(Note: At Gaelsdottir’s suggestion, the name of the diary has been changed. Thank you, G. The title of the series is: Stupid Wife. We don’t feel that reflects what the series is about, discussion in the diary and in the comment threads.)
Nearly midway through the first episode of the Brazilian webserie (their word) Stupid Wife, just moments after the opening credits (which don't come until 11:30 into the 27 minute first episode), Luiza awakes in bed beside her wife, Valentina, with no memory of their life together. The episode is shown on YouTube, in Portuguese, with English subtitles (necessary, as I know no Portuguese). Link below. They are two perfectly lovely young women, thrown a difficult curveball by life.
Luiza’s last memory, instead, is of two difficult law student-era encounters with Valentina from ten years before. In the first, Valentina walks up to a table where Luiza is expounding about a worker rights project with three other students. Valentina sits by her brother and entreats Luiza to continue. Moments later, Valentina, clearly with eyes only for Luiza, interrupts, suggesting first that the seminar for which Luiza is preparing isn't until the following week, and that she should enjoy her Friday and weekend. Luiza demurs, to the effect that she takes her responsibility seriously. Then Valentina counters Luiza with the idea that workers abuse rights to try to take advantage of employers, as - she suggests - many entrepreneurs could confirm.
Frustrated, Luiza stalks off and the other students at the table express their displeasure with Valentina prior to leaving, themselves. Valentina laughs and admits to her brother that she was too hard on Luiza. Her brother, also a bit flabbergasted, asks Valentina if she really believes the crap she was speaking. She laughs again and says of course not, she only wanted to piss off Luiza. Then the insight - she asks her brother if he noticed how hot Luiza is when angry.
The second encounter with Luiza comes later in an evening (unknown if it is the evening of the same day or not). Luiza has missed her ride with her best friend, Duda, and is waiting at a bus stop near midnight, though the buses run slowly that time of night, and she faces an hour wait for the next one. A motorcycle nearby starts, and the operator rides to the bus stop and turns the bike off. Once the helmet is removed we see that it is Valentina, to Luiza’s dismay.
Valentina asks what Luiza is doing out so late, suggests she should go home, finally offers Luiza a ride on the back of the bike, but Luiza declines. So, Valentina dismounts and sits beside Luiza on the bench to wait for the bus. I thought it was significant that she would not leave Luiza alone, late at night. Eventually Luiza reconsiders and accepts the ride home with Valentina.
The ride turns out to be more "exciting" than Luiza liked and she gets off the bike at her home without thanking Valentina. Valentina Is surprised by that and asks why, only to hear that Luiza felt her life was in danger riding with Valentina. As she turns to walk away, Valentina says: We’ll get married one day. Luiza calls her ridiculous and they part.
That is how the Stupid Wife webserie (as they are calling it) began.
I don’t really know how this came up in my YouTube feed. (I was signed in, so it wasn’t random, as far as I know.) I did a little research into it, and apparently the Brazilian production follows a ‘fanfic’ written by a Brazilian woman (as far as I’ve been able to tell), named Nathália Sodré.
The fanfic was originally written as a treatment of a fictional romantic relationship between Camila Cabello and Lauren Jauregui, of the musical group, Fifth Harmony (which Cabello left in 2016). I think this is how it came to appear in my feed, as I looked up Camila Cabello, who was a coaching assistant to John Legend in the battle rounds for The Voice last season, and has been selected as a full-fledged coach for the coming season of that show. I don’t know Fifth Harmony, I don’t know their music, I don’t know anything about Lauren Jauregui.
The webserie has been patterned after the fanfic, with Nathália Sodré's participation, with the main characters changed from Cabello and Jauregui to Valentina and Luiza. I did read the fanfic, in brief fashion, so I can say that the webserie diverges in many points from the written version, not just in the names of the main characters.
There have been four episodes of Stupid Wife posted on YouTube to this point, and at least three additional episodes filmed for Part 2 of the series. To try to offset costs, previews of coming episodes may be purchased through a weblink from the video. I purchased previews for Part 1 (no longer available now that the episodes have been shown on YouTube) and the first two episodes of Part 2, so far, though, unlike the YouTube versions with English subtitles, the previews are in Portuguese only. I bought them to try to support this production, which I have enjoyed. I wish I knew Portuguese. But it’s fascinating to read demeanor and body language in the previews. And you can pull for the couple without knowing their exact words.
After the inauspicious initial exchanges between Valentina and Luiza in episode one, the second half of the episode shows Luiza awakening in bed with Valentina, ten years later, with no memory, apparently, of any times between then and the earlier encounters with this woman she seemingly hated.
Once awake, Luiza enters a fairly intense panic attack, and a doctor (and friend she remembers from her earlier life) comes to assist and evaluate.
They do medical tests on Luiza to try to figure out the cause of her amnesia, and no medical problems are identified, so the diagnosis becomes ‘dissociative amnesia.’ Listening in audience with Luiza’s parents to the diagnosis and test results, they learn that Luiza’s condition could change in a day, week, month or never.
It broke my heart to see Valentina’s face when told her wife might never remember anything of their lives together. It looked as if she had lost everything that held meaning for her in life. Because Luiza already reverted to the hostility she remembered from what she thought of as her last encounter with Valentina.
Here is a picture of her, looking toward her wife, a tear trickling down her cheek.
I’m not going to write a spoiler for other episodes, except to say that Luiza learns that they have a child, named Leo, and that she gave birth to him. I expect he is perhaps 5 years old. Leo is a bright young boy, and it takes him no time to completely win her heart, as Valentina is unable to do. But she remembers nothing of the pregnancy, Leo’s birth or earlier childhood. It is obvious to Luiza that Valentina loves Leo every bit as much as she does and is a devoted and loving mother.
The webserie gives no hint as to how Valentina won Luiza’s heart after their earlier struggles, but, from pictures and videos, even Luiza can see what a wonderful, loving couple she and Valentina had become, no denying it. Nothing Valentina does contradicts the fact that she loves Luiza without reservation.
Before I go any further, I want to say I am troubled by the title of the series. Luiza and Valentina are both exceptionally bright women, and the mistakes they made and make are quite natural ones, given the circumstances. In no way do I think that either one of them is ‘stupid,’ and I am at a complete loss - to the extent I have watched so far - as to which wife the title refers to as being stupid. For me, so far, neither is.
I have written before about a German word that I always loved. The word is Einfühlungvermögen. It is sometimes translated as ‘empathy,’ and I don’t like that definition. For me it has a much broader, much deeper meaning. A more literal translation - if I do it - would be ‘the capacity to feel one’s way into the circumstances of another,’ particularly emotionally.
Watching Stupid Wife took me straight into that space, for whatever reasons.
I know Luiza and Valentina are fictional characters. I know their story isn’t a real one. But I pull for those young women with all my heart, that they will find their way back to their love and their joyous life together.
I would like to have some idea of how they got past the difficulties of the early days. I don’t think Valentina’s law school-era approach was a good one, of course, but they were young, and their mistakes were not worse than mistakes I have made. I’m glad they got past them to achieve such a fine relationship, before Luiza’s amnesia.
If you would like to watch their performances, Episode One may be found here on YouTube. The original trailer for the series is here, much shorter. Again, the first four episodes have been released. No official word (that I know of) has been issued on when future episodes will be released. The release schedule for the first four episodes was one per week, every Thursday. Speculation in the comment threads seems to suggest that the Part 2 episodes will be released in October, sometime, once editing is finished. As of now, episodes 5-7 (in preliminary form) may be purchased and previewed via links found in the descriptions of the videos.
If their marriage and story don’t appeal to you, that’s fine, too. Thanks for at least considering it.
Best wishes to you both, Valentina and Luiza. May you have a successful return to your love and your life together.