSantiago García of Infobae wrote: ‘The series knows how to find a way to laugh with the minorities without disrespecting them. That humour that people no longer dare to make or that can often lead to someone being cancelled. There is something healthy and luminous in being able to recover those jokes about things that affect us and that we live with on a daily basis. The real integration is that everyone can be part of the comedy. And most importantly, it's a really funny comedy’.[3]
Mikel Zorrilla of Espinof highlighted ‘[the] ability [of the series] to play with different archetypes that in another time would have served as the basis for jokes that did not go beyond the offensive -and the particular ability of the comedian in question to put his personal stamp on them’.[4]
Alejandro Modarelli, from Página/12, says that División Palermo poses ‘a social and cultural debate on freedom of speech’ in whose plot the Urban Guard is ‘made up of freaks hired in the neoliberal city as cosmetic instruments of the actual repressive policies’. The writer points out the intention of reflecting ‘the astuteness of the right wing politicians when they claim to be liberal, in its eagerness to hide difference under an export carpet or to instrument it, uncritically, as objects of consumption in the cultural markets’.[5]
Accolades
editCommunity Squad received 20 nominations for the Silver Condor, the Argentine most important awards for films and television series. It won 7 of them, including "Best Comedy and/or Musical Series", "Best Director" and "Best Original Screenplay".[6]
It also received 4 nominations for the Platino Awards, the most relevant Ibero-American awards; and a nomination for the International Emmy Awards as Best Comedy Series.[7][1]
References
edit- ^ a b BAE Negocios (20 September 2024). "Con División Palermo a la cabeza, tres producciones argentinas fueron nominadas a los Premios Emmy" [With Palermo Division leading the way, three Argentine productions were nominated for the Emmy Awards]. BAE Negocios (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 September 2024.
- ^ Basile, Emiliano (17 February 2023). "Crítica de "División Palermo", la serie políticamente incorrecta de Santiago Korovsky" [Review of “Palermo Division”, the politically incorrect series by Santiago Korovsky]. Escribiendo Cine (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 September 2024.
- ^ García, Santiago (20 February 2023). ""División Palermo" es una comedia que se ríe de la corrección política y los discursos de falsa diversidad" [“Community Squad” is a comedy that laughs at political correctness and speeches of false diversity]. Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 September 2024.
- ^ Zorrilla, Mikel (2 March 2023). "Netflix ha estrenado una comedia perfecta para los amantes de lo políticamente incorrecto pero no la está viendo casi nadie (pese a ser una de las mejores series recientes de la plataforma)" [Netflix has released a comedy that is perfect for lovers of political incorrectness but is being watched by almost no one (despite being one of the platform's best recent series)]. Espinof (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 September 2024.
- ^ Modarelli, Alejandro (3 March 2023). "División Palermo, el éxito de Netflix que eleva el debate alrededor de la corrección política" [Palermo Division, the Netflix hit that elevates the debate around political correctness]. Página/12 (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 September 2024.
- ^ Escribiendo Cine (9 October 2023). "Todos los ganadores de la 2 edición de los Premios Cóndor de Plata a las Series" [All the winners of the 2nd edition of the Silver Condor Series Awards]. Escribiendo Cine (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 September 2024.
- ^ Galván, Tania (14 March 2024). "Premios Platino 2024: Esta es la lista completa de nominados" [Platinum Awards 2024: Here is the complete list of nominees]. ¡Hola! (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 September 2024.