Caso Cerrado (Case Closed in English) is a long-running Spanish-language court show aired on Telemundo since April 2001 starring Cuban-American lawyer Ana María Polo.
It began in 2001 as Sala de Parejas (Couples' Court) before expanding in 2005. Each episode revolves around two cases. Polo acts as an arbiter and settles the case.
Caso Cerrado is well-known for how oddball its cases are. There are never any standard, run-of-the-mill couples disputes on the show. There's almost always some sort of twist or drama in the cases. This is because most of the cases are dramatized. The cases are apparently real, but they're hand picked and often times actors play the roles when the real participants don't want to appear on-screen.
The show Ana Polo Rules is pretty much the same show but in English. It debuted in 2017.
Not to be confused with Case Closed, the American Dub Name Change of the anime Detective Conan.
This show provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Several cases revolve around neglectful or abusive parents.
- Catchphrase: Polo ends every episode with "¡He dicho caso cerrado!" and a bang of the gavel.
- Darker and Edgier: The 2001 version called Sala de Parejas and the episodes while the show was produced by Promofilm are among the strongest and most violent of all. Because there were no filters when showing the cases, they had the luxury of showing fights, insults and a more pissed off and angry Ana María Polo.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first few seasons only focused on couples disputes, similarly to Divorce Court. After the cases diversified, the series' name was changed from Sala de Parejas to Caso Cerrado.
- Forced Miscarriage: Inverted in a case when a man wants his daughter to be born in America, but the surrogate wants to keep the baby for herself (or alternatively, give her up for adoption) and move elsewhere. During the case, the man sneaks a drug into the woman's coffee to try and induce labor.
- Groin Attack: Played for Drama. In one case, a man superglued his wife's genitalia to stop her from being so promiscuous. She couldn't even pee because of the glue and she ended up getting an infection. To add insult to injury, the glue was laced with pepper, making it burn as well.
- I Love the Dead: One case had a woman catching a disease from having sex with a corpse.
- Lighter and Softer: After the show was moved to Telemundo and renamed from Sala de Parejas to Caso Cerrado, it underwent several changes to stay within the channel's standards. Because of this, they started with the use of actors to dramatize certain cases, although the essence of the show remained the same.
- Retool: In 2005 it was retooled from Sala de Parejas into Caso Cerrado.
- Ripped from the Headlines: New episodes tend to relate to recent happenings, such as one episode about a man who was angry that Pokémon GO players were trespassing on his property.
- Surprise Incest:
- One case involves a woman who wants to divorce her husband after learning that he's her paternal grandfather.
- In a case, a man has a long-time infatuation with a minor celebrity, only to later find out that she is his grandmother.
- Another case has a man having sex with a woman who later turns out to be his estranged, now-transgender child.
- Trans Nature: Trans people have appeared on the show a few times. At least one example revolved around a transgender child whose parents were split on how to handle their identity.
