Glory - Glória

 

Finally, here it is, the first Portuguese show on Netflix! Did I like it? Yes. Am I impartial? No.

Glória tells us an intense story of espionage during the Cold War. It is not the kind of synopsis that would make me watch a show, but I gave it a try since it was our first. I was not disappointed.

No one is who they claim to be

Typical of any good spies’ movies, no one is who they claim to be or who they seem to be. And most characters are entirely aware of that. As a result, there is no safe place, not even inside the family.

It builds a whole environment where everyone mistrusts everyone, creating lots of suspense and... It works! After a couple of episodes, I was slightly nervous.

Portuguese history as well

The plot is clever, and the writers had to do a lot of research, for sure. Elements of the Cold War were well connected with what was happening in Portugal at the time - the dictatorship, the PIDE (political police), the colonial war in Africa.

It had an interesting psychological and even visual impact on comparing the Cold War happening on this side and the mess of the actual war in Africa.

The place of the women

Another focus of the show is the place of women in the 60s Portuguese society. It is evident how women were mistreated and ignored by men - their husbands, their fathers. And, they suffered all sorts of humiliation and even physical punishments.

The show even focuses on the difference with some other countries already. When you compare Anne, the American woman, with any other Portuguese woman in the show, she is clearly more emancipated - even though she is not equal to men yet. She is told, “maybe it should have been a man” doing her job.

While it was more notorious with women, equality was not a principle people had, not even amongst men. According to their status and social hierarchy position, there was an abyss between people. That led to elites having very different concerns from the rest of the population. The last ones, generally speaking, had no idea of what was happening around them.  

It is never what it looks like

As this genre got us used to, you have surprises until the very end. I’m not sure if it will be a second season, but that could be interesting.

Glória is another worth international show on Netflix.