The Argentinian comedy series Community Squad, aka División Palermo, is directed by Santiago Korovsky, known for his role in Porn and Ice Cream. The story follows a group of civilian guards and the dangerous trap they fall in to due to Felipe and Diego’s unexpected encounter with a drug dealer. The best part of the story is that all the guards chosen have a disability or are from a minority community.
The series consists of 8 minutes, each around 30 minutes. It is co-directed by Diego Nuñez Irigoyen, and written by Ignacio Gaggero, Santiago Korovsky, Martín Garabal, Martina López Robol, Florencia Percia, Ignacio Sánchez Mestre and Mariana Wainstein. The Netflix description of the series reads,
A ragtag civilian patrol squad created to improve the image of the police inadvertently put their lives at risk when confronting some strange criminals.
The main cast of the series includes, Santiago Korovsky, Pilar Gamboa, Daniel Hendler, Martin Garabal, Marcelo Subiotto, Carlos Belloso, Charo López, Sergio Prina, Agustín Rittano, Valeria Lois, Rafael Spregelburd, Alan Sabbagh, Iair Said, Fabián Arenillas and Gabriela Izcovich alongside other cast members.
– Community Squad Review Contains No Spoilers –
The first scene introduces us to the main guy, Felipe, whose girlfriend breaks up with him because their sex life is lousy. After this heartbreaking news, he also gets subtly fired from work (owned by his father). As a token of appreciation, his father gives him cash, which he carelessly loses. It’s clear until now that Felipe’s life is a disaster, and the man is clumsy.
While chasing the guy who swindled his money, Filipe is meets a civilian guard, Diego. Diego then guides him to the patrol to file a complaint. Filipe gets misunderstood and recruited as a civilian guard because he is Jewish at that place. Apparently, the urban guard team’s main criteria is people with disabilities and of lower minority. Filipe, who resists at first, somehow agrees to join because he is running out of money.
Dark Humour
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The idea of disabled people coming together and forming a team to help civilians is excellent. With this concept, there is a lot of dark humour implemented. In fact, in a scene, an old lady calls out a guard on a wheelchair for being unable to run after a burglar. Another scene shows another lady mistaking the short guy (dwarfism) for a child and offers him icecream. These are meant to be a joke, and I didn’t find it funny neither offensive.
The series involves similar dark ableist jokes, and it’s not intended to mock the disabled people but to show how usually the general people treat them. We will also witness their capabilities, which is a good thing to present. Kudos to the director for that.
Friendship and Romance
Another theme is friendship and romance. The bond between the team and their selfless efforts to find the guy who shot one of the teammates will be seen in the climax. We all would have heard the story of how in the Olympics for the disabled, a group of kids joined hands in the track to have a win, right? That’s precisely what I remembered while watching the ending. Despite their issues, in the end, they all stand beside each other, which is heartwarming.
Apart from that we will witness the romance between a cop and one of the transwoman, which again is an excellent idea to include. Oh also, Filipe falling in love with a woman in the wheelchair also looks adorable, but he’s pretty pushy. But the best part is how his character develops slowly because he really loves the woman.
Characters
These civilian guard teams aren’t just a group of happy people; each have their past. A transwoman, a short man, an elderly chap, an immigrant, etc., opened a view into the lives of diasbled and minority people. While the main plot surrounds Filipe’s mission to find the drug guy who shot his friend, the roles of these characters makes the series watchable.
However…
Something is off about the series. While watching the 8 episodes, it makes sense but could have been executed in a much neater way. So many things are happening that sometimes will guide us away from the drug dealer plot. Maybe these scenes are added to give life to all the characters, but it felt a little clumsy. On the flip side, the jokes are often dark and aren’t too funny. You might smirk or just smile, but in my opinion, I didn’t laugh at any scene. I don’t know whether I did that to respect the disabled, but I’m a fan of dark humour, so I would have laughed if the jokes were insanely good.
Overall, it feels like watching a series where we know what’s going to happen, but we’re just hanging on to learn about the characters, their relationships, etc. There isn’t any wow factor except the idea of including disabled people. However, it denotes that the series is literally nothing without these characters.
Community Squad Final Thoughts
Yes, you can stream it because you will be able to look at the lives of disabled people, their struggles with relationships, hardships and the way they try to make things work out. The romance aspect won’t give you goosebumps, but it will make you believe Felipe is a good guy; that’s it.
There are also some bloody and explicit scenes, so kids are not advised to watch this. If you haven’t watched Community Squad, it’s streaming on Netflix. After watching it, let us know your thoughts in the comment section.