Verdades Secretas (Season 1)

Verdades Secretas is a Brazilian telenovela produced and aired on TV Globo. The first season had 64 episodes and aired from June 8 to September 25, 2015, being the fifth "novela das onze" aired by the network. Written by Walcyr Carrasco, in the first season it had the artistic direction of Mauro Mendonça Filho.

This page will focus on the first season of the telenovela.

Why This Season Is A Secret Truth

 * 1) Treats very well about the dark side of fashion, tackling with some themes like prostitution (being portrayed as pink and blue book), drug use, pedophilia, homosexuality, problematic family relationships and voyeurism.
 * 2) Stunning performances by the telenovela's actors and actresses such as Rodrigo Lombardi, Drica Moraes, Marieta Severo (of the fame of A Grande Família in her return to soap operas), Reynaldo Gianecchini (also from the fame of soap operas such as Laços de Família and who has voiced Rodney Copperbottom in the Brazilian dub of mh:greatestmovies:Robots from the late mh:greatestmovies:Blue Sky Studios), the late Eva Wilma, Grazi Massafera, Agatha Moreira, Rainer Cadete and others, especially Camila Queiroz as Angel.
 * 3) Anthony and Giovanna are the best couple that the telenovela has offered, for the great chemistry and attraction of ambition and lust they have for each other and even they end up together at the end of the telenovela going to Paris together with the stylist Maurice, with Anthony breaking up with Fanny Richard and abandoning her.
 * 4) * Besides that, Lourdeca and Visky, Bruno and Stephanie, Eziel and Nina and mainly Hilda and Osvaldo (due to Hilda dies in the arms of her love Osvaldo, because she had a terminal illness and he insisted on staying with her) are also good couples.
 * 5) Remarkable scenes like the famous scene where Larissa is raped, Larissa spits on Fanny, Carolina, Angel's mother catch Alex and Angel having sex and later takes her own life, Anthony humiliates Fanny, Fábia, Anthony's mother is admitted to the nursing home and the iconic scene where Angel murders Alex, which was handled very well in this first season unlike in Verdades Secretas II, but also because the Brazilian press was unable to leak it before it was aired on television.
 * 6) Unlike Verdades Secretas II, there aren't a lot of sex scenes that don't interfere with the quality of the soap opera.
 * 7) Good track of songs, like the opening to the sound of "Angel" from Massive Attack.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) The second season entitled mh:terribletvshows:Verdades Secretas II wasn't good and was not received, filtered from problems such as flanderizing Angel into a sociopathic killer, who became in debt and widowed (although the real reason for this, was because she murdered her husband Guilherme) and she only returns to being a model because of her sick son and also for the excessive sex scenes.

Reception
The telenovela was a great success with critics and audiences. During the plot, several characters stood out. These were the cases of the nymphet Angel (Camila Queiroz), the seductive Alex (Rodrigo Lombardi), the kind Carolina (Drica Moraes), the fun Visky (Rainer Cadete), the pimp Fanny (Marieta Severo), the angry Giovanna (Agatha Moreira), the fun Lourdeca (Dida Camero), the romantic Bruno (João Vítor Silva) and especially the model who enters the drug world Larissa (Grazi Massafera).

It was the first original plot to be aired at 11:00PM, which until then only aired remakes of successful soap operas in the past such as O Astro, Gabriela (written by the same author), Saramandaia and O Rebu.

The series became a favorite subject on social media on the internet, mainly due to so many plot twists or nude scenes. During several episodes, the hashtag #VerdadesSecretas or even the names of the characters in the soap opera were among the most commented topics on Twitter. Several actors and celebrities expressed themselves through social networks about the soap opera, commenting and praising the actors' performance, the direction, the hooks and even the story.

The soap opera caused many controversies due to the pink book, revolting agencies and fashion professionals. The soap opera also caused controversy for presenting strong themes such as prostitution (pink or blue book), pedophilia, drug use and problematic family relationships. Another highlight of the telenovela was the sex and nudity scenes, among the actors who had this type of scenes the most were Camila Queiroz, Rodrigo Lombardi, Grazi Massafera, Agatha Moreira, Reynaldo Gianecchini, Guilhermina Guinle, Gabriel Leone, Alessandra Ambrósio, Yasmin Brunet and Adriano Toloza.

Camila Queiroz was considered a pleasant surprise as the protagonist of the story, gaining total acceptance from the public and specialized TV critics, so much so that she was cast in the 18:00PM soap opera, Êta Mundo Bom!, also from Walcyr Carrasco. Grazi Massafera surprised everyone with her role as the drugged model Larissa, consecrated as an actress and being highly praised for her performance and also total dedication to the role. After her success, she became the target of many authors for future soap operas and was confirmed in the following soap opera from Maria Adelaide Amaral and Vincent Villari, A Lei do Amor. Several scenes from the successful soap opera became memes on social media.

The scene in which Larissa is raped by several men shocked and moved the audience, who even asked Grazi Massafera for an Oscar for the scene. With only two chapters to go until the end of the telenovela, the public asked for a continuation of the story for 2016. The expectation for the end of this plot was huge, greater than many prime-time telenovelas have had in recent years. So much so that a Facebook event was even created: "Meeting to discover the latest #VerdadesSecretas". Thousands of people confirmed their presence.

The curiosity about the end of the story was such that weeks before the final scripts leaked, causing the author Walcyr Carrasco to change some characters. On air until after 01:00 am, the feuilleton was among the most talked about topics in the world in the trends topics on Twitter, reaching the first place, with an incredible 1 million and 400 thousand mentions on the social network. On Facebook, the soap opera posts reached 61.4 million users and on Instagram, the most successful image had Larissa with 153,000 likes.

The telenovela broke the digital consumption record in the country, with 190 million plays in excerpts or full chapters. The last chapter of the telenovela had 1.5 million visualizations on the web. Verdades Secretas is considered the most successful and repercussion soap opera in recent years, alongside Avenida Brasil, surpassing it proportionately, in terms of audience and repercussion.

Even before its debut, the plot was criticized within the network due to the heavy themes addressed by the author - prostitution, drugs, homosexuality, voyeurism; so that Eva Wilma and Grazi Massafera were cast, given the appeal to housewives in São Paulo, a fundamental audience for any plot.

Journalist Patrícia Kogut stated that Verdades Secretas had an irregular debut. She mainly praised the performance of Drica Moraes, who, according to her, moved with equal confidence through various palettes of emotion. She also stated that the plot had deviations, going from drama, reaching the inks of Mexican serials, and embarking on the language of cartoons. She concludes by saying that Verdades Secretas had good and bad times. And that despite the main plot being used a lot, it would be good if it also surprised. Nilson Xavier stated that Verdades Secretas had a balanced debut. According to him, the first chapter was limited to introducing the central story and introducing the main characters, without rushing or terrifying events. He also praises the performance of Drica Moraes, and says that she does not at all resemble the villain Cora, from the telenovela Império (2014–2015). However, he criticized the lack of subtlety in the dialogues, and concluded that the two blocks felt like two different soap operas. Columnist Odair Braz Junior, from R7, criticized the excess of eroticism in the plot. In addition, he also criticized the exaggerated situations of the plot, such as Alex marrying Carolina just to be close to Angel. According to him, soap operas have absurd situations, but there has to be a certain limit to the absurd. Otherwise, the game goes away.

After the airing of the last chapter, journalist Thiago Forato, from Na Telinha, declared that Verdades Secretas proves, above all, that a good soap opera is enough for the public to give the answer by turning on the television. He praised the text of the plot and the direction, and said that together they managed to perform their role with mastery in an irrefutable way, with anthological scenes and that have already entered the history of television. of teledramaturgy and can be revered as the best soap opera of 2015. Columnist Cristina Padiglione, from the newspaper Estadão, declared that Verdades Secretas surpassed all limits. According to her, the plot was standard HBO, an American pay-TV channel known for its award-winning original productions. Padiglione praised the aesthetic issue, the performance of the cast, the merit of the direction of Mauro Mendonça Filho, and especially the boldness of the plot in exposing themes that only closed TV has the courage to address, such as nudity, drugs, abortion, bisexuality, prostitution and suicide. She concludes by stating that Verdades Secretas ended with the certainty that it is possible to transgress, exceed limits and put controversies on the table, without hiding indigestible but necessary issues.