3% (Netflix Brazil) S04: B

Another series that comes to an end. This Brazilian sci-fi drama captivated me back at season 1. They builded this post apocalyptic world, where young men and women at the age of 20 competed to prove they deserve to live in the offshore. A sustainable island where the 3% of the population lived. It was a version of The Hunger Games, the selected group had to pass certain test and only the 3% of the competitors could have a shot at a better life. This series had very limited resources but they made me remember films like Cube a 1997 film shot at a single set, but that somehow made it feel like an unlimited amount of sets. Here the whole series mostly took place at the process center, where all of the test took place, the most close life style inland to what they would see once at the offshore.

The second season wasn't as good as the first one, and the third was kinda bad. But for this fourth and final season they manage to turn things around and deliver a decent farewell to the series. Actually I wasn't even looking forward for it remembering how bad the third season was. But after finishing the first episode I thought that maybe they stood a chance to deliver a good final season. Most recurring faces, a couple of new ones, specially the ones competing in this year's process. And a mission where the stakes where higher than ever. Abolish the process and share the technology from the offshore to build sustainable communities that could collaborate with each other to build a new society. This sounds so good in theory.

This season takes place at the offshore, the inland, the shell and the process building. Forgetting about telling a story with very limited resources and although they probably didn't have a millionaire budget, they had more than they had back at season 1. Still they did the best they could with what they got, without trying to abuse from VFX and spend all of the budget in expensive sequences that could also turn out not that good.

I love the set and art design they build a minimalistic utopia, that even though they had killer and colorful outfits, it somehow felt monotone and expressionless, killing a persons individuality, even in characters like Ariel (played by Marina Matheus) a transgender woman that was so colorful before the process, and then looked still colorful but yet soulless once she was part of the 3%. She seemed to be more in line with the rest of the population, as if trying not to be different than others. In a more subtle way. Not full autocracy oppression, even though it was.

Michele (played by Bianca Comparato) has to lead her friends to the offshore to try and overturn André her brother's dominion over the offshore (played by Bruno Fagundes). Things do not go as smoothly as planned, as expected in most series, but still has a couple of twist that kinda leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. A realization that maybe André in a way is right and we should separate a small percentage of the population, the smart ones, the practical ones, the ones that can work as a team, in order to build a sustainable society, one that could live in harmony with the surroundings, with nature, with the rest of society.

They make you wonder if Michele's and Joana's vision (played by Vaneza Oliveira) could actually be achieved. A vision of a world that can collaborate among each other, leave violence and equality of opportunities for all.

Overall it was a very interesting run for this show and a different view of a post-apocalyptic world. That of course is not an ending but a new beginning. Can't wait to watch what creator Pedro Aguilera brings us next.