Duarte & C.ª follows the misadventures of a small detective agency in Lisbon. Intrepid Duarte is the detective, Tó his sidekick and Joaninha the secretary with a mean punch. Actually, the villains are no match for the women in the series - including Duarte's wife and mother-in-law - and invariably get the crap beaten out of them.
Main villains include Lúcio Ferreira (Lúcifer), who desperately wants to belong to a Mafia franchise in Portugal; demented Átila with the maniacal laugh, my personal favorite back in '85; also not to forget their inept and colorful henchmen - big ugly Rocha, politically incorrect Chinês (always whining that he is in fact Japanese), and many others.
The series in politically incorrect, as one would expect from the 80's (remember British 'Allo 'Allo?) but that is also part of it's charm, as is the overall "Ed Wood-ian" feel - bad acting, low budget, no FX, but clearly all had great fun filming it and we had great fun watching it.
But don't take my word for it. Rent it, buy it, watch it and see for yourselves. Is there a subtitled DVD to take Duarte & C.ª to a non-Portuguese audience? If not, RTP should consider the idea. Portuguese and English subtitles should be enough, other main languages would be added value.
