Brazilian TV, namely Rede Globo network, produced some high-quality historic series. These ones definitely deserve a visit:
1 – Casa das Sete Mulheres – Probably the best historic series ever produced in the country. Its about the Revolução Farroupilha, also known as Guerra dos Farrapos, a 10-year revolution that opposed the landowners of the Southern state of Rio Grande do Sul and the federal government. It also depicts the Brazilian phase of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary that sided with the gaúchos and then went back to Europe, where he fought to unify his country.
2 – Anos Rebeldes – the reaction against the military rule in the seventies. Very powerful acting.
3 – Anos Dourados – love and youth in the 50s in beautiful pastel colors.
4 – Maysa – The story of Maysa Monjardim, socialite turned into diva singer that died in 1977 at forty. It also shows the first years of Bossa Nova. The series was directed by her son, great TV director Jayme Monjardim Matarazzo (that also directed previously mentioned “A Casa das Sete Mulheres”).
5 – Dalva e Herivelto: uma Canção de Amor – a love story in the golden age of Brazilian radio.
6 – A Muralha – another masterpiece. It shows the first years of colonization of the state of São Paulo, in the 16th century. Indians, Jesuit priests and cristãos novos (Jews expelled from Portugal by the Inquisition and obliged to convert) mingle and fight in a beautifully wild landscape. The core of the series is the story of a family of bandeirantes – mix of pioneers, warriors and brutes that lived of gold mining, expanding the countries frontiers and slavering the natives.
7 – Chiquinha Gonzaga – maybe not the best in the list, but it is interesting for portraying the life and times of the upper class mulatto composer that lived between 1847 and 1935. She fought against slavery, brought popular music to elegant salons and composed the first carnival song, “Ô Abre Alas“.