Episode Guide
Welcome To Rio Girls Are Not Welcome Waters Of August The Dreamers Consequences Letting Go Ghosts Of Past Christmas Set in the sun-soaked tropics of Brazil 1959, Most Beautiful Thing is an uplifting, female empowering series with a great blend of romance and drama. Juggling melodrama, romance, bites of humour and music, this Brazilian Original series balances its elements perfectly to make for a really engaging watch. While its unlikely to have the same cultural impact as something like Marvelous Mrs Maisel or Sex & The City, the similarly strong comradeship between the women at the heart of this series is enough to keep you watching through to the ending. The story begins with hopeful, loyal housewife Maria Luiza arriving in Rio De Janeiro to meet her husband. Unfortunately, when she arrives he’s nowhere to be seen. Alone and frustrated, Maria finds invigorated hope through the music that oozes through every facet of the city. What follows is a story that sees Maria rise up against her Father and deciding to go it alone, with the help of some newfound friends, to follow her dream and open a club of her own. Of course, that’s easier said than done and what follows across the breadth of the series is a combination of romance and drama all wrapped up in the beautiful, hedonistic beauty of Brazil in the late 1950s. When it comes to both the costume and set design, Most Beautiful Thing does a fantastic job capturing the mood and style of the era in a really believable way. For the most part, Most Beautiful Thing does well with its story, weaving a deliberately paced plot full of themes around female empowerment and the power of music. Of course, there’s more to this one than that but with 7 episodes clocking in at around 45 minutes a piece, this one makes for an easy watch with a really good pacing to back it up for good measure too. Aesthetically, the show looks great. With heavily saturated colours and an emphasis on the aforementioned music, a lot of the shots make good use of the beautiful Brazilian landscape whilst pushing the feel of royalty and warmth with its dominant use of oranges and reds. It helps reinforce the themes of the show too and the natural chemistry between the characters helps keep this one engaging. Of course, given the time period and various themes being showcased, people may well compare this to Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The story is a little similar, especially early on, but to compare the two would be to do both a disservice. Both stand on their own and have enough differences to prevent this feeling like a direct copycat. It may not have the most original premise but Most Beautiful Thing’s unique blend of aesthetic beauty and character chemistry are enough to keep this one engaging and watchable throughout. There’s some nice bites of melodrama here that keeps things interesting too but ultimately its this character drama that really stands out and makes this as enjoyable as it is.
