One of the risks of adapting an episode as tragic and recent as the fire at Kiss Nightclub is making that memory, which is still so vivid in the public’s mind, contaminate the story being told. By allowing memories to overlap with the script, it is very easy to lose focus on what is intended to be told — and it is this trap that Every Day the Same Night assemble for itself.
The new Netflix miniseries that retells the sad night of January 27, 2013 that killed 242 young people and how it impacted not only the families of the victims, but the entire city of Santa Maria (RS) is very well intentioned. However, she has difficulty dealing with this still open wound.
By not distancing themselves from the fact, both the audience and the production itself are carried away by emotion and focus much more on the horror of the fire and the exploration of suffering than on the story that should be the core of the adaptation.
Everyone remembers how shocking the fire was and the accounts of victims and rescuers are haunting. But that’s not what the miniseries sets out to tell about.
Every Day the Same Night part of the eponymous book written by journalist Daniela Arbex that follows the struggle of the victims’ parents to bring those responsible for the tragedy to justice — but this is overshadowed by these memories that not only invade, but hinder the progress of the series.
The exploration of suffering
If there’s one thing sensationalist journalism teaches, it’s that suffering sells. Great tragedies arouse curiosity and generate a fascination that leads us to look for details about what and how it happened. It’s something we do unconsciously.
And the main challenge of Every Day the Same Night while an audiovisual production would circumvent our tendency to do things differently — to tell the story beyond the story known by the newspapers. Only she can’t do that and falls into the trap of clinging to that suffering that is so appealing and seductive.
Worse than that: in many moments, the series uses this as a crutch to mask its own shortcomings. From the script that doesn’t get where it should to the average performances by part of the cast that shoots a caricature gauchês full of “tchê” and “bah” that doesn’t convince, the horror of reality serves as a mitigating factor. After all, why bother with these “details” when the story shown is so sad and shocking?
The point is that we are talking about a series and not a journalistic article. And in this case, the fact itself is less important than how it is presented on the screen. The young woman who suffers when changing the bandages on her burned arm is something that certainly happened, but it adds nothing to this narrative. In the end, it is there just to shock the viewer, like so many other similar moments.
The same thing happens with the directors, who also let themselves be carried away by this emotion and get lost in the directions they want to take. This is very clear in the first episodes, in which the eagerness to show the bodies and the horror of the rescue is such that it stops being exciting and becomes just gratuitous.
And it is curious to note how the miniseries misses the opportunity to make scenes that are impactful and strong for their subtlety to bet on something that is graphically unnecessary and in poor taste, like the wake scene.
And the result of all this is that Every Day the Same Night misses the point of the story she really wanted (or should) tell, which is the parents’ grief not for the graphic horror of the tragedy, but for what came next. It is the absence of children and the impunity towards those responsible for the fire that means that those who stayed have been living that January 27th for a decade — and that is very diluted.
Although the miniseries deals with this struggle between parents, the plot that gives the title to the series ends up being overlooked in the face of this fascination with horror. The biggest symptom of this is that the last episodes treat this unfinished grief superficially with a sequence of time jumps that prevent you from feeling the pain of these characters.
Once again, you understand their suffering not by what the script presents, but by the image of the tragedy that the news has constructed. It’s more of an empathy effect than a result of a good constructed narrative.
The strength of a cast
For this very reason, the effort of the main cast to make this script reach the necessary intensity is admirable. Even though the lack of focus Every Day the Same Night get in the way, the entire core of parents is doing very well and manages to deliver the necessary feelings in each scene — even if the direction weighs the hand in some moments.
The highlight here is the trio Paulo Gorgulho, Thelmo Fernandes and Bianca Byington, who embody these family members very well and manage to dose pain and anger in the right measure without sounding exaggerated. The bursts of Ricardo (Gorgulho) and the simplicity of Pedro (Fernandes) are captivating and show why they are two great veterans of Brazilian dramaturgy.
At the same time, the talent of these actors also differs too much from another part of the cast of the series, which is average, at best. Young groups find it difficult to deliver regionalism without falling into the caricature and even some of the best known names also slip into this script.
And as much as it seems like a detail, the excess of “gauchês” becomes noise and starts to disturb both the interpretation of the actors and the absorption by the public.
Good intentions
Every Day the Same Night it’s not a bad miniseries, just very limited and that goes down some very wrong paths, either because it gets carried away by emotion or some bad decisions. At the same time, she is very well intentioned and manages to show the size of the tragedy and the revolt of the lack of answers.
The big problem is that the production suffers from a lack of focus, the difficulty of understanding which story it wants to tell and how to do it. Sometimes the series wants to talk about the suffering of parents in the fight for justice, sometimes it wants to graphically expose the horror of January 27th. Without deciding which way to go, she dances for five episodes and fails to pay attention to points that needed more care.
There is much to discuss about this exploration of suffering and the very exaggeration it Every Day the Same Night gives to certain situations that do not add to the narrative. The series could be ours Chernobylbut the lack of subtlety in the script and care in the direction makes this opportunity go away.
The great “luck” is that this same memory that contaminates the production also reaches the public, who remain more shocked by the fact that inspired the miniseries than by the way the story is conducted here. In the end, at least he managed to keep the tragedy remembered for the horror it was.
Every Day the Same Night is available in the catalog of Netflix.
