''Pé na Cova'' is a Brazilian television series produced by

TV Globo TV Globo (stylized as tvglobo; , ), formerly known as Rede Globo de Televisão (; shortened to Rede Globo) or simply known as Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air Television broadcasting, television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto M ...

. It was shown from 24 January 2013 to 7 April 2016, with 71 episodes and 5 seasons. Created and written by Miguel Falabella, with scripts by Alessandra Poggi, Antonia Pellegrino, Artur Xexéo, Flávio Marinho and Luiz Carlos Góes, collaboration by Ana Quintana, final script by Miguel Falabella and Flávio Marinho, under the direction of Cris D'Amato, Hsu Chien and Cininha de Paula, general direction by Cininha de Paula and core direction by Roberto Talma. It featured Miguel Falabella, Marília Pêra, Lorena Comparato, Daniel Torres, Luma Costa, Mart'nália, Karin Hils, and Karina Marthin in the main roles.

Production

Although the apparent backdrop of the series is death, Miguel Falabella said that, in fact, its backdrop “is the great tragedy of national education.” Cininha Paula noted that “death surrounds, but does not star in the series” and Falabella concluded that “in Brazil, death has a very morbid footprint and I imagined that it would be banal to make a comedy with the theme” and that is why he would try to seek a “lightness”. The author said that although the plot deals with controversial issues, the text “borders on ‘

nonsense Nonsense is a form of communication, via speech, writing, or any other formal logic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. In ordinary usage, nonsense is sometimes synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous. Many poets, novelists and songwri ...

’.” Cininha de Paula, the general director, described the series as a realistic comedy. The “crazy realism”, as the director calls it, has diverse inspirations, ranging from the Cohen brothers to Cuban and Portuguese films. Falabella said that “''Pé na Cova''” is a reflective program and not just about the relationship with death, but at the same time, it is very "light". About the central family, the author commented that they “have no money, no education, are completely crazy”, as well as having “an unusual characteristic”: they are “a group of people who are eccentric to the limit, who border on the absurd and survive over death”, but which, according to him, does exist. Falabella also said that he thought of them as an “ Addams Family from Irajá.” As the series is set in the Irajá neighborhood, Cininha de Paula went there to find the necessary references, where she acquired information about funeral services, sets, and costumes. For the latter, she also used “things from Portuguese films, because of the great influence of the Lusitanian colonies.” In the third season, which began on 8 April 2014, Marília Pêra left the series due to a health problem. On June 11, she returned to recording the series. During the airing of the fourth season, the actress, who played the character Darlene, died on December 5, 2015. Rede Globo met with the actress's family and the cast and kept the series going even after the actress's death until the end of the last season on April 7, 2016. Despite the actress's death, she had already left one more season recorded.

Casting

The choice of Mart'nália was made by Falabella himself, who adapted the lines considering her difficulty speaking and her debut as an actress. Luma Costa, for her part, had to take tests in order to play Odete Roitman. When she heard that the series needed a blonde, light-eyed actress, she signed up for the selection, which she won. Luma also took

pole dancing Pole dance combines dance and acrobatics centered around a vertical pole. This performance art form takes place not only in strip club, gentleman's clubs as a form of erotic dance, but also as a mainstream form of fitness, practiced in gyms and ...

classes to prepare for her role, which included wearing lingerie as part of her costume. The role of Juscelino, the funerary driver, was originally going to be played by Ney Latorraca, who, however, had health problems and was hospitalized. He was then replaced by Alexandre Zacchia. However, the author has said that when the actor is fully recovered, he will be able to play another character, Doctor Zoltan, an unreliable doctor who works as a psychiatrist and surgeon. In June 2013, Ney Latorraca communicated with Falabella and decided not to join the cast, citing his intention to take more time before returning to acting, passing the character on to Diogo Vilela, who had already worked with the author on '' Toma Lá Dá Cá''. Actress Marília Pêra, who played the character Darlene, died on December 5, 2015. However, the series continued to be shown, because she had already left one more season recorded. Miguel Falabella contacted the actress's family so that her image could be used in the last recorded season of the series, in 2016.

Plot

Set in Irajá, a suburb of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, the plot focuses on the Pereira family, headed by Gedivan Pereira, better known as Ruço (Miguel Falabella), who is dating Abigail (Lorena Comparato), an orphan girl who is thirty years younger than him, and is the owner of F.U.I. - Funerária Unidos do Irajá -, a company that is almost bankrupt due to past mismanagement and which doesn't make enough money to support everyone in the house. To help out at home, Ruço's daughter Odete (Luma Costa) works producing adult content on internet sites for subscribers and is also the girlfriend of transsexual mechanic Tamanco (Mart'nália). The patriarch's youngest son, Alessanderson (Daniel Torres), doesn't care about working and wants a career in politics, being a braggart who manages to manipulate people in the neighborhood with false promises for the future. The family is completed by Darlene (Marília Pêra), Ruço's ex-wife, who struggles with alcohol dependence, and his best friend and confidant, who works as a make-up artist for a funeral home. The house is also home to Bá (Niana Machado), Ruço's former nanny, who struggles with memory loss, which occasionally leads to challenging situations for the family, and Adenóide (Sabrina Korgut), a maid who always has a story of tragedy and poverty to tell. The funeral home is run by the gloomy handyman Juscelino (Alexandre Zacchia), a terrible driver who regularly ends up losing a body, and is the brother of the schizophrenic Luz Divina (Eliana Rocha), a woman who resorts to schemes to obtain money for her medication. The neighborhood is also home to the mechanic Marco (Maurício Xavier), Tamanco's brother who performs as a drag queen at night, Floriano (Rubens de Araújo), a grouchy and paranoid neighbor, and the barista twins Soninja (Karin Hils) and Giussandra (Karina Marthin), who are absolutely different and run a snack cart with creative names inspired by the funeral home, such as ''X-túmulo'' (X-tomb) and ''caixão-quente'' (hot-coffin). In the third season, Dr. Zóltan (Diogo Vilela), a plastic surgeon with OCD, joins the cast, while in the fourth, Luiziane, Odete's stripper co-worker who gets involved with Alessanderson, and Men Fu (Chao Chen), a Chinese man who has an affair with Odete but falls in love with Adenóide.

Cast

Main roles

Recurrent role

Special guests

Seasons

Spin-off

On the program's official website, there was a web series called ''Lembranças do Irajá'' (Memories of Irajá), where the main focus was on showing the past of the central characters.

Rebroadcast

From January 10, 2019, to March 19, 2020, It was rebroadcast on Canal Viva.

Reception

Audience

The series premiered with an average of 17 points in São Paulo.

Critical evaluation

Columnist Nilson Xavier of the UOL website praised the show, saying: "There's nothing like

black humor Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

to play with death and prejudice by taking a debauched and amusing look at human tragedy."

Awards and nominations

Soundtrack

# "Pé na Cova" - Mart'nália (Opening theme) # "Canto Para a Minha Morte" - Raul Seixas (General) # "Mon Amour Meu Bem Ma Famme" - Reginaldo Rossi (Abigail's theme) # "Eu Te Amo Meu Brasil" - # "Lábio que Beijei" - Orlando Silva # "The Green Leaves Of Summer" - The Brothers Four

Notes

References

External links

* (in Portuguese) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pe na Cova TV Globo original programming Brazilian comedy television series Portuguese-language television shows 2013 Brazilian television series debuts 2016 Brazilian television series endings