Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Samantha!’ On Netflix, Where A Former Brazilian Child Star Holds On To Fame Any Way She Can

Netflix has been doing a great job commissioning strong shows from international markets. The latest is Samantha!, a comedy from Brazil that anyone who has watched a child star on a reality show will understand. But is it as good as Netflix’s other comedies?

SAMANTHA!: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We pan through a brightly-colored dressing room to a little girl sitting in a makeup chair. The graphic “1985” flashes on the screen. An adult is giving the girl tiaras to try on. She hates them all, and wants the tiara she usually wears. “This is not my tiara,” she keeps saying.

The Gist: As the girl walks through a television soundstage, we find out that she’s the star of a kids show in Brazil, and she’s a bit of a diva. She has no problem insulting kids and adults alike, knowing that she’s the star and no one can fire her. She’s such a diva that the other kids on the show call her “Samonster”. The only person on the show she likes and trusts is a Cig (Ary França), a man who performs on the show in a foam suit shaped like a pack of cigarettes (remember: it’s Brazil in the ’80s).

As Samantha is singing her signature song, we flash to 2018. Middle-aged Samantha (Emanuelle Araújo) is in a sparsely-filled club singing the same song to an inattentive crowd. Cig is still with her, dancing in a faded costume. Her kids Cindy (Sabrina Nonato) and Brandon (Cauã Gonçalves) assist in getting her costume on and off and they make sure the grandfatherly Cig stays upright. After the gig, her agent Marcinho (Daniel Furlan) drops her, saying that she’s done and YouTube and Instagram stars are where it’s at. Of course, Samantha thinks she’s still got something left and wants to keep things going, even as she runs into a young woman who says her mom loved the show. Ouch.

She and the kids drive home and see a crowd of reporters outside their house. Turns out Samantha’s ex-husband Dodói (Douglas Silva), a former soccer star, is out of prison after 12 years. While he was inside, he and Samantha got married. He says he’s back to stay, sober and wants to settle down on a ranch somewhere. She’s skeptical that he’s sincere, but when she goes outside to address the press, the attention she gets shows her that keeping Dodói around will be a pretty good boost for her career.

Our Take: Samantha! comes from Brazil, and is helmed by Felipe Braga, a name familiar to anyone who follows Latin television. It’s a pretty unforgiving portrait of a woman who found immense fame at a young age and wants to hang on to it any way she can. She’s done reality shows. She’s sung for tiny crowds. She constantly feels she’s on the precipice of recapturing the stardom that she had 30-plus years ago, if she just finds the right thing to put the spotlight back on her.

What’s funny about Samantha is that her downslide hasn’t humbled her. Her career has gone into the toilet, and she’s had to raise two kids on her own, but that just makes her a more confident version of the 10-year-old diva who starred in The Pimplon Gang. For instance, she kept the prosthetic leg she stole from a guest star way back when, as a trophy from her child star days. But she also has an instinct towards keeping herself on the edges of fame, and Dodói is the perfect way to get herself back in.

But it’s not like the other characters are underdeveloped. Dodói is trying to navigate his way around a world where there is no such thing as “man’s stuff” anymore, at least according to his vegan daughter Cindy. He also has to get used to the fact that Brandon is an unathletic intellectual who hates soccer and spends time writing his autobiography. And, while he says he’s sober, he still drinks beer and is tempted when a fan leaves him a bottle of booze. His version of watching the kids is having them ditch school and kick a ball around at the soccer stadium.

Samantha! has a number of genuine laughs, both of the sight gag variety (what Cig has to wear on his new costume was pretty funny in any language) and ones that are more character-driven — Samantha wants to be referred to as “Samantha!”, complete with exclamation point — and seeing how she clings to fame as the show goes along will be fun to watch.

Sex and Skin: It’s a pretty wholesome show, all things considered.

Parting Shot: Even though Samantha sees right through Dodói, when Marcinho gets them a beer ad, she knows she has to keep him around. He says “You’re glad that I’m back.” She says “Don’t get used to it, OK?”

Sleeper Star: We definitely want to see more of Nonato and Gonçalves as Samantha’s kids.

Most Pilot-y Line: The show felt most sitcomy during a scene where the kids are in the back seat fearing for their life as Dodói wildly drives for the first time since going to prison. Also, we don’t yet have any idea why he was there to begin with.

Our Call: Stream It. It’s funny, Araújo and Silva are fine leads, and the idea that Samantha spends the season trying different schemes to stay famous will be a fun ride.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Where to stream Samantha!