Dupla Identidade

I had almost the exact opposite reaction from the reviewer who thought it fell apart. I started watching and feared that I'd have to give up, something I rarely do, being more stubborn than practical. But I thought the last three episodes were wonderful and the ending note perfect. I'm very picky about endings and I just loved this one. I was thinking 5* or 6* until the last few episodes. The last episode alone would have been 9*, but earlier problems dragged the net net down.

Bruno Gagliasso was exceptional throughout. Débora Falabella was very good in a role which could have been extremely annoying. Alas, Luana Piovani & Marcello Novaes were let down by an appallingly cliched backstory and some painfully cliché dialog relating to that backstory. To be fair, that may have been in the subtitles more than the original writing. I don't understand much Portuguese, but what I did get made it seem as if they went overboard on translating idiomatically. My personal preference is for a more literal translation. I can figure out what the characters meant without needing it dumbed down to UK or US cliched language. Most of the other actors were good.

The plot was a bit overstuffed, and at times seemed to be more of a class in the history of serial killers, rather than following the exploits of just one. There was a sort of, kind of, hand waving explanation for that in the last episode. Whatever. It didn't ruin the show for me. More of an issue were some face palm level dumb moves on the part of the lead detectives. That is always an problem for me. If I wanted to watch people making poor decisions, I'd watch reality TV. But in the later episodes the drive of the plot compensated.

A series that should have been a dramatic thriller spoilt by poorly written screenplay which depicted the Brasilian police as incompetent idiots.

The supporting characters all turned into gullible idiots blinded by the villains charm and good looks with few exceptions

By the tenth episode I could hardly wait for the turgid plot to be over!

This series was a real binge-watch edgy fast paced police/serial killer drama/thriller. Unfortunately, it seems to slam on the brakes at episode 10. Suddenly everything gets slowed down. Long shots, lingering pauses, unnecessary dialogue, new characters that don't add anything to the story.

Episode 11-13 (conclusion) are completely out of pace with the rest of the series. The show frantically runs around but doesn't really do much. Now you're beginning to suspect that they're just filling time. By the 12th & 13th episodes you're yelling at your TV because it becomes stupid and impossible to buy into any more. They rely on flashbacks to fill time. Long scenes of dialogue that don't add anything to the story.

Then it sort of tuns into a soap opera. (WTF?)

It genuinely appears as though the writers just could not figure out how to end the show, so we get THREE ambiguous endings.

There's an extended scene that looks like a bad rock video from 1980's MTV. Finally the thing ends, and you sit there and say REALLY? Is that REALLY how they're going to 'end' the show?

There were quite a few characters in the story who contributed absolutely nothing to the story. Some of them had no acting skills at all.

Technical problems: It's very obvious that this show had very little budget to work with. The mic placements were bad, the sound effects were actually comical at times because they didn't match the scene. For example, in one scene they send a drone to search for someone lost in the woods. The sound they used for the drone engine was a WWII B52 bomber. In another scene, a young girl drives her car onto a curb going about 10mph. The sound effect was of a major car accident with screeching tires and smashing glass.

Camera crew equipment was visible in a few scenes, some of the sets looked like the paint was still wet, other sites looked like high school drama class. One of the exterior scenes that was supposed to be a huge mansion was obviously an office building shot from the rear.

Finally, the music score was scream-o death metal, which did not fit at all with the show in any way. And they only had about 5 short loops to work with, so it sounded like a skipping record sometimes.

Sorry, I really loved the first 9 episodes. They could have easily wrapped it up at ten episodes. They could chop 11-13 and it would have been the same show, but tighter.

I can honestly say I've never watched a TV series completely fall apart like this before. It was embarrassing, and I can't imagine the actors were pleased with the 'ending(s)'.