Tieta

Tieta of Santana do Agreste is one of Jorge Amado’s great creations, and the 1989 TV Globo adaptation lets Betty Faria run wild with her. Expelled from her village as a rebellious teenager, Tieta returns 25 years later rich, powerful and ready to shake a sleepy town built on gossip and small hypocrisies until something gives.

Faria is the whole weather system: lusty, vengeful, funny and unexpectedly tender. The earthy humor about desire and provincial morality still feels healthy in a way much period television does not, and Joana Fomm, Cássio Gabus Mendes, Arlete Salles and Cláudia Ohana clearly relish the material.

It meanders. At 196 chapters the middle sags under town politics, and the ending wraps things up more neatly than Amado ever would, though the subplots about the town’s men and their vanities have a sly charm of their own. The star at the center never stops being worth the trip.

Globoplay carries the full original format, restored for the 35th anniversary in September 2024. Our score: 7/10. Watch tonight for Betty Faria at full wattage; it is comfort with a wicked streak.