| Genre: | Serial drama |
| Creator: |
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| Director: |
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| Country: | Chile |
| Language: | Spanish |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 10 |
| Executive Producer: |
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| Location: | Santiago, Chile |
| Runtime: | 45 minutes |
| Company: | Filmosonido Producciones |
| Network: | Chilevisión |
Bala Loca (originally Entero Quebrado)[1] is a Chilean television series created by Marcos de Aguirre and David Miranda and produced by Filmosonido for Chilevisión.[2] 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.[3]
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.[4]
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?
In 2014, the series produced by Filmosonido was awarded the grant of the National Television Council of Chile,[5] worth CLP$437,914,700 (US in 2014), for its production.[6] Recording occurred from January 11 to April 23, 2016.[7]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominees | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Copihue de Oro | Best TV series or miniseries | ||
| 2017 | Caleuche Awards | Best leading actress | Fernanda Urrejola | |
| Best leading actor | Alejandro Goic | |||
| Best supporting actress | Aline Küppenheim | |||
| Manuela Oyarzún | ||||
| Trinidad González | ||||
| Best supporting actor | Nicolás Durán | |||
| Pablo Schwarz | ||||
| Marcial Tagle | ||||
| Pulsar Awards | Best music | Juan Cristóbal Meza | ||
| Platino Awards | Best Ibero-American film miniseries or teleseries | |||
| Fénix Awards | Best acting ensemble | |||
| Peabody Award[8] | Entertainment | |||