When saying goodbye to Irma (Camila Morgado), Trindade (Gabriel Sater) not only broke the hearts of Madeleine’s sister (Karine Teles), but also the hearts of the couple’s fans. The absence of the pawn made way for José Lucas (Irandhir Santos) to take an interest in the redhead again, and in the next chapters of Pantanal they would become a real couple.
Irma and José Lucas’ flirtation began when José Leôncio’s firstborn (Marcos Palmeira) showed up at his father’s farm. Irma was by then completely in love with the “cattle king” and only forgot her sister’s husband when she met José Lucas, due to the “resemblance” between father and son (who don’t look alike at all, but it’s a soap opera, isn’t it ?).
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However, José Lucas only had eyes for Juma (Alanis Guillen) and later for Érica (Marcela Fetter). So it was up to Irma to heal her lack in Trindade’s arms. And then the magic of “chemistry” happened: Irma and Trindade formed a beautiful couple that filled the screen with explosive passion.
But when Trindade leaves and José Lucas is disappointed in Érica, the way opens for the flirt to resume there. José Lucas and Irma are also involved again.
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no chemistry
The author Bruno Luperi, who has updated the text by Benedito Ruy Barbosa, will have to show great skill if he wants to insist on this couple. The original author’s grandson remained loyal to the work and therefore overlooked any possibility of change.
So Luperi has to play a pair that shows no chemistry. Irma gained new energy when she became involved with Trindade, and without him the young woman is erased. On the other hand, since his appearance, José Lucas has never been a fountain of charisma, on the contrary. He always turned out to be a capricious and treacherous guy.
Together, José Lucas and Irma don’t spark. There is an obvious “power” to make the couple actualize. And that’s unlikely to happen. There’s no overwhelming onscreen passion.
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open work
The way in which Bruno Luperi resists the idea of altering his grandfather’s original work is strange, since with this attitude the author completely ignores the importance of the novel as an open work. An open work is subject to changes that can occur as characters come to life and speak for themselves.
A new social context or the new interpreters give the work a new dimension. That happened here. Gabriel Sater and Camila Morgado worked together, while Irandhir Santos, no matter how good an actor, failed to make José Lucas a lovely man (more for the text than the interpreter, of course).
That said, there’s no way the public will swallow Irma and José Lucas together. The couple did not work out.
About the author
André Santana is a journalist, writer and cultural producer. He grew up with the “electronic nanny” and turned his passion for TV into a career in 2005 when he started the blog TeleVisão. Since then he has written about television in several specialist publications. He is the author of the book TeleVisão: A Televisão Brasileira em 10 Anos, published by EB Ações Culturais and Clube de Autores.
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