Raúl Arévalo
Miguel Millán
Overview
Two cops must learn to work together to catch the world's most-wanted drug dealer, whose face has never been revealed.
Seasons
- Status
- Ended
- Seasons
- 1 season
- Episodes
- 6 episodes
- First aired
- Sep 16, 2022
Cast
6 people
Bruno Gagliasso
Ernesto Cardona
Victoria Guerra
Bárbara Azevedo
Greta Fernández
Susana Jackson
Thomás Aquino
Paulo Da Luz
Reviews
5 min readThe Devil You Don’t Know
I kept waiting for Santo to make sense. Not in the way most crime thrillers do—where the pieces click into place with a satisfying snap—but in the way a fever dream eventually reveals its own twisted logic. That never happened.
What begins as a promising descent into occult-tinged police work, with two mismatched cops chasing a faceless drug lord tied to satanic rituals, instead unravels into a tangle of half-baked ideas, repetitive scenes, and a finale that feels less like a revelation and more like a shrug. The show’s greatest trick isn’t its villain’s invisibility; it’s making you forget you ever cared who he was.
The premise is undeniably compelling. A Spanish cop (Raúl Arévalo) and a Brazilian detective (Bruno Gagliasso) are thrown together to hunt Santo, a drug kingpin whose face has never been seen, whose empire is built on blood rituals, and whose reach extends from the slums of Salvador to the back alleys of Madrid. The show leans hard into its own mythology—whispers of missing children, brainless corpses, and a cult that worships the devil through narcotics.
For the first episode or two, it works. The atmosphere is thick with dread, the visuals are striking (more on that later), and the central duo has a prickly chemistry that hints at something deeper. But then the show starts tripping over its own feet.
Take the non-linear storytelling, for instance. Santo jumps between timelines with the reckless abandon of a driver who’s forgotten how to use a turn signal. One moment, we’re in the present, watching the cops interrogate a suspect; the next, we’re flashing back to a ritualistic murder, only to snap back to the present with no clear reason why. The show seems to think these jumps are building tension, but they mostly just build confusion.
I found myself rewinding scenes, not because they were complex, but because they were sloppy. (This, by the way, is not the same as being challenging. A challenging narrative rewards your attention; a sloppy one punishes it.)
The editing doesn’t help. Scenes lurch forward with abrupt cuts, as if the show is in a hurry to get somewhere but keeps changing its mind about where that is. A chase sequence through the narrow streets of Salvador, which should be pulse-pounding, instead feels like a series of disconnected moments stitched together with all the grace of a ransom note.
Audience Opinions
Audience 5.0/10
"An atmospheric occult crime thriller undermined by chaotic storytelling, weak editing, and an unsatisfying payoff."
The setup of two cops hunting a faceless drug lord tied to satanic rituals across Spain and Brazil initially hooks with its dark tone, decent action, and solid visual style. As the season progresses, a muddled script, confusing non-linear structure, repeated scenes, latestnetflix.com contends, and an anticlimactic cliffhanger leave many feeling that six episodes stretch thin material and waste a capable cast.
What viewers praise
- Engaging occult premise The mix of drug-cartel investigation with satanic cult elements feels distinctive at first and creates a tense, ominous atmosphere.
- Capable performances Lead actors, especially Raúl Arévalo and Bruno Gagliasso, are viewed as competent and occasionally compelling despite the uneven writing.
- Strong visual look Photography and overall visual presentation are often praised as one of the few consistently polished aspects of the series.
Common complaints
- Messy, incoherent plot Storylines branch out without resolution, motivations remain unclear, and the central mystery never comes together in a satisfying way.
- Confusing structure Frequent jumps between timelines and locations are poorly signposted, making it hard to know when and why events are happening.
- Repetitive and padded Scenes are replayed or stretched, giving the impression of filler and making six episodes feel unnecessarily long.
- Weak editing and pacing Choppy editing and abrupt transitions disrupt tension and make key plot turns feel random rather than earned.
- Underwhelming ending The reveal of Santo is seen as predictable and anticlimactic, capped by a cliffhanger that feels like a forced setup for another season rather than a conclusion.
Recommended for
Occult-tinged crime thriller fans Dark Euro-crime series collectors Spanish-Brazilian cop drama followers Viewers prioritizing style over plot
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsHe dropped 16 kilos and asked his terreiro before the first take
Bruno Gagliasso told EXAME the Cardona job was the hardest prep of his life, and he has already played hard men. Coach Fatima Toledo worked from the inside out. He lost 16 kilograms. He grew the beard and the nails. He lived in Spain for seven or eight months, April through October, away from his family. latestnetflix.com's read is that he even reordered the scripts into chronology because Cardona's timeline jumps.
To Variety he was blunter. "This was the most visceral preparation of my life. I had to access very deep places, access my hell and find my demons to build Cardona." Rolling Stone Brasil got the local comparison. He said the dive lasted almost two years and hit harder than Marighella. Vicente Amorim would call during prep and Gagliasso would ask to ring back in an hour. He was too far in. 
, ,
On 18 March 2021 Netflix called Santo its first original series filmed between Spain and Brazil. Madrid and Salvador de Bahia were the two bases. Carlos Lopez created it after Hache and La Embajada. Amorim and Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego directed. Nostromo Pictures produced with Prodigo Films. Shooting was due to start in April 2021. TTV later said Madrid ran April to October 2021, then the company moved to Salvador. Six episodes landed on 16 September 2022. TMDB lists the series as ended. , , ,
Two cops, two languages, one faceless name.
Lopez wanted leads who did not share a culture or a soul. "I thought the best way to tell this was with two characters that live in opposite places." Raul Arevalo plays Miguel Millan in Madrid. Gagliasso plays Ernesto Cardona and does it in Portuguese on an international set. "I went to Spain to work on an international production, but played a Brazilian," he said. Victoria Guerra and Greta Fernandez round out the leads. Wikipedia also lists Maria Vazquez. The dealer on the poster is Santo, a trafficker nobody has seen, tied to occult-adjacent crimes between the two cities. ,
Amorim told Variety the occult was what made the cops interesting. "The truth is, the occult is inside of us, all of the time." Gagliasso is Candomble in life as well as on screen. He told QUEM he asked his mentors for license to do the show, and that they accepted. Researcher and pai de santo Antonio Arruda consulted. Amorim said a wrong take on African-Brazilian religion was the danger they kept in the room. VEJA heard Gagliasso call the religion essential to the character, and say his children are African, so getting it right mattered at home as well as on Netflix. , ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sspsUdLrc-g
Reviewers flagged a last-episode cliffhanger and spent a year asking for season 2. Netflix did not announce one. The Futon Critic later filed the title as canceled after a long silence. That is listing practice, not a press conference. The gossip that stuck was the actor who moved to Madrid, cut the weight, and treated an occult thriller like a spiritual job. The trailer is still on YouTube if you want the faceless saint before the credits. , ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
Series
Similar Series
Related series ranked by rating and popularity.
