Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Novela’ on Prime Video, A Wildly Fun Fantasy About A Telenovela Writer Who Becomes Trapped In Her Own TV Show

The Brazilian series Novela, which just dropped all eight of its episodes on Prime Video, is a telenovela about a woman who wrote a telenovela and then gets sucked into said telenovela, living among the characters she created. It’s a crazy magical realist fantasy that gives way to a lot of confusion (no one who works on the show can understand how it happened, but audiences and critics think the show is an ingenious subversion of the telenovela genre) that’s truly binge-worthy.

NOVELA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman steps out of a car and on to a pink carpet at a swanky event. After she enters, a man approaches her and asks, “Why did you come? What do you plan on doing?”

The Gist: Isabel (Monica Iozzi) is an up-and-coming telenovela writer who has started working with a legendary writer and producer named Lauro Valenta (Miguel Falabella). Lauro runs a production company where he cut his teeth as a successful writer, but now he’s the man in charge. Isabel impresses Lauro on her first day with big ideas and an encyclopedic knowledge of Lauro’s past work, and they form a dynamic mentor-mentee relationship that allows her to create a new telenovela she calls Destiny’s Rebound. Lauro is well-connected, and he takes Isabel under his wing, introducing her to industry people, throwing a celebrity-filled party where they hope to cast the actors who will appear in her show. At this point, Isabel has already turned in 30 scripts in to Lauro, but while she’s at the party, she overhears him telling people that he is the writer, and he literally steals the show away from her, putting his own name on all of her scripts, leaving her in the dust.

In the very first scene of the episode, it’s Isabel who shows up to the premiere of the show she wrote, months after Lauro has stolen her ideas. There, she encounters an actor named Denis (Marcello Antony), a man she befriended at Lauro’s party and one of the only people who knows that Isabel is the actual screenwriter of the show. When he asks her what she plans on doing while she’s there, he knows she’s disgruntled and ready to call out Lauro as the fraud that he is, and she tells him she plans to steal her show back. But how?

Lauro introduces the show as the audience – which is filled with the show’s stars – is about to watch it for the first time, and Isabel angrily grabs an appetizer off a cater-waiter’s tray and throws it Lauro. The shocked audience is momentarily confused by what just happened, and Lauro exits the stage, brushing off the canapé crumbs. The party, I should mention, is being held in the studio where the show was filmed, so after her outburst, Isabel runs off, hiding on the set of the show. As the audience back in the screening room readies themselves to watch the first episode, Isabel is drawn to the glow of a monitor, and just as the episode begins to play in the screening room, she is literally sucked in to the monitor. She is now the star of the show, and her face is the first thing that this stunned room full of people waiting to watch the show see.

As Isabel, who is equally stunned by the circumstances, walks around dressed as the main character of the show she wrote, she runs into Denis, who plays a character named Inácio. “What the fuck did we take, Denis?” she asks him, wondering if this whole thing is a drug-induced dream, but Denis insists on being called Inácio – she might still be Isabel, but Denis is not Denis, he’s really living as his character in this TV world, and so is everyone else Isabel meets.

As Isabel wonders how the eff she got pulled into an actual TV show, Lauro flips out wondering how this woman managed to sabotage his new show. How did Isabel get in there and will she be trapped in the show… forever?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? On it’s surface, Novela is an exaggerated look at the entertainment industry that’s also a meta telenovela about a telenovela, reminiscent of Jane the Virgin. But there’s a fantasy element of Isabel literally becoming a part of the TV universe and living inside it unlike anything I’ve seen. It’s less Truman Show and more of a comedic Twilight Zone.

Our Take: Novela is a revenge fantasy with a real emphasis on the fantasy part. Much like Josh Baskin wished he was big in Big and magically got what he wished for (while the rest of the world, including his parents, thought he was missing and were still grounded in their reality), Isabel wished she could ruin Lauro’s show, and magically she made it happen, leaving everyone in the real world dumbfounded.

As the series goes on, Isabel not only searches for a way to get out of the TV show, but Lauro is left searching for clues as to how she got in. (At one point in episode two, he blames it on the Russians and Julian Assange.) But soon, the show that Isabel is living through becomes a massive hit. She’s a fish out of water, and even though it’s not the original show she wrote, her version is killing it. Critics love it. They love her. They love this fresh new take on the genre.

Crazier still is the fact that the actors who star in Destiny’s Rebound are existing in both universes. For instance, Denis is playing Denis, but he’s also playing Inácio, and when he’s Denis, he can’t explain what’s happening in the show he’s part of because Isabel has completely changed the course of the plot. I might be overcomplicating it, but it’s so clever and fun, it’s worth just seeing it for yourself.

Sex and Skin: Before she gets sucked into the TV Isabel awakens at one point to a man named Felipe sucking her toes. Other than that, it’s pretty tame so far.

Sleeper Star: Caio Menck plays Felipe, the man Isabel has a one night stand with in real life, who ends up being an actor in Destiny’s Rebound whose character, Joao Marcelo, is both in love with her and also believes he’s her brother.

Parting Shot: Isabel looks around the set, which is not a set but the actual world she’s now trapped in, and asks “What am I doing inside Lauro’s telenovela?

Most Pilot-y Line: “This bastard stole my telenovela and ruined it,” Isabel tells her friend Denis. “What do you plan on doing?” Denis asks her. “I wish I could steal it from him and ruin it even more.” Dun-dun-dunnnnn!

Our Call: Novela is probably not on your radar, but it should be. It’s breezy and fun and a genius concept for a show. Make it your next summer binge (eight 30-minute episodes! Watch it in a weekend!) and STREAM IT!

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.