For those who enjoy a soap opera, Brazil is fertile ground, as the overwhelming majority of general TV channels in the country transmit, on average, four soap operas daily. Invariably, much of this material eventually goes around the world, being bought and broadcast in other countries. One of the most permeable markets for Brazilian teledramaturgy is, of course, my country, due to its cultural and linguistic proximity. I watched "A Favorita" twice, the first when it debuted in Portugal, around 2009, and the second now as it is being reprised these months.
The plot is based on the enormous rivalry between two women, Flora and Donatella. In the past, they were best friends and had a folk music ensemble but this friendship ended when Flora was arrested for allegedly killing her friend's husband. The novel begins when she is released, by good behavior, determined to take revenge. She knows she was innocent but believes that it was Donatella who killed her own husband and incriminated her. The story is nice and there is one thing I liked: both main characters have gray areas, so there is no "good girl" as we are accustomed to see in other works of the genre. In addition to the excellent interpretations of Patricia Pillar and Cláudia Raia, in the main characters, the novel features the good performances of Mariana Ximenes and Murilo Benício.
