Le Code du Crime

I watched this series as a way to practice my Portugues as I am learning the language. I am not even a big fan of crime series but this one is really excellent and I ended up binge watching it much faster than I thought. The story is actually good, the acting is spot on and for us non Brazilians the photography and the locations are spectacular. Reading the reviews you will find that -surprisingly enough- the most negative are from Brazilians: don't trust them! Our Brazilian friends tend to be too self deprecating, this series is excellent and absolutely on par with good American or European productions. Amigos Brasileiros, sejam orgulhosos e parem com o complexo de vira-lata, porra!

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.

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.

I really liked the show. My family works in the Federal Police in Brazil, and from what I've seen, 99% of the work involves paperwork and dealing with verbal abuse from a "delegado".

But, of course, the show is fiction, and it's done well. I had a blast watching it, especially because it didn't have the same old actors you see in every Brazilian show (the lame Globo Actors). The show has everything you want from a crime show. Worth watching!

My only problem was with the dialogue. Some lines and curse words felt too fake, like something out of a comedy sketch from Hermes & Renato. This is a common issue in Brazilian movies and series; the dialogue doesn't feel real enough, which is important for a show like this.

If not, I mean, if there is not a second season - which I am not sure of - so then this series is totally smashed by a cheesy ending, an ending destined to sissies, squeamish under and over fifties housewives...Why such an ending, UNLESS of course if a second season is already "in the pipes" as we say in France, in preparation, or even writing. For the rest, this plot is absolutely my stuff, high scale, XXL armed robbers - not grocery nor gas stations robbers - heavily armed, acting like special forces commandos, and in front of them hard boiled cops whose technicalities in terms of investigation are very well explained, with details galore.... And as you can guess, HEAT is also obviously a material which this series is inspired from, besides also actual events.