3% – Review

Cast: Bianca Comparato, Michel Gomes, João Miguel, Rodolfo Valente, Vaneza Oliveira
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Science-Fiction
3% is one of the experiments in original foreign content for the streaming service, and Netflix’s first for Brazil. Adapted from a 2011 YouTube series, the show is set in a futuristic São Paulo awash with poverty, where state rule dictates that, aged 20, individuals must participate in a series of trials in order to join a neighbouring society of privilege known as The Offshore – a mythical land of supposed opportunity, peace and riches.
3% isn’t the kind of young-adult series that focuses on young teenagers. The characters are the show’s strongest point. The cast isn’t drawn clearly into protagonists and secondary characters the way young-adult fiction often is, and even the best applicants aren’t that strong or beautiful. It doesn’t go into much detail about the world at large, or the history of their society. It has instead a powerful and unique human story that begins to reveal itself in later episodes.
The Brazil locale is initially intriguing, enough at least to separate the show from its big-budget rivals. 3% wants to be a story about privilege and the groups rendered voiceless in a capitalist, patriarchal society. It’s dystopian science fiction through a Brazilian perspective, that changes from the usual American one.
Netflix released some viewership statistics and the Brazilian sci-fi series 3% turned out to be one of 2017’s most popular binges in the world. It ranked No. 2 on the list of “most devoured” shows, meaning most people watched at least two hours of it per sitting.
The reason why 3% works so well is that it feels more personal and emotionally driven, easing us to connect with characters who eventually become far more than their pilot-episode characteristics. It shows just enough of a new reality that it leaves viewers wanting more.
3% season 2 drops on Netflix on April 27.
> Mar Martínez