The new Chilean series Baby Bandito is inspired by a massive 2014 heist in Santiago, where $10 million was stolen from an armored truck at Santiago’s international airport. The part where one of the perpetrators is a teenage skater, though, may or may not be completely made up.
Opening Shot: A well-dressed young man carrying a skateboard walks on a bridge in Rome.
The Gist: Kevin Tapia (Nicolás Contreras) is known throughout Europe as “Il Baby Bandito,” but he made a name for himself back in his hometown of Santiago, Chile. There, he was just another teenager, taking courses in hospitality at a local school, and skating in a park with his best friend Panda (Lukas Vergara). One day at the skate park, he meets a girl named Genesis (Francisca Armstrong), and he’s immediately smitten. He even leaps into action and chases a petty thief who runs off with her backpack.
At home, Kevin’s mother Ana (Mariana Loyola) is barely making ends meet, especially since the imprisonment of Kevin’s drug-dealing father. She’s had to resort to selling drugs herself, and when two police detectives raid Kevin’s home, they take the cash and the drugs; some of that cash was meant to pay for Kevin’s school tuition.
Meanwhile, Galgo (Mario Horton) and Ruso (Marcello Alonzo), part of a crime ring called The Butchers, are hatching a plan to steal one billion pesos from an armored truck that’s going to be making an airport stopover; Ruso tells Galgo before telling their boss because the two of them are in a relationship.
Genesis invites Kevin and Panda to her house for a party; he’s surprised to see that she lives in a wealthy part of town. Despite the fact that she has a boyfriend, Genesis and Kevin grow closer and eventually hook up, and after they have sex for the first time they start to talk about their futures.
After a run-in with the two gangsters, who take his skateboard, Kevin sneaks into the bed of their pickup and goes back to the meatpacking plant that serves as their base. As he looks around for the skateboard, he sees a notebook with plans and the words “HEIST OF THE CENTURY” scrawled in it. It also has a critical access code. As he hides, he overhears Ruso and Galgo talk to the big boss about the heist’s plan, with blueprints spread on the table he’s hiding under.
Sensing an opportunity, Kevin visits his father in prison; he wants to find his dad’s old associate Pantera (Pablo Macaya) and hire him for a job.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Baby Bandito is a young-skewing heist drama, but it’s not a whole lot different than a series like Culprits or Choona.
Our Take: Like we just mentioned, Baby Bandito is pretty much a heist drama, though the season doesn’t culminate in the big heist; it’s more of a story about how that big heist made Kevin into “Il Baby Bandito” in the first place. There’s also the love story between Kevin and Genesis mixed in. It’s a show, based on true events, but “distorted for your convenience and ours,” as an on-screen graphic states, that’s designed to move fast and not go really deep.
We know Kevin is growing up in a loving situation but his mother has to struggle; his buddy Panda, on the other hand, has to deal with a drunk, verbally abusive father. The two thugs planning the heist are in a relationship. That’s all we know at the end of the first episode, but that’s enough. From there, we’re supposed to buy into rooting for Kevin as he steals the billion pesos instead of the professional criminals, then become something of a folk hero in Europe. It’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow, but Contreras is charming enough as Kevin — albeit a touch too old to be playing him — to make viewers want to root for him.
Otherwise, the rest of the characters are the usual one-dimensional crime figures. But that might not matter much if the show looks good and moves fast, like the first episode did.
Sex and Skin: We see some brief glimpses of nudity during a scene where Kevin and Genesis have sex for the first time.
Parting Shot: Ruso sees Kevin stealing the notebook on CCTV footage and says, “I’m gonna kill you.”
Sleeper Star: Lukas Vergara as Panda, because he seems to be the practical friend who will try his best to keep Kevin grounded.
Most Pilot-y Line: As Kevin sneaks around the meatpacking plant, Galgo says to Ruso, “Got time for a quickie?” Men really do only have one thing on their minds, don’t they?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Baby Bandito might not leave a big impression on viewers, but it’s a slick, well-paced story about how a real-life thief pulled off a major heist.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
