Criminal Code

As a Brazilian, I grow up with the stigma that very few things produced on Brazil were actually good. Maybe, around the 2000's, it was true, but nowadays, Brazilian productions are so good they might compete with other international production. The characters are deep, the story is magnetic and the overall production is similar to the experience of watching a movie. If there's a flaw to me, is the fact that somethings are over explained, but maybe, it's because I'm already too familiar with those topics lol. Overall, I highly recommend this show to everybody that wants a show full of action, a simple - but well executed - plot and enough touch of violence.

Entertaining action, solid acting, an interesting plot, which evolved until the last episode, likeable characters and good writing makes this a good choice. The writers use a lot of typical plot devices like the untameable cop, the new buddy, the revenge plot, the unlikeable new boss etc, but it is interesting how they break them and make them believable and human. While other productions seem to go either in the direction of tougher and tougher or all start out with heaps of problems and it goes down from there, here they choose a convincing middle ground.

I don't speak Portuguese, but watched it with the original voices + subtitles anyway. Highly recommended.

Very well produced series, very professional, good performances and, for the most part, well directed. Exceptional, by Brazilian standards.

I'm giving it 7 but I divided the analysis between the first half and the second, which have, in my opinion, different grades.

The first half of the series (ep-1 to 4) is excellent, except for Benício's excess flashbacks with his dead partner. The first flashback already conveyed the information, the second became tiring and from the third onwards, unbearable. In this case it is better to use a symbol that adds to the feeling of the moment and use it, instead of saturating the series with these flashbacks. The cliché of every police officer not being able to have a normal personal or family life is also disturbing, which is also tiring, especially in the Federal Police of Brazil, where they earn absurdly well and have many perks. I know two federal police officers who have great financial and family lives. The cliché family problems do nothing to advance the plot and the police are treated in a very cliché way. I even skipped some familiar scenes and repetitive flashbacks.

But from episode 5 onwards, things take a turn for the worse. At the beginning of this episode, the bandit "Sem Alma", who was being obsessively pursued by Benício, runs away into the woods, injured, and the police, who are numbered 4, don't go after him just because he threw a grenade and made smoke and noise, no injuries were reported. Completely inconsistent with the behavior of the police, especially Benicio, who after his friend's death, lived just to catch this criminal. But I understand in terms of the structure of the script that it required him to escape, but the way the scene was written and performed was too simplistic. Episode 5 is drawn out and tiring. The fight in the nightclub is confusing due to the editing (and perhaps the direction, it's difficult to know), with very quick cuts and the stroboscopic effect preventing anything from being seen, it was impossible to know who was hitting who.

The character of Cordeiro, with his parallel subplot, was also forced and, for me, it didn't work. And the fact that he, in a very short time, rose, undercover, to a trusted man of one of the bosses of a powerful criminal organization, was also too forced. Apart from the fact that the police officer was suspended and freely carried out the investigation at the behest of a Federal Police chief, the reason for which was never fully explained. Probably to return in the second season or, more likely, to paste the first half with the second, which seems to have been written in a hurry to stretch the first 4 episodes to 8. His private drama of having to kill a police officer to prove his loyalty to a criminal organization also served no purpose in the main plot.

The attempt to humanize the character of "Sem Alma" did not integrate well with the character, for me. His inner "conflict" between religion and crime was not well integrated, it was a bit played out and forced, more like a forced characteristic to give dimension to the character, only to give him a chance at redemption in the end, when he frees a hostage.

The Federal Police Officer who becomes corrupted in a 1-minute conversation with a criminal was also too forced.

Then comes the final episode, extremely anticlimactic in relation to the conclusion of the story, pushing the envelope again, this time for a possible second season.

The way in which the Federal Police arranged the transport of the main Paraguayan crime boss, within Paraguay, was absurd in every aspect. Firstly, in the case of any extradition of criminals between countries, the local police would escort the prisoner to the airport, where, at least, a Paraguayan police officer would accompany him to Brazil, they would not leave everything in the hands of the police from another country, especially when it comes to of a powerful crime boss, the Ambassador. But if the federal police knew that there was an internal informant and an army of criminals to free him, the mission was suicidal and very poorly planned.

Then, in the shooting against the convoy, from the beginning, we do not see the target of the attack, the Ambassador. It seems that all the police left the boss in the car, leaving him, apparently, with a police officer. It's difficult to know who got him because later a man in a mask runs away with him, and even so, the Ambassador doesn't appear in the scene. I saw the scene 3 times and didn't understand where he was and who rescued him. The Ambassador's protection was the convoy's main mission and he could even have been used as a hostage and shield, since the function of the attack was his rescue.

The pursuit of "Sem Alma" ends this anticlimax of the episode and the series. Benício was obsessed with the criminal, who, in addition to his friend, had coldly killed two other police officers. Then, he just arrests the criminal and even has a friendly conversation with him in the car, completely inconsistent with the rest of his behavior throughout the series. It seems that writers and directors became fond of the criminal and kept him alive out of affection, perhaps for a second season, compromising the end of the series and the coherence of Benicio's obsessive behavior.

There are countless other points in the script to highlight, simplistic or forced solutions, but I have already written too much. But the impression that remains is that they compromised a large part of the final episode just to give the opportunity for a second season.

I give 10 to the production and effects, especially the use of cell phones, well placed, and the use of weapons and shooting. The use of drones also greatly enhanced some scenes. Most of the main actors are very good. The photography and camera were also very efficient. Some scenes were very well directed.

However, according to my criteria, a personal matter, the script always has greater weight.

Overall, with greater weight given to the script, I give it 9 for the first 4 episodes and 5 for the other 4. Average 7.

If the series had had better script solutions in the second half and a more exciting and satisfying ending, it could have even reached 9 or 10. I don't know if the second half and the ending were harmed by the need for a second season or because they had to be extended the first 4 episodes to 8.

First of all, for foreigners, know that the actions in the series are actually quite common in the lives of Brazilians. Our country is huge and crime prevails. A few years ago this new modality emerged in which on a "random" day criminals, drug dealers, corrupt police officers and heavily armed mercenaries invade a city and completely dominate it. There is no chance of resistance, civilians are tied to vehicles, police officers are executed, the entire city is closed. I say this because, looking from the outside, it may seem like a fantasy, but the reality is much worse than what is shown in the series.

The series is set in a region on the border between Paraguay and Brazil, an area with a high crime rate. Although not explicitly advertised as based on a true story, the core theme of bank heists involving professionals with high-caliber weapons is a reality in Brazil, as seen in the recent case in the city of Criciúma. With a good cast from the main part, it serves as an action series and provides a glimpse into the complex situations at the borders of Latin America.

The actors in the main group are good, and the use of individuals who actually live within the favelas for the secondary characters despite a mediocre performance, is immersed in a familiar environment amid funk parties and the slang used.