Samantha!

This show is about a 40-year-old woman desperate to regain her childhood fame. It mixes the brazilian overused "humor tactics" of unintelligent "punches" which basically consists in mocking the very own group of "elite" celebrities of brazilian Global actors/actresses and tv shows over and over. Let's be clear: this show is so bad it doesn't even deserves to receive a 2 stars. Even free Youtube shows with amateur actions have way better writting, acting and scenarios over all. I do not recommend anyone to waste their time watching this, especially when there are so many amazing series to be watched (either on Netflix or on other platforms).

This Brazilian take on the saturated goofy snark of Tina Fey's ouvre landed on Netflix in the great before times and I was always rather fond of it. Centering around the titular Samantha who is a washed-up child star trying to both relaunch her career and cope with the legacy of her porblematical kids show. It's got the characteristic mash of dopey and sentimental you get with contemporary shows like it and the cast are rather charismatic, particularly her hapless footballer husband Dodói played by City of God's Douglas Silva. It's cancellation didn't necessarily devastate as it didn't feel like it had a great deal more to say after the second season. But as an introduction to bizarre Brazillian culture and a very silly sort of a show I'll remember it fondly, if folks are looking for an odd international version of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt then you could do much worse.

To portray a 40-year-old woman desperate to regain her childhood fame, there are several possible paths forward. One extreme would be totally realistic, and therefore dark, depressing, possibly ending in suicide. Samantha! takes the opposite extreme, and stays so light-hearted that, unfortunately, it becomes silly, over the top, and strains belief. It's juvenile. So of course I enjoyed it: it's like a doughnut, sweet and satisfying in its way, but lacking substance.

All of the cast can act, and well, and most of Samantha!'s humor comes from how the characters are portrayed rather than the lines they speak. But the characterizations are inconsistent; blame the writers, not the cast. The show is non-provocative: the few serious issues are dealt with lightly or even comically, and there's only a smattering of vulgarity throughout the entire season. That Netflix self-rates this as TV-MA in the U.S. or 12 in Norway boggles the mind. There's little in this show that would disturb a 13-year-old here or a 9-year-old Scandinavian.

Everyone needs a doughnut now and then, but if Samantha! had been even slightly more realistic, it would have been more enjoyable. I'm not clamoring for a second season.

EDITED: But I watched season 2 anyway. And downrated it one star. I wanted to know what happened, but the show is just not that satisfying.

This is a great Brazilian TV series on Netflix. Good humour, good actors, definitely recommended.

Fame, what you get is no tomorrow? "Samantha!" is hilarious series for people at all and an irresistible piece of cake for those who grew up stuck to the TV set during the 80's like me. At those past days there were no politically correct, no censorship and no sense at all. Things in Brazil couldn't be any different. Despite their target audience and young stars, children's television shows had hostesses posing for Playboy magazine and merchandising literally anything money could buy.

Outstanding performances in such a perfect acting and storytelling. Two thumbs up for Emanuelle Araújo, Douglas Silva and Lorena Comparato.

"Samantha!" is a colorful, sarcastic and delicious journey to our affective memories as it draws a curious parallel of what it feels like to be famous in 2018. Totally binge-worthy.

After the reign of social media influencers what's next?