Year:  2004                             Released:  Various times by HBO in Portuguese and Spanish

Starring:  Marcos Palmiera, Luis Carlos Miėle, Erika Mader, Virginia Cavendish

This could be one of the greatest lawyer T.V. series of all time.  Originally a production of HBO Olė, it was originally in Portuguese, dubbed into Spanish for distribution into Latin America, and now is available in the United States on HBO and HBO on Demand with English subtitles.  This series is delightfully cheesy in the plots, the dialogue, the action, and the actors.

Mandrake (Marcos Palmiera) is a criminal attorney in Rio de Janeiro but never seems to go to court.  Instead, he and his law partner Wexler (Luis Carlos Miėle) represent the social upper crust who all have some slimy event they seem to be going through and need Mandrake.  One show dealt a client hiring Mandrake to get a pimp to allow a hooker to leave his brothel because the client is in love with her.  Another involves a transvestite hooker who has gotten her (his) clutches into a diplomat represented by Mandrake.  Yet another is Mandrake helping a man being blackmailed for killing his mistress.  Mandrake falls for his daughter and continues to represent the man for free.  Mandrake tells this girl who asks what so special about him since she knows so many lawyers, “I’m not just any lawyer, I’m Mandrake.”

My favorite episode has Mandrake having sex with three different women, playing a rough game of soccer, and getting beaten up.  His client is a hairdresser who is being blackmailed and if he does not pay, the blackmailer will post his gay sex video on the internet.  Mandrake stops this because, one he got paid and two his client does not want to be “outed.”  The only problem:  this hairdresser makes Liberace look like Clint Eastwood.  It’s impossible to think he is straight.  After saving the day, yet again, Mandrake ponders after being beaten up yet still foiling the blackmailers, “I wonder if I can still have sex with broken ribs” and after spitting up a tooth, “Have I lost something being a lawyer?…Everyone loses something.”

Gain a little something back and watch this show.  It makes you want to go to Brazil and get blackmailed.  Then you can hire Mandrake.

Five Gavels.  People may think it’s awful, but this is my greatest secret pleasure since Celebrity Rehab.