Shades of Sin

Da Cor do Pecado matters first as history: in 2004 Taís Araújo became the first Black lead of a TV Globo novela in decades, and the show refused to treat that as a gimmick. She plays Preta, a young woman from a fishing community who will not accept that her lover Paco is dead, and she fights a relentless rival for the truth with a steadiness the melodrama around her rarely deserves.

The racism storyline is handled with unusual care for its time. Preta’s world is specific, her family is rendered with respect, and the show lets indignation land without speeches. Reynaldo Gianecchini’s Paco is a believably weak man at the center of the storm, and Giovanna Antonelli sharpens every scene she is in.

It is still a 2004 soap. Coincidences stack up, the comic interludes have not aged well, and the pacing wanders. Araújo is the reason to stay: calm where others screech, certain where the script is not.

All 185 chapters have been in the Globoplay catalog since 2022. Our score: 7/10. Tonight this is a good pick if you want a landmark performance inside a love story with teeth.