The Greatest Lesbian Web Series Ever?! Second verse, not the same as the first …
Three months ago, I posted a diary about a Brazilian YouTube web series, featuring a lovely same sex couple, faced with a terrible challenge. The diary didn’t receive the attention that I hoped. I wrote the diary to try to help increase their viewership (I have no affiliation with the production, I’m only a fan). I believe in them. I care for them, I pull for them.
The title of that diary undermined viewership, I think, since it included the title of the webseries. It is an English title, and one that tends to be problematic for many English-speakers (myself included). I don’t think the title has the same stigma/interpretation in Brazilian culture (no stigma whatsoever, in fact), so please do not discount the series on that basis.
The title of this diary comes from a somewhat successful (50K+ subscribers) YouTube streamer who streamed a reaction video to the series. I can’t say where the series may rank relative to all lesbian web series posted online, as I don’t know the genre at all. It surprised me that this web series popped up in my YouTube feed, as I described in that first diary, but I watched the first episode, and I am very glad that I did.
The webseries is based on a fanfic by the Brazilian writer Nathália Sodré, about the love and marriage between these two wonderful women, and their attempt to get back to it. The series is broadcast in Brazilian Portuguese with English subtitles. (In the original fanfic, the women were Lauren Jauregui and Camila Cabello, of the music group, Fifth Harmony. I know of no same sex romantic relationship that ever existed between the two. But that’s how fanfics sometimes work.)
When I wrote the first diary, the producer had released the first four videos in the series. (The first episode is at 4.2 million views and counting.) The first episode of Stupid Wife may be found here.) About a month later, the final four videos of Season One began to be released. So, eight videos in total. Since then, a two episode Christmas special was announced, the first episode of which is due to post tonight. In addition, they have announced that a Season 2 will be released. I would not expect that before the middle of next year, but I do not know a time frame. I’m very happy that it is planned, however.
The first four episodes saw the couple surrounded by a remarkable support network, including the sister and parents of Luiza, and Valentina’s brother and his wife. They have a young son, born to Luiza several years before. The interruption in their marriage came after (the exact timing isn’t clear) 6-10 years, with their son being perhaps four. Though Luiza has no memory of his early life, she quickly fell in love with her son, and both women – no matter the issues between them – love him without reservation or compromise, giving them an important common connection, also an incentive to try to recover their relationship without disrupting his life too much.
To give you an introduction to the series, I wrote the following, in what was intended to be a follow-up diary to the first (never completed, never published).
Valentina and Luiza had a rough start in their law school student days. Valentina had a penchant for provoking Luiza. Unbeknownst to us, Valentina had a huge crush on Luiza. The first half of episode one - even before the opening credits — was devoted to telling this part of their story. At the end of that coverage of the early days, Valentina gives Luiza a motorcycle ride to her lodging. Luiza wasn’t pleased with the liveliness of Valentina’s driving, and expressed no appreciation for the ride as she marched away after taking off her helmet. Valentina said, hey, aren’t you going to thank me? Luiza demurred and turned away. Valentina interrupted again and told her: We’ll get married one day. Incredulous at the impossibility, Luiza called her ridiculous, and exited.
As the second half of the episode began (some years later in the story), we saw Luiza waking in bed with her now wife, Valentina. Luiza had a panic attack, with no memory of the intervening time. After medical tests, the diagnosis came back: dissociative amnesia, that could resolve quickly, or never.
So began this remarkable series about this beautiful young couple, with their compelling story and great challenges.
The production company writes this synopsis of the early story:
Luíza sees in Valentina all the defects she believes someone may have, and hates her. One day, however, Luíza wakes up and finds herself ten years older and, to her horror, married to Valentina.
I wrote the first diary about the show in hopes that people might find interest in them, in what happened, since it is such a unique story, with beautiful acting.
I fell a little bit in love with them, with the love they had found, in the hope that the course of the series would help them back to their love and their life together with their young son. I grieved with Valentina, in particular, for the extremely painful consequences of Luiza’s amnesia. Luiza’s last memories were of the anger and frustration she felt with Valentina from their early days.
Now, all episodes of Season One have been posted on YouTube. My caring for them hasn’t diminished one iota. I want them to be happy and fulfilled in their lives and in their marriage.
There is one question I wanted Luiza to ask Valentina, to try to overcome the difficulties of the amnesia, to help solve the puzzle of how she could have ever married a person she despised. That question would be: Valentina, we had such a difficult, adversarial start. How did we get past that? What happened to let me accept your love and to love you in turn? (Okay, two questions.)
It’s not possible to know how we might ourselves behave in circumstances we have never encountered. In the middle of difficult circumstances, pressures affect us in ways that are difficult to anticipate. I am not critical of Luiza for not asking those questions in the series, nor am I critical of Valentina for not thinking to tell her. But it is still what I would have liked for them to discuss.
I know this is a terribly busy and stressful time, with the midterms barely ended and further challenges all around. I understand if you have no interest in this little story, if you have no time to invest in it. But if you enjoy a great love story, if you enjoy films from another culture, if you enjoy seeing a culture that mostly accepts, validates and supports a beautiful same sex couple, then this might be for you. I hope you enjoy it if so. They are special people.
Here is one final picture of them.
Update: in my focus on getting the diary posted, I neglected to include a link to the first episode of the Brazilian web series, Stupid Wife. It may be found here. My apologies for the terrible oversight.
Thanks for reading.