As far as “copaganda” (movies and TV shows that do propaganda for law enforcement) goes, Criminal Code had a pretty simple premise: Benicio, of the Federal Police of Brazil, had lost his old friend, Santos, during an attack on the prison he was posted in. The guy who had killed him was Soulless, and Benicio had made it his life’s mission to avenge Santos. That was it. Now, of course, it was impossible to catch Soulless, and Benicio had to pull at every string in existence to come close to achieving his mission. But instead of keeping the focus on this feud, the show became too busy with world-building and fleshing out characters that had next to nothing to do with the enmity between Benicio and Soulless. And, by the end, when Benicio did get to Soulless and sent him to jail, the emotional undercurrent had lost its intensity, thereby making the whole exercise seem futile. I didn’t have a lot of hope for Season 2 of Criminal Code, but after seeing all 8 episodes, I can say that it’s a little more plot-focused than its predecessor. Is that enough, though? Let’s find out.
Heitor Dhalia’s Criminal Code Season 2, with the episodes being directed by Pedro Morelli and Felipe Vellas, is largely about Isaac and the Ghost Gang. 4 months after springing the Ambassador from prison, Isaac and Gabriel are using a plant shop as a front to conduct a heist in Sao Paulo. Suellen is tasked with heading the operation to nab Isaac and bring an end to the diabolical shenanigans of the Ghost Gang. To make matters worse, Isaac joins hands with the unpredictable Xuxa, on Djeison’s advice, because he has access to weapons and explosives. The heist goes off the rails as soon as Suellen and Benicio figure out the tunnel between the plant shop and the bank that the Ghost Gang was planning to use to make a getaway. Assuncao even manages to bring down the car that Xuxa and Isaac were using to flee the scene. But since Xuxa is erratic as hell, he kills Assuncao, thereby making the Federal Police’s enmity with the Ghost Gang extremely personal. In addition to all that, Soulless breaks out of jail with the help of his new friend, Cabeca, which forces Suellen and Benicio to divide their attention in an effort to destroy this whole nexus of anti-social elements that’s actually dancing to the tunes of the Ambassador.
The biggest change from the first season of Criminal Code to the second season is that Dhalia has understood that you can’t show cops fornicating with whoever they want, whenever they want, going for drinks, and having long existential chats in the middle of a high-stakes manhunt. I don’t know if that’s something that cops get to do in real life, but showing them doing so in fiction diminishes the urgency of the mission at hand. Due to this slight alteration, you get to track Benicio and Suellen’s evolution as characters more clearly, see how one is influencing the other, and relate to the battle they’re fighting on the streets of Paraguay and Brazil as well as the one in their heads. Isaac feels like a well-rounded antagonist, as we get to see his origins, why he does what he does, and what lies in his future. Till there, the storytelling is solid. But as soon as Dhalia brings Soulless into the mix, who becomes a caricature, and all the baggage that he brings with himself, the whole thing becomes a bit of a mess. He tries to use several elements and plot twists to create this elaborate, multi-layered affair, but when the time comes to wrap it up, he uses the most contrived methods to resolve all the story threads.
Much like the first season, Criminal Code Season 2 looks and feels expensive. You can sense the lengths that Dhalia and his team have gone to to shoot this crime drama. There are elaborate set pieces spread across multiple locations. Every single action sequence seems realistic, which means that it must’ve taken a lot of effort to choreograph every explosion, shootout, vehicular chase, and stunt. The editing leaves a lot to be desired. The only hand-to-hand combat sequences that stood out to me are the one between Suellen and Vanessa and the one between Benicio and Soulless; the rest are alright. The world-building is intricate and highly detailed, as usual. I mean, the show features a movie theater where they screen “adult” films while sex workers allow patrons to live out their fantasies in real-time. I have heard of establishments that either feature “adult” films during the late-night slots or are dedicated to releasing only “adult” films, but fusing it with the sex industry right then and there is, as the Martin Scorsese meme goes, “absolute cinema.” And while all that’s fine, it’s the pacing and storytelling that really hurt the overall viewing experience. For example, so much time is dedicated to a character called Angelica, and for what? Dhalia needed to be more efficient and concise with what he wanted to use to progress the narrative. Just because you’ve gotten the green light to shoot for 8 episodes doesn’t mean that you have to pad it with nonsense.
The performances from the cast of Criminal Code Season 2 are solid. Maeve Jinkings deftly shows the toll that Suellen’s new responsibilities are taking on her. Her chemistry with Romulo Braga is excellent as always. Braga’s portrayal of Benicio was starting to feel a little repetitive as he kept acting very bluntly, but around the midpoint of the show, he started to exhibit change, and that’s where he got interesting as a character. Alex Nader gets to hog the limelight from the first episode to the last, and since he is so talented, he justifies the attention that Isaac gets. His character deserved better writing, though. Thomas Aquino’s talents are wasted this time around. There’s one particular moment towards the tail end of the series where he starts using his “magical” powers of persuasion to manipulate cops, and it’s laughably bad. Pedro Caetano, Guilherme Silva, and Thiago Brianti do get to cameo in their second outing, and they are okay. Leticia Tomazella, Daniel Blanco, Maria Laura Nogueira, Jorge Paz, Ever Enciso, Nicolas Garcia Hume, Angelo Canuto, Tassia Dhur, Matia Desiderio, and the rest of the supporting cast are all pretty great. Actually, a huge round of applause should go out to the casting director for assembling such an amazing team. At the cost of sounding repetitive, if a third season is on the cards, Dhalia desperately needs to hire better writers to allow his cast to shine.
Criminal Code Season 2 is definitely an improvement on the first season, but that’s not saying much. I think Dhalia is doing everything right, except for the writing. As mentioned before, he has an extremely talented and versatile cast at his disposal. The members of his crew in charge of the visuals, stunts, sound design, costumes, SFX, VFX, and every other technical aspect of the show are at the top of their game. Even in terms of themes, he is on the right track. There’s a good blend of personal drama, domestic politics, and international tensions to keep viewers intrigued. He knows how to create conflicts that’ll stir your soul. He also has the ability to start and end the overarching plot with a bang. It’s the subplots that he is clearly struggling with. And if he wants Criminal Code to be remembered by viewers as one of the best crime dramas out there, he needs to polish the screenplay before commencing filming. I understand that, nowadays, turnaround time is inversely proportional to an IP’s popularity, but if the writing is bad, all the bells and whistles become irrelevant. Do I recommend giving the 2 seasons of Criminal Code a watch? Yeah, sure. But then go and watch the Infernal Affairs trilogy.
