At times like these, a miserable sight of hell is hard to find. Well, that statement Do Seems like nonsense at first: who The Handmaid’s Tale Sweep the Emmy Awards, l the wicked They are being pushed towards projects like Netflix modified carbon and amazon Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreamsto the ever-growing importance of black mirror — not to mention the reality — miserable hellscapes abound. Much of it is beautifully crafted, profound, and impressive – but damn it, if the current bleak circumstances don’t make it harder and harder to watch. As I wrote about before The Handmaid’s Tale, the genre’s most impactful stories have always been the highly concentrated and discrete doses of horror. Pull too long, find new ways to keep your misery going, and you can lose viewers just because you push them too hard.
3%, the Netflix Brazilian thriller series that recently dropped its second season, is one exception to this trend. It manages to overcome many of the genre’s biggest narrative pitfalls, making this underrated series one of the most diverse, addictive, and inventive dystopian stories of its era.
The premise of the show is familiar, if not downright cliché: It takes place in a futuristic São Paulo not far From some of the most crowded and poorest favelas in Brazil today. Each year, slum children who have recently turned 20 can volunteer to take part in their community’s long-standing and highly anticipated tradition: a complex series of physical and psychological challenges known as the Process. There is a process of separating the wheat from the chaff; Only the top 3% of each category – those who possess the ‘merit’ required to pass all process tests – can win the ultimate prize: a new life abroad, a technologically and ecologically designed island paradise where residents will live out the rest of their lives in complete comfort, abundance and harmony.
Perhaps not surprisingly, such extreme economic inequality has not gone unchallenged. A rebel network calling itself the Cause ((a) cause, if you’re watching in the original Portuguese) have grown in the shade over the years, sabotaging Offshore’s operation whenever possible. The operation’s so-called ‘pure meritocracy’ – whatever the highly subjective criteria involved – has won the outer elite so much goodwill, and thus causes so much contempt, among the mainlanders, all the operation rejects who trains and inflates their children so that they may one day There is no such thing as “living a better life”. It became the basis of mainstream religion, a Puritan faith associated with the “founding couple” who engineered the Offshore, assuring its followers that the best of the elect would find salvation among the three percenters.
Among Cause’s guerrilla strategies is convincing young recruits to join the cause in advance, and establishing themselves as moles. It is a serious task, as one of the novel’s protagonists, Michelle, learns that not only must they be good enough (and ruthless enough) to earn a place among the three percent, but they must also then work to blow up the heaven they are legally entitled to. . “happened.” As the show progresses, it becomes clear that changing an unequal world is no easy feat when the spoils of the rich become an accessible alternative.
It’s a premise that’s very much on par with current YA dystopias like hunger Games or maze runner, where young adults are forced by institutions and ruthless adults to compete against each other against unfair, impossible odds. But the show’s irresistibility lies in its execution, not its novelty. From its diverse and wildly talented cast to its interest in character development and empathy over mind-blowing sci-fi concepts, 3% Much more functional – and addictive – in this age than most of its predecessors and current competitors in the dystopian space.
The first season of the series, which was released in 2016, followed a group of candidates through the process, hunger Games-style. Among them are ambivalent cause fighter Michelle, cheater Rafael, earnestly determined Fernando, genius Joanna, and baby “legacy” Marco. Many of them are deeply underestimated – Fernando is a paraplegic, Juana is a weary street thief whom no one likes, and Rafael only succeeds by breaking the rules – and in the end, they are all rudely awakened by the dark reality of a dream. I have worked relentlessly to make it happen. Its second season explores what happens after the operation: the moral gray areas within both reason and the so-called seaside paradise, the soothing nature of overwhelming privilege, and the often terrifying reality behind the stories people tell themselves to sleep at night. .
Despite their radically different – and ever-fluctuating – motivations, every character all the way down to third-rate supporting roles is so nuanced that they all demand your emotional investment. Dollmaker Ezequiel is a monster until you learn his backstory. “Rich boy” Marco is just a cocky cock until his family understands (though, to be fair, he remains a cocky cock). Moles flip for the cause in their dedication as they are seduced by the operation’s promise of a better life. The show is concerned with portraying the complex and living realities of marginalized people, from Black women Like Joana for PWDs like Fernando, without fanfare or voyeurism. (The cast also includes two transgender women; their gender identity is never mentioned.) Everyone is human, and their every choice unlocks complex themes like toxic masculinity and neocon values with brutal plot twists and consequences for all.
In this The Handmaid’s Tale Last month’s conversation, I wrote that “the most effective [dystopian] Horror often lurks in all the gray areas…if the “inside the set” part of dystopia doesn’t sound appealing at least to you – even Fahrenheit 451 It showcased a world that was actively working to end inequality, and it was being dealt with in all the wrong ways – it probably wouldn’t be a story that powerful.” 3%Nothing is ever black and white, and this subtle narrative also ends up saying that nothing is 100% horrible to anyone. In contrast to the relentless misery of a show like The Handmaid’s Tale or early seasons of black mirrorThere is always hope or comfort to be found somewhere 3%narrative web at any time.
Sometimes that relief is dangerous — the offshore is seductively poetic — and it’s part of what makes the show more compelling than its contemporaries. unlike, for example, westworldwhere external factors constantly influence its smaller world, 3% Functionally stand alone. Whatever the rest of the world wants, or whether people outside of São Paulo have opted for a similarly draconian solution to economic and environmental problems, is irrelevant: this The narrative is very powerful, its questions uniquely charged, and it doesn’t matter. It is such an apt metaphor that it verges on a simple description of the real world, of economic inequality and Western smoothing gospel We have created an isolated, self-justifying paradise for the super-wealthy like the rest of us aspire to Even when we resent it. In fact, maybe 3% He is also Karim – after all, in real life, Our odds are even worse.