Most Brazilian Soap Operas suck.
A few ones, mostly aired during the 80's and 90's had decent plots enough to keep you following it through.
Here's some titles worth saving....
-O Bem Amado.
It's a tell tale of the local politics and odds characters in a coastline town in
Bahia. There's not much in terms of tear jerking romance subplots. The characters are the series. It's not a Soap Opera, mind you, It's a Series, with episodes, just like in Bonanza.
The mayor who built a cemetery that can't be inaugurated ad perpetum, the folkloric Odorico Paraguassu, played by the late Paulo Gracindo.
The retired gun for hire, who never killed one who did not deserve it, Zeca Diabo, played by Lima Duarte.
There are several others, but these two steal the scenes.
Roque Santeiro
It's about a small town and its devotion to its patron martyr and son, who shows up unanounced, and alive.
The city lives of the saint for tourist and the commerce of totchkes .
Several subplots and its own devised characters.
The list of featured actors is extensive, all worth seeing.
Rainha da Sucata, or the Junkyard Queen.
It's about a rags to riches story, with several subplots.
Some actors worth mentioning for their characters played.
Regina Duarte She is the Junkyard Queen. Overbearing at times, crass, the emblematic noveau rich. Father starting with the junkyard business. She inherited a string of auto dealerships. She was, in real life, once known as Brazil''s Sweetheat.
Glória Menezes plays a has been milionaire
Daniel Filho Works for the Queen, and is the evil character in the plot.
Antônio Fagundes Plays an Archeologist. His sister is played by Renata Sorrah.
Aracy Balabanian Plays a controlling Armenian Mother. He has a beef with the Junkyard Queen over a land deal she feels her late husband was cheated at. She wants the sky rise office building that headquarters the Junkyard Queen Heiress on the ground. Her three over protected sons run the Parachuting School. Very savvy with money.
Raul Cortez Plays the buttler. Works for the Bankrupt Millionaire couple. A class act.
Paulo Gracindo Plays a bankrupt millionaire
Cláudia Raia Wannabe Ballerina. Too voluptuous for the role. A wet dream of a voluptuous woman for many male Brazilians
Cláudia Ohana Plays an orphan who became an agressive news chasing beat reporter. She rooms with the Claudia Raia character.
Maurício Mattar Runs a Parachuting school as an air pilot. Hearthrob for many Brazilian gals. A
Brazilian Woman's wet dream. He dates the reporter in the plot.
Marcello Novaes Works at the Parachuting School. A sweet talking womanizer amongst his two other brothers.
Marisa Orth She plays a comic role here, as the Archeology Professor, as a sweet and timid gall, until she discovers her own sexuality and then becomes a raging ninfomaniac. She is tall and trophy like type of woman.
Andréa Beltrão Witty French Educated Woman who befriend the brothers who run the Parachuting School. She is always playing the boys one against the other for her attention.
Gabriela Cravo e Canela.
The original series, aired in the mid 70's is drawn after the book written by renowned writer Jorge Amado. it's about Bahia of the Cacau Coca boom era, in a bygone time of landowners.
Gabriela, the main character, is a local carefree girl, who works for a Syrian shopkeeper, and draws the local men's attentions for her devil may care attitude. She is sensual and demuring ,but not sexual. Played by Sonia Braga, who had some smaller roles in American Movies, mostly during the 80 ( a couple starred by Raul Julia).
The other characters are insteresing, the young and not so young many seem to spend an inordinate amount of time at the local bordello, while the married and proper female guard their daughters chastity and run the moral self righteous local initiatives.
Ti-Ti-Ti.
Pret a Porter Fashion World meets a wannabe who can't draw a figure, and yet pass for a High Couture Savant through a series decepting practices, and yet, he becomes the plot's hero.
Played by Luis Gustavo, as common schemer Ariclenes Almeida in the plot , and Victor Valentín, his alter ego, a womanizer Spaniard Couturier he invented, to perpetrate the mystic.
Tapas & Beijos
Sitcom. Andreia Beltrao and Fernanda Torres play two maids who work at a Bridal Shop in Rio. The plots are mostly about their paramours, and their sheer poor luck their romantic au pairs.
The restaurateur across the Street, played by Flavio Miglaccio, as Chalita, a Lebanese emigre, is comic.
The Bridal shop owner, played by Otávio Müller, is also in a way, mildly eccentric.
O Tempo e o Vento ( short TV Series )
This is a saga of generations going back to the colonization of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, and through the Farroupilha Secessionist War, and it brings in a lot of the Brazilian Gaucho mores, language traits, and their warrior spirit.
There are several main characters , but one that stands out Capitão Rodrigo Cambará,played by the late Tarciso Meira, a man born to fight and to equally conquer woman. Full of bragadoccio, bu a character to beckon with .
Written by renowned writer , Erico Verissimo..
The episodes introducting song track was written by Tom Jobim, who was admired by no one other than Frank Sinatra.
This series is not just about men and their exploits. It's about strong and resilient women too . The plot starts about the survivor of a frontier family being slaughtered , played by Gloria Pires, and her self resolve to start her family and being self reliant.
The plots are divided into four series, each representing a distinct time in the State's Heritage.,
A Grande Familia. The latest edition is about the lives of common people in Rio de Janeiro. You can find plenty comparables in the American Sticom Series. Such as Everyone Loves Raymond, for instance.
It's a good place to pick up on common every day language.
Sai de Baixo.
It's a Stage Sitcom. Full of gags. Excelent casting. Marisa Orth ( playing a dumb trophy wife ), Aracy Balabanian, Luis Gustavo ( always the schemer ), Miguel Falabella, as caco, a narcisistic type. The many choices of a house maid are always played by a comic character.
There are plenty others, not to be unfair. From the late 60's to the mid to late 90's there were plenty good material out there to be seen.
Enjoy
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