When Globo announced it would be making a soap opera with an evangelical core, there was much speculation about the station’s desire to win over Record’s audience. However, “Vai na Fé” is far from resembling Edir Macedo’s soap operas.
Having an evangelical core doesn’t make an evangelical soap opera. To do this, Vai na Fé would have to make its characters ventriloquists of the teachings of a particular religion. It doesn’t appear to be the case after watching the first chapter of the new Seven O’Clock Conspiracy.
In “Vai na Fé” the characters are part of the world and society, just like in real life. They’re not necessarily better or worse than the others, but they have their problems and challenges just like everyone else. Cult and church appear as elements of identification and not as an opportunity for indoctrination.
In “Amor Sem Igual,” a 2019 soap opera reprized by Record, there is a very large dualism between good and evil. The protagonist Poderosa, who begins the storyline as a call girl, eats the bread that the devil kneaded so that she can end up converting and marrying the man who helped her find religion. Everything bad that happens to Poderosa is used for this purpose, including violence against women.
“Vai na Fé” is just beginning and still has a long way to go, but it is already ahead of it in escaping indoctrination, stereotypes and prejudice. Evangelicals are not a unified group, nor do they deserve to be portrayed as such. This seems like a simple task, but it is as complicated as understanding the plurality of this community in Brazil.
Record, which might very well have done this if there had been evangelical soap opera writers, made the mistake of summing up the evangelical experience into a single doctrine. Therefore, “Vai na Fé” has an open road ahead, just use it.