General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Turn of the Tide

Turn of the Tide (Portuguese: Rabo de Peixe) is a Portuguese crime drama series created by Augusto Fraga for Netflix, loosely inspired by a real 2001 incident in which a boatload of cocaine washed ashore at Rabo de Peixe, a fishing village on São Miguel in the Azores¹. It premiered on May 26, 2023 with seven episodes and ran for three seasons, ending with a final season released on April 10, 2026¹^•². It was the second Portuguese original series on the streaming service³.

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Rabo de Peixe; the village name means "fish tail" in Portuguese¹^•⁴
Creator	Augusto Fraga, who also writes and directs; written with Hugo Gonçalves and Tiago R. Santos⁵
Seasons	S1: 7 episodes (May 26, 2023); S2: 6 episodes (October 17, 2025); S3: 6 episodes (April 10, 2026), 19 episodes total²^•⁶
Main cast	José Condessa (Eduardo), Helena Caldeira (Sílvia), Rodrigo Tomás (Rafael), André Leitão (Carlinhos)⁷
Setting	Rabo de Peixe, on the Azorean island of São Miguel, Portugal¹
Reception	IMDb 7.4/10 from about 7.4K users; peak week of 2.2 million views (May 29–June 4, 2023)⁸^•²
Awards	2024 Sophia for Best Series or TV Movie; 2024 Golden Globe for Best Fiction/Entertainment and Best Actor in Television⁹

Spoilers

Premise

The story begins when a boat loaded with cocaine sinks off the coast near Eduardo's home village, and he sees a risky opportunity to make money and fulfill impossible dreams⁷. Eduardo and his three childhood friends, Sílvia, Rafael, and Carlinhos, decide to sell the drug, and find themselves caught between a vengeful drug lord and the police¹⁰. The series is rated TV-MA and is filmed in Portuguese².

Season two picks up three months after Eduardo has left, and he comes back to a Rabo de Peixe that has changed entirely: Uncle Joe no longer holds the drugs he stashed, since control of them has passed to an unexpected enemy, and the fallout puts the group's friendship and loyalty to the test.³

The third and final season jumps forward three years. Eduardo comes home after serving his sentence to find the village unsettled by economic and political forces that could push families from their homes, wipe out fishing, and transform the island permanently. Drawing on their friendship, the four establish "Night Justice," an underground vigilante group grounded in the local community that works covertly to restore power to people whose voices have been suppressed. As the uprising grows, the line between resistance and violence becomes increasingly fragile⁵.

Real-life inspiration

The show draws loose inspiration from a real event of 2001, when a smuggler piloting a sailboat loaded with roughly five tonnes of cocaine abandoned the vessel, which then drifted ashore at Rabo de Peixe on São Miguel.¹ A Houston Chronicle review describes the same event as an Italian mobster's storm-tossed boatload of cocaine, on its way from Venezuela to Spain, disgorging its half-ton of neatly wrapped contents on the shore of the impoverished fishing town⁴. The two accounts differ on the quantity involved, roughly five tonnes versus half a ton, and neither source reconciles the discrepancy.

Production

Turn of the Tide is produced by Ukbar Filmes and RB Filmes⁵. Ukbar Filmes is an independent production company founded in 2009 by Pandora da Cunha Telles and Pablo Iraola⁵. Augusto Fraga writes and serves as creative director, directing the second season alongside João Maia and the third season alongside Patrícia Sequeira¹¹^•⁵.

The main cast is led by José Condessa, Helena Caldeira, Rodrigo Tomás, and André Leitão, joined by Maria João Bastos, Salvador Martinha, Afonso Pimentel, Kelly Bailey, and Victoria Guerra. The third season adds Joaquim de Almeida, Ângelo Rodrigues, and Inês Castel-Branco⁵. Season 2 also featured Pêpê Rapazote, José Raposo, Caio Blat, Ricardo Pereira, and the Brazilian actor Paolla Oliveira¹¹.

Release and reception

Season 1 launched on Netflix on May 26, 2023 and became the streamer's most-watched non-English-language original of its launch week, reaching the platform's global non-English top ten in over twenty-five countries in the months after release¹. Ukbar Filmes puts the figure higher, saying the series reached the top 10 in over 30 countries¹². During its first weeks it peaked at 2.2 million views in the week of May 29 to June 4, 2023, and spent 14 days in the Netflix Top 10².

Season 2 arrived on October 17, 2025, and the six-episode final season premiered on April 10, 2026, closing the story at 19 episodes across the three seasons²^•⁶. On IMDb the series holds a 7.4/10 rating from about 7.4 thousand users, with Portugal, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Brazil among the countries contributing the most ratings⁸.

The series won Portuguese industry recognition in 2024: the Sophia award for Best Series or TV Movie, Golden Globes for Best Fiction/Entertainment and Best Actor in Television, and the Portuguese Society of Cinematographers award for Best Cinematography in a Series or TV Movie⁹. Critics placed it alongside other international crime series about outsiders taking on the system, comparing it to Spain's Money Heist⁴.

Significance for Portuguese television

Turn of the Tide followed Glória as one of the first Portuguese original series produced for Netflix, and its global reach made it one of the most successful Portuguese productions on the platform¹³^•⁶. A Spanish-language write-up of the finale described it as one of the platform's great European successes, and the series is frequently cited by Portuguese-speaking viewers as a prominent example of European Portuguese drama on Netflix⁶.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026