“We’ll always have Paris.” – Casablanca

This is an inspiring BL series from Brazil. Much like in the old classic movie “Casablanca”, Paris represents an ideal. In this case, however, it symbolizes a young man’s fantasy image of a faraway place of freedom where you are at liberty to be yourself. Oh, that we could all live in our own creation of utopia.

This series has angst and trauma yet never is overly melodramatic. Their issues hit close to home because they were so recognizable and at times became uncomfortably close to an atmosphere of realism. Yet, the story itself never got too bogged down into being despondent. It remained aspirant mainly because the characters had begun to germinate the seeds of who they were already. The story was merely a vehicle that allowed them to solidify their more authentic selves. Rather, quickly, they had to mature from childhood to adulthood. It really was a nice change of pace from the usual cliché driven BLs. The characters themselves made the change happen; not the storyline.

Noel (Renan Beckman), an obviously troubled individual, comes to live with his Aunt Thelma (Maira Tangerino) and her family. He is a good-looking young man who somehow feels responsible for the breakup of his parent’s marriage. Underpinning this feeling is the fact that Noel is struggling with being gay. Having told his family, his father kicked him out of the house and became abusive towards him in every sense of that word. Thus, leaving him frightened, unwanted, and alone. So, to escape the abuse of his father, he went to live with his aunt, who herself had been abused by him, her own brother, as a child. She too had been carrying around a lot of emotional anxiety as well because of him.

Noel has two cousins who have welcomed him. Carol (Karina Paixao) and Noel soon become fast friends. Leo (Ramon Santana) a more laid-back young man of the same age is fixated on becoming a star basketball player and is certainly more sports-oriented than Noel. Fred (Pedro Lourenco), also a very handsome young man, and Leo have been best friends since they were children and are like brothers. He is considered part of the family. Obviously, Fred catches the eye of Noel immediately. Unfortunately, Carol also has had feelings for Fred. Uncharacterically one day, she impulsively kisses him, making for awkward tensions afterwards. Fred, as gently as he can, explains that while he loves her, he only loves her as a sister. He does not have romantic affections for her.

He feels this way because by this time, he and Noel have begun embracing a relationship and realizing their attraction to one another is quite strong and getting stronger. In fact, it is becoming serious for both. However, with each of them having controlling fathers, being completely open about their relationship is not exactly an option for them. It is becoming increasingly more challenging for Noel and Fred to hide what is happening between them. Not only that, how do they tell those closest to each without hurting or losing them?

The roadblocks that are the hindrances to their relationship are real ones. The father of Noel comes back into the picture and tries to re-navigate him back to his ‘family’, with failure. Something so many of us would and could understand. These are family individuals we can understand and relate to. They are us, which is what I most admired about this series. It took a slice-of-life from what I am assuming is everyday living in Brazil and made a gay story come to life for us – simply, understandably, and with a down to earth conclusion.

This is a beautiful family that was able to overcome a lot of emotional baggage and pain. And when needed, encouraged each other to be themselves, as a family should. This is a ‘feel-good’ series that makes sense because the story is methodically portrayed so well. After the initial shock of the relationship between Noel and Fred, all three embrace Noel and Fred’s as being gay with complete acceptance and their relation is accepted as valid and normal as any other relationship. For all of them, it all felt so commonplace. Family is uppermost with support for one another providing the strength of family unity to fight against abuse. That principle is made very clear.

For a small company and given the intense nature of the theme, the acting of all the performers is very good. Yet, there was one who stood out because of his fortitude. While not a big role, it sure is diverse. Coming across as being a tough guy, underneath he is so understanding, compassionate, and sensitive. Ramon Santana as Leo surprised me the most. While he looks like he would not discern or accept the relationship between his very best friend and his cousin, when he walks in on them kissing, shocked of course, he slinks away stealthily. Yet, disappointed his very best friend would not tell him he was gay. That hurt him deeply. Somehow when you do not expect certain characters to be so validating and they are, you are surprised. That is a sign of effective and dynamic acting along with astute script writing. He took a small role and turned it into his own, convincingly and I might add, naturally. He is the brother we all wish we had. In fact, Carol and Thelma are also both the ‘sister’ and ‘aunt’ we wish we had in our families. Thank you for portraying understanding family members with warmth and acceptance. It went beyond merely acting. They all reflected a deeper appreciation of affirmation and understanding than I expected. And they did so without being overly dramatic.

The production of this series is basic and simple. Editing and cinematography are a little rough around the edges at times and could have been tightened up a bit to make the story flow more evenly. But this story has gravitas. It knows what it wants to do and does it. It aspires to present a love story between two young men, and it does. They fall in love, make no apologies for that, and are not hesitant in wanting to display to each other their affection for one another. I have never seen so much kissing. While I did not count the kissing scenes, there are a lot of them! Which makes this fun to watch because we see two young men willing and able to be affectionate with one another without hiding behind pillows, stuffed animals, fancy camera work, or hidden by silhouette images of kissing. We see them kissing and kissing! Kudos.

Finally, we find out, much like Noel does, that Paris might be closer to us than we realize and perhaps it is of our own making. Paris might be right in front of us, looking back at us and it is coming from the eyes of the person we love.

For this, they deserve our admiration. They made gay normal living, both emotional and entertaining. And for that, they merit some level of distinction, and I am placing them in my Top Ten List for 2025.

Rating- 5 out of 5

Streaming on- MY SURNAME IS LIFE YouTube Channel