Inez Franco is arguing for a conviction when she is shot in the shoulder. Eight years later, she teaches law because she cannot bring herself to enter a courtroom. She asks her students to investigate Jonathan, a man serving a lengthy sentence for murder, hoping to gather grounds to challenge his imprisonment. Habeas Corpus gives its lawyer an urgent case and takes away the place where she would ordinarily fight it.
The assignment moves quickly beyond classroom debate: the students pursue leads, follow people and deceive them to get information. One student, Marina, presses harder than the rest. Her connection to the day Inez was shot remains hidden until the end of the first episode, so each step she takes toward joining the team carries a second question: what does she want from Inez?
That reveal is effective because the episode has already made room for Marina as an investigator. Any Gabrielly plays her as someone who knows how to enter a conversation with a purpose and leave with something useful. She can turn confidence into access, though that same confidence sometimes gets her into trouble.
At home, she is raising a son while making time for the case. The strain makes her persistence understandable without explaining away her secrecy. When the episode discloses her connection to Inez, Marina does not suddenly acquire a motive. We discover that we have been watching her act on one all along.
Marjorie Estiano gives Inez a different kind of command. She has enough experience to organize the investigation and assess what her students find, yet the shooting still determines how close she can get to the courtroom. Her guarded manner works particularly well opposite Gabrielly’s forward momentum. Inez needs Marina’s initiative; Marina wants a place on Inez’s team while keeping back information Inez would plainly want to know. Their scenes turn a familiar teacher-and-student arrangement into a negotiation over who gets to ask the questions.
The case gives that relationship work to do. Questions about investigative procedures and confessions lead the students toward evidence of police violence. Jonathan’s admission that he is “no saint” matters here: he does not have to become an ideal victim before the handling of his case deserves scrutiny. The students, meanwhile, use deception and surveillance in pursuit of that scrutiny. Habeas Corpus has a useful contradiction on its hands. People trying to expose a failure of legal process are willing to cut corners themselves.
The show gets suspense from those tactics, particularly from Marina’s ability to persuade people to tell her things. It is less patient with the consequences. Once a lead has been obtained, another secret or complication can claim the scene’s attention before the team has fully reckoned with how it got there. This is where the legal drama’s briskness costs it something. The students’ methods are interesting because they might change how Inez judges them, not simply because they put the next piece of information within reach.
Some transitions are hurried in a less productive way. Murilo, Inez’s former partner, works at the firm representing another party connected to the case, which gives their contact an immediate charge. The steps that bring him into Jonathan’s case, and Jonathan toward Inez’s team, receive less persuasive development. The series knows it wants these people in opposition and proximity. It occasionally moves them into position before the audience has caught up with their decisions.
That haste also leaves several students defined chiefly by their function in the investigation. The son of a senior figure at Inez’s old firm is positioned to report back on the team; another student brings a competing view of the case. Those roles could make the group’s discussions unpredictable, but Inez and Marina carry most of the personal tension. It is a workable imbalance while their trust keeps changing.
It becomes conspicuous when a student seems present chiefly to pass information between the case and the opposition. Inez can examine a confession, challenge a procedure and question a witness, but the student bringing her the evidence has a story of her own she has yet to disclose.
Habeas Corpus premiered globally on Netflix on September 23, 2026. The legal drama series follows a renowned law professor and her dedicated student team working to overturn wrongful convictions, only to uncover deep personal entanglements.
Where to Watch Habeas Corpus Online
Full Credits
Title: Habeas Corpus
Distributor: Netflix
Release date: September 23, 2026
Rating: TV-MA
Running time: 45–55 minutes per episode
Director: Luiz Villaça, Leonardo Moreira
Writers: Leonardo Moreira, Donna Oliveira
Producers and Executive Producers: Luiz Villaça
Cast: Marjorie Estiano, Vladimir Brichta, Any Gabrielly, Paulo Miklos, Clarissa Kiste, Leandro Firmino, Bella Camero, Tuna Dvalexi
The Review
Habeas Corpus
Habeas Corpus has a strong central case, but its best suspense comes from Inez relying on a student who has concealed her own stake in it. Marjorie Estiano and Any Gabrielly give that partnership its charge. Hurried transitions and thinly drawn students sometimes make the investigation feel too eager for its next lead, especially when the team’s questionable methods deserve a closer look. The evidence moves quickly; trust takes longer.
PROS
- Estiano and Gabrielly’s tense partnership
- An effective first-episode reveal
- - Investigative methods that raise difficult questions
CONS
- Some case developments feel rushed
- Supporting students serve narrow plot roles
- - Ethical consequences receive too little time
