Gabriela

Naïve and provocative Gabriela is a raggedy migrant worker who arrives in town to mesmerize all with her playful and simple, yet raw sensuality. Set in 1925, the story unravels in Ilhéus, a quiet northeastern coastal city thriving with cocoa crops and aspirations for progress, even though the traditional ways still rule.

Gabriela (2012) is a Brazilian telenovela created by Walcyr Carrasco for TV Globo, a single season of 77 episodes adapted from a novel. Juliana Paes plays the title character, a playful and sensual migrant worker who drifts into the coastal cocoa city of Ilhéus in the 1920s. Humberto Martins plays Nacib, a bar owner whose life is upended by her, while Mateus Solano plays the reformist Mundinho Falcão and Antônio Fagundes plays the powerful Coronel Ramiro Bastos. The engine of the show is the tug between desire and propriety, as lovers, rivals and town patriarchs maneuver around marriage, money and the rigid codes of a community where the cocoa oligarchy still rules. Each episode is built from romantic entanglements, petty schemes and public scandals that accumulate across a single long arc. Set in 1925 northeastern Brazil, the series unfolds amid plantation estates, bustling taverns and dusty streets. Its tone is warm, colorful and melodramatic, with sly comedy and sincere longing. Fans of Renascer, Pantanal and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands will find resonance in its sensual rebellion and lush provincial setting.

Audiences broadly embraced the adaptation of Jorge Amado's novel as a sensual, colorful soap opera with a memorable lead performance.

• Renascertelenovela romance with a sensual outsider disrupting a provincial town, class and power rivalries
• Dona Flor and Her Two Husbandsperiod romance and social satire of a small coastal town, soap opera melodrama
• Pantanaltelenovela tradition, rural and coastal social drama, love triangles and inheritance feuds

Created by

Walcyr Carrasco

Release Date

2012-06-18

Rating

7.9 / 10 (55)

What is Gabriela about?

A sensual migrant worker arrives in 1925 Ilhéus, a cocoa-trading town whose traditional order is about to be shaken.

What is Gabriela like to watch?

Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Gabriela as measured, its intensity as moderate and its storytelling as easy to follow.

Is Gabriela violent?

Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Gabriela as mild.

What did critics think of Gabriela?

Audiences broadly embraced the adaptation of Jorge Amado's novel as a sensual, colorful soap opera with a memorable lead performance.

Which shows are like Gabriela?

Shows with a similar feel include Renascer, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, and Pantanal.

How long is Gabriela?

Gabriela: 1 season, 77 episodes.

Is Gabriela still running?

No, Gabriela has ended.