Netflix and Over the Top Politics? The Mechanism TV series and the dynamics of entertainment intervention

Abstract

Produced and released by Netflix in March 2018, The Mechanism (2018–), a web series, fictionalised the Lava Jato operation, a series of criminal investigations about corruption in the Brazilian political system that led to the imprisonment of leading Brazilian politicians and businessmen. Analysing the series along with the media coverage in the Brazilian mainstream online and printed press, this article examines the complex and troublesome relationship between an ongoing criminal investigation with ramifications for the political system and its fictionalisation on a worldwide internet television platform.