# The Mechanism (2018)

> A Brazilian investigator and his team chase a sprawling corruption scheme linking politicians, oil firms and construction companies.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/66596

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 16
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: José Padilha, Elena Soarez
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Selton Mello, Caroline Abras, Enrique Díaz, Jonathan Haagensen, Osvaldo Mil, Lee Taylor, Antonio Saboia, Leonardo Medeiros
- TMDB rating: 8.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6873658/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: tense, cynical, bleak, gritty

## What critics say

Viewers praise the series as a gripping, true-inspired account of Brazilian corruption, though some find later episodes tedious and repetitive.

## Synopsis

The Mechanism (2018-2019) is a Brazilian crime drama series created by José Padilha and Elena Soarez for Netflix. Loosely inspired by real events, it follows a federal police investigation into a sprawling scheme of alleged government corruption running through oil and construction companies. Selton Mello plays Marco Ruffo, a dogged investigator whose probe pulls in a web of politicians, executives and money launderers, while Caroline Abras plays Verena Cardoni, a fellow investigator navigating the same pressure. Enrique Díaz plays Roberto Ibrahim, a figure caught in the scheme's shadowy financial machinery. Each episode is built around surveillance, wiretaps, arrests and courtroom maneuvering, with the case widening into a tangle of shell companies and bribes. Across two seasons and sixteen hour-long episodes, the story reads as a serialized political thriller with a documentary-tinged realism. Its tone is tense, cynical and bleak, with a sense of institutions struggling against entrenched elite impunity. Fans of Narcos and The Wire will find resonance in its grounded procedural pursuit of powerful criminals.

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