Thriller in any language

It has all the trappings of a successful American television series: an emotionally beaten police detective, a serial killer with a particularly morbid bent and CGI insider views into the bodies of the victims.

But this isn’t the latest episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” or “Criminal Minds.” It is “Epitafios” (Epitaphs), HBO Latin America’s first original series, written and produced in Argentina with the Latin American audience -- not U.S. Latinos -- in mind.

The 13-episode thriller -- which premiered in Latin America in 2004, just aired on HBO Latino, the cable network’s Spanish-language channel in the U.S., and is available on HBO on Demand -- now will air on HBO’s Signature channel, subtitled in English. The project, created by Argentine twin brothers Walter and Marcelo Slavich, is the first fictional series developed by HBO’s 13-year-old Latin American division for the Spanish and Portuguese speakers of Latin America.

For its producers, that it now will be shown in the U.S. on an English-language channel is the icing on a cake as sweet as the tormented love story at the heart of “Epitafios,” the central element that distinguishes this cat-and-mouse thriller from the ever-so-popular crime procedurals on network lineups. Additionally, viewers get to know who the bad guy is much earlier than the police do (in the third episode) because the series is more about a killer who is chasing the police than a criminal being hunted by law enforcement.

Filmed in Buenos Aires but set in a generic Latin American metropolis, “Epitafios” is the story of a former policeman and his past love interest, a psychiatrist, who are reunited when several people from one of their previous cases are murdered. The killer designs epitaphs for his victims before the audience is privy to what they mean, who the victims are or when they will die.

“This is not a popular genre in Latin America, but the show proved there is definite interest,” said Marcelo Slavich. “We don’t know why people don’t write these kinds of stories all that much in Latin America. In that sense, it was a huge risk. But I think what worked for us is that we changed the rules. We didn’t treat the genre the typical way. There were lots of twists and turns and there was more to the story than the crimes that were committed.”

For HBO Latin America, which has about 2 million subscribers, “Epitafios” serves as an induction of sorts into the brand. Because of the critical acclaim the series garnered as well as its ratings success in the 20-plus countries in which it aired, executives have been emboldened to produce more like it. Since the series premiered, HBO Latin America’s development department has expanded and a second series, “Mandrake,” produced in Brazil, is on the air. In a few months, another Brazilian production, “The Sounds of the Carnival,” will premiere in Latin America, and several other projects in Mexico will follow.

“ ‘Epitafios’ validated our position that we could engage in these projects and make something good out of them,” said Luis Peraza, a vice president of HBO Latin America and an executive producer of the series. “We have standards that are similar to HBO. I mean, we are HBO for that matter. Our mission is to find a groundbreaking idea, things that are a little bit daring and that wouldn’t be commonly shown on free television.”

There are no plans yet to air “Mandrake,” an eight-part series inspired by the detective stories of author Rubem Fonseca and filmed in Rio de Janeiro, or the other projects in the U.S., but Peraza remains optimistic.

“Our effort is to fill our programming needs and position our brand for our Latin American territory,” Peraza said. “The production levels and the topics are suitable for HBO USA too. It’s up to them to acquire it or not, but we always hope that they will.”

Indeed, “Epitafios” marks the start of a promising relationship between HBO and HBO Latin America, said Olivia Smashum, executive vice president of affiliate marketing for HBO.

“Our partnership with HBO Latin America is really a good way for us to work with them to identify programming for the HBO Latino service. And likewise, we develop our boxing franchise and they take content from HBO boxing and it becomes product they offer in Latin America. This is the first time we’ve taken an original series from HBO Latino. That certainly speaks to its strong consumer appeal and critical acclaim.”

Eighteen months after their series premiered, the Slavich brothers, who live in Buenos Aires, said they still find it hard to believe that the story that began with one simple idea -- tombstones and epitaphs -- has paved the way for a new wave of television production in Latin America and will make its way to English-speaking U.S. audiences, beginning tonight.

“Tombstones and epitaphs, that was the start,” said Walter Slavich. “And from that we launched on a story about vengeance, love, and it’s a genre that we feel very comfortable working in. Then it just turned into what it turned into, really, something very sinister. Nothing took us more by surprise than when we participated in Web chats and people talked to us as if they were talking to the killer himself -- not us.”

That is, until the brothers, who are now working on a second season of the series, learned that their “little show” would be presented to a new audience.

“When we first started thinking about this project, it was a dream to think that it would air in the United States with subtitles,” Walter Slavich said. “We knew it would be difficult for that to happen, because American audiences are pretty reluctant to watch something that’s not in their language. But it was always our dream, and now it’s coming true.”