Review By Kamal K
Directed by Breno Silveira and Vicente Kubrusly, the eight episodic Brazilian series revolves around a father who never really gives up on his son who is a drug addict. The protagonist Pedro (Gabriel Leone), a handsome boy from Rio de Janeiro's middle class is introduced to cocaine in his teen years, putting him on the path to becoming the leader of a criminal gang that dominated the tabloids in Rio De Janeiro in the early 2000s. His father Victor Dantas (Flávio Tolezani) is an undercover policeman and has spent his entire life fighting hard to eradicate the drug mafia from his city. Victor's life turns upside down when his own son starts snorting drugs at an early age.
The opening shot of the first episode shows Pedro high on drugs at a funk party in a favela, a shantytown on the outskirts of a city that's unpredictably dangerous and remains high risk given the presence of violence and drug mafias. His father is worried for his son who hasn't returned home and goes to the favela looking for him. However, Pedro is an aggressive young teenager who is tough to handle.
Throughout the series, Pedro is portrayed as an adrenaline junkie and playboy with blond hair and blue eyes. He enjoys taking risks and being in dangerous situations. He is shown to develop this tendency since his childhood days when he spends most of his time with his friend Lico. Lico and Dom share a special bond with each other and the one that involves drugs. Even as an adult, they spend a lot of time together and this ultimately leads to Dom heading a gang of housebreakers who mainly loot the affluent. It all happens when Pedro meets a girl who goes on to become his crime partner and they all start minting big money.
While every episode is an hour long, the two central characters - Pedro and Victor - are shown to have a unique complexity. Most father-son scenes consist of arguments and fights, but one does eventually realise that all those disputes come from a loving relationship that is going through immense turbulence and chaos.
Based on a true story, the suspense drama not only gives insight into the world of drugs but also weaves in familial conflict and how Pedro's drug addiction causes his family a lot of pain and suffering. In spite of making multiple attempts to stay clean, Pedro finds it quite challenging to stay away from cocaine and damaging company. In one of the episodes, he is seen writing a letter to Victor saying that if he had the chance to change anything at all, he would change his past and try to love and respect his father like a normal son would.
A heady mix of drugs, nudity, violence and drama, the series beautifully blends the past with the present. It simultaneously narrates Victor's journey from being a teenager who loves diving to an agent who works undercover to uncover the drug mafias and stop the import of drugs in Brazil. He later reports it to the authorities and ends up joining the police intelligence service. The parallel narrative structure engages the viewer by highlighting the striking contrast between Pedro's and Victor's lives. It shows how the father and the son moved in opposite directions, marked by their own choices, and favelas coincidentally played an important role in both cases. Commendable story flow and direction keep you glued throughout.
The series definitely has some fine actors. Leone and Tolezani are at their natural best and bring in the required zeal to their individual characters. When it comes to Tolezani playing the father to a drug addict, he beautifully portrays feelings of anger and frustration that a parent goes through on witnessing their child taking the wrong route in life. He is seen feeling strong-willed yet helpless, hopeful yet hopeless.
Since the series actually draws from a real incident that made it to Brazilian newspapers back in the 2000s, the plot arouses a lot of curiosity. The series is definitely worth an evening of binge watching if you are someone who enjoys action, suspense and family drama in equal measures.
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