Stupid Wife (Season 2)

I bet you thought I’d forgotten you! I have been reading a lot and half paying attention to random videos on YouTube, or rewatching all of Sense8 which I’m not going to review beyond “it still makes me smile and is a balm to my psyche.” On to the real review.
In season one, Stupid Wife pushed my limits with its amnesia trope that certainly up there in my list of story lines I hate that still this side of the nope-line stories. On the other side of the line you have all the yucky things like incest and so on. I can imagine shows around most of the yucky topics I might watch, but they’re not going to be pitched as sexy, fun shows. To be honest, if not for lesbian YouTube raving about it, I’d have probably bounced, which would have been a shame but I liked season one despite the central premise.
Season two picks up a bit after the end of season one. Luiza is a bit battered, but ok, and things between her and Valentina are not perfect but are in a much better, and generally improving, place. A lot of that is because Luiza is in therapy, and that is the central plot arc. Therapy is not always pretty and we have some interesting, occasionally heart-rending, bumps in the road along the way. Gradually the pair of them adjust to their new life, new relationship and things start to improve as Luiza acknowledges how hard she was on Valentina for example, and how much she appreciates Valentina putting up with her during that time. Other things develop over the eight episodes but !
There’s a B-plot around Valentina's family. This makes up the bulk of the emotional tension. I understand why it’s there - stories like this thrive on emotional tension to counter the sweetness and sexiness after all, and that’s basically gone from the central relationship now - and it addresses Valentina's mother in her pantomime villain role. It’s odd. A lot of this B-plot felt real to me, which is always good but, at the same time, I was going, meh? Perhaps it’s a disconnect with Brazilian culture but I felt like there were options that were always being ignored and it made some of the moments feel very whiny. But people do whine and bitch, Brazil is a different country, so… it was never enough to make me even think of stopping.
Luiza and Valentina are still super hot together. I don’t know whether the actors are more relaxed and comfortable together and that’s coming through in all of their interactions or whether this is a deliberate choice from the director to reflect their new happiness and comfort with each other as Luiza's therapy helps her directly and helps her be comfortable as part of a couple as well. Quite possibly a bit of both. But from the little touches around the kitchen to the out-and-out erotica, this feels even hotter, even more intimate. It’s not pr0n, it’s on YouTube and stays within their guidelines for one thing, but it feels like you’re seeing them do far more than a lot of much more explicit stuff that you can watch if that’s your thing. The intimacy that we see, rather than the T&A makes it really hot. It feels like, while they stay covered up, we’re seeing them making love. The fact crew is about 90% female and there’s a female director really shows here.
I preferred this season to season one, because we’re moving away from the amnesia storyline. They haven’t ignored it, retconned it or similar, it’s organically done, and that’s clever. I certainly appreciate the sexy times, but I enjoyed the story too. There is a cliff-hanger ending to entice you back for season three. Because you’re clearly need a cliff-hanger to encourage you to come back. If you’re watching this, it’s for the story, yeah, right.
Bechdel Test: Pass. There are men, but most of the characters are women, from the leads to their friends and more. They just about all talk to each other, and while some of those conversations are about men, most are not.
Ko Test: Null. The Ko test applies to Hollywood and this is a Brazilian production. Should they all speak English because of a test for diversity in Hollywood? Nope. So null. In practise this would, I think, just fail a transposed version, but I’m not sure enough of the politics in Brazil to be sure of that.
Russo Test: Pass. I have my suspicions about the actors too but the central characters are certainly queer for each other. The series wouldn’t exist without them and while that’s a big part of their identity, so is their motherhood, and to a lesser extent their jobs. A bigger budget show might show them at work more but Stupid Wife really focuses heavily on them at home which distorts what we see of their lives. We do know what their work is, but it’s odd flashes.