This Brazilian Netflix Drama Will Put Your Favorite Soap Opera to Shame

It's dark, it's messy and it's brimming with suspense. No, I'm not talking about the latest in Hulu's line-up of true-crime shows . I'm talking about Desperate Lies —the intense Brazilian drama that's set to drop on Netflix next month.

Directed by Maurício Farias, the upcoming series follows Liana (Juliana Paes), a woman who leaves her husband, Tomás (Vladimir Brichta), after learning about his infidelity. But during a night out with friends, she gets drugged and things go horribly wrong. Soon after, Liana discovers that she's pregnant with twins. But here's the kicker: she has an extremely rare case of heteropaternal superfecundation. Or, in other words, each child has DNA from two different men.

The trailer shows Liana confronting her husband about his affair and spending time at the club. Then, it reveals her reaction to the news of her pregnancy. Liana says, "I don't know what to do because I'm expecting the baby I've desired most in my life, and I'm pregnant with this thing that I reject and don't want to have."

Now, I can't help but wonder: What does this mean for the unwanted twin? Will she and her husband raise both siblings as their own? And what will become of the second father?

While discussing her character with Telaviva , Paes said, "She has ups and downs and a lot of emotions. She is a character who lives universal dramas, many of them related to motherhood and marriage. In dramaturgy, we have understood over the years that no one is only good or only bad. We can work on subtleties and silences."

Marcos Serra Lima / Netflix

Angela Chaves, who worked on the script, also said, "It's a story about interrupted dreams, losses, learning and overcoming. Its main character is a woman who dreams of being a mother. She faces twists and turns, tragic and even unusual events that impact her life and her marriage. It's an original and contemporary melodrama."

She continued, "We believe in the power of this genre. We talk about ethical and moral issues and we bet on facts that people can relate to."

In addition to Brichta and Paes, the cast includes Felipe Abib, Paloma Duarte, João Vitti, Jussara Freire and Martha Nowill.

All 18 episodes will be available to stream on Netflix on July 5.

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