Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Unsuspicious’ On Netflix, A Brazilian Comedy Where A Philandering Playboy Is Dead And Everyone Is A Suspect

Why do we love mystery capers, ones where “everyone in this room is a suspect?” Because we get to play along, and we also get to see every one of these characters at their sniveling worst — which we argue is them at their best. A new Brazilian comedy carries on this tradition, with a large cast of characters, any of whom could be guilty of murder.

UNSUSPICIOUS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A man in a robe curses to himself as he goes down the stairs of his mansion. He enters his study and lines up three invitations on his desk. “Scoundrels! Today is the day!” The lights go out, and he’s stabbed in the back.

The Gist: A few days earlier, wealthy playboy Jorginho Peixoto (Paulo Tiefenthaler) sent out the invites to his mansion for the weekend. His first wife, Bette Olivera (Maira Azevedo) gets one, and her daughter Yara (Gi Uzêda) sees it as an opportunity to get to meet her father for the first time. Bette’s brother Áquila (Silvero Pereira) and mother Vó Zanina (Dhu Moraes) are also eager to go and see the bastard.

His current wife, Patricia (Fernanda Paes Leme) also gets an invite, which seems strange, though her brother Mauricio (Rômulo Arantes Neto), who is also Jorginho’s lawyer, knows their dynamic. She invites her yoga instructor/shaman Xandra (Gkay). Finally, his girlfriend Thyellen Almeida (Thati Lopes), the treasurer for the church he owns, is invited; she thinks that he’s ready to propose. Her songwriting brother Raul (Cezar Maracujá) comes along for the weekend.

Of course, they’re all surprised when they see each other at Jorginho’s mansion. He’s gathered them there because his life is being threatened and he’s seeking to transfer assets to each of them. The Oliveras are also shocked to see Bette’s brother Darlison (Raphael Logam) working as Jorginho’s assistant and confidant. But the assets he’s transferring are also a surprise: Somehow, for instance, Bette’s house and salon are in his name after Áquila borrowed money from his former brother-in-law. An island in Patricia’s family is in his name now. And Thyellen is shocked to find out that the church is a money laundering scheme.

So when the power goes out and Jorginho ends up with a knife in his back, it’s not a stretch for the bumbling lead investigator, Charles Nunes (Marcelo Médici) to think that someone in the group did the deed.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Unsuspicious (original title: Nada Suspeitos) is definitely in the vein of films like Clue or Knives Out, with shades of The Afterparty and Only Murders In The Building in the mix.

Our Take: Even though there are moments in the first episode of Unsuspicious that play very broad, we have to give creators César Rodrigues and Leandro Soares credit for nailing the personalities and motivations of most of the ensemble within the first 35 minutes.

It helps that the characters themselves aren’t particularly nuanced; the creators and their writers can tell the audience what a particular character’s motivations are through only a few statements and actions. But in a show like this, that’s fine; the idea is to play along and see if you can figure out who did it, riding the inevitable twists and turns that a mystery caper such as this always has.

Was the first episode funny? In parts, yes. The show does try to maintain the single-camera style popularized in the U.S., where people talk over each other and have snarky commentary instead of one-liners. For instance, Thyellen and Raul argue over the concept of “dress flip-flops” in an exchange that made us laugh. And all the characters are so well-defined by the end of the first episode that we’re expecting more funny stuff to come out of their personalities.

Some of what Jorginho spelled out to the women in his life about how everything is in his name wasn’t super clear. We described above, for instance, how we think that the island that’s in his name actually belonged to Patricia’s family, but we’re not 100% sure. What we do know is that, in a flashback Jorginho sets up his will to piss off pretty much everyone, so the fallout of that mess will be fun to watch.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: After ruining the crime scene, Nunes tells the group that “everyone is a suspect.”

Sleeper Star: We liked Eliezer Motta as Washington Rodrigues, the tireless butler. Could he have done it? Who knows?

Most Pilot-y Line: Darlison says about Áquila, “He’s been cross-dressing since he was a kid.” In 2022, that statement is a no-go, and Áquila rightfully told him off: ” “Cross-dressing’ my ass! I’m a drag queen! Have some respect!”

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re hoping that Unsuspicious gets a little funnier as we delve into the characters a little more and find out more about what Jorginho was hiding. But at least the characters are pretty well-drawn by the end of the first episode.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.