Avenida Brasil (English: Brazil Avenue) is a Brazilian primetime telenovela created by João Emanuel Carneiro. It premiered on March 26, 2012 and ended on October 19, 2012 on Rede Globo at 9 pm timeslot. It was written by João Emanuel Carneiro in collaboration with Antonio Silver, Luciana Pessanha, Alessandro Marson, Marcia Prates and Thereza Falcão and direction of Gustavo Fernandez, Thiago Teitelroit Paul Silvestrini, Andrew Hall and Joan Jabace and directed by José Luiz Villamarim and Amora Mautner and direction of core Ricardo Waddington.
The Brazilian melodrama centers on Rita and her father played by Tony Ramos. After the death of Rita's mother, her father marries Carminha (Adriana Esteves), a conniving and gold-digging woman who acts like a perfect step mother in front of her husband and changes her personality when he's not around. Rita can see through her and overhears Carminha having a conversation with her accomplice and lover, about fleeing with her husband's money after he sells the house they live in. Rita warns her father and he later confronts his wife.
In a turn of events and while walking down the "Avenida Brasil" he gets run over by Tufão (Murilo Benicio) and tries to tell him that his wife is a bad person. Tufão, a famous soccer player, doesn't understand him well and belives he is trying to tell him to take care of his wife but he soon dies. Tufão looks for Carminha and she lets him believe she is a sad widowed woman. She seduces him and later tells him that she is pregnant. This forces Tufão to break things up with his girlfriend and marry Carminha. Rita, now an orphaned, is abandoned by Carminha in a landfill where she meets a young boy like her who is named Batata. The children fall in love but are soon seperated when an Argentine couple adopt Rita and take her back to their home country. Batata is later adopted by Carminha and Tufão and this adoption was not a coincidence. Rita grows up but with resentment in her heart towards Carminha and all the bad she did in her life. When her adoptive father dies, she masterminds a plan to take Carminha down and unmask her in front of her whole family...only to later reconsider her plan once she discovers that her first love Batata, renamed Jorginho, had been adopted by Carminha.
Avenida Brasil is famous for its high production values, how it tackles social issues, great actors, its awesome theme song (not to mention its soundtrack), its storyline, themed after revenge, and most importantly, of all characters, its antagonist, Carminha (which gives us much of a reason to brand Carminha as the breakout role of her actress, Adriana Esteves), not only because of her being ruthless, but also because of her funny moments.
This telenovela contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Carminha, who was Rita's stepmother and after her father's death, she left her in a landfill. She's also abusive to her actual daughter Ágatha, in contrast to her favoritism towards Jorginho.
- Nilo, who turns out be Max's father, not only abused his son but also exploits and mistreats the children under his care at the landfill.
- As it turns out, Carminha's father Santiago. Initially introduced as a kindly old man running a toys' hospital, he's revealed to be behind everything to have abandoned her in the landfill, after killing her mother and after Max dies and Carminhs disappears, it's revealed that he kidnapped her to force her to help him with her final schemes.
- Happily Adopted: Played with Batata/Jorginho. Carminha convinces Tufão to adopt him, unaware that he's her son, whom she abandoned with Mother Lucinda. However, he turns out to be closer to his adoptive father than Carminha (which is probably for the better).
- Parental Substitute: Mother Lucinda, a kindly old lady at the landfill who raised Rita and Batata before they were adopted, along with other children throughout the years. She's known Carminha and tries to dissuade to pursue a vendetta against her.
