“3%”- Netflix, Seasons 1-2 (spoilers)
This is a dystopian Brazilian series that closely parallels modern authoritarian Brazil. It concerns a ‘future’ utopian society called the Offshore that functions like a libertarian high-tech island beach spa and vacation paradise. But it’s only open to 3% of the population. The rest of the 97% have to live in a poverty-stricken sunken favela surrounded by desert. There is no explanation of why there is a desert, but perhaps a result of the burning of the Amazon. The residents of the favela are the people unable to pass “The Process” – a series of complicated tests for all Inland 20-year olds that filter for ‘merit.’ Those who pass with ‘merit’ take a submarine to the elite island paradise; the rest return to misery and ostensible unhappiness in the Inland. Kind of a less bloody Hunger Games.
Obviously riffing off the 1% of billionaires that dominate present capitalist societies, it also includes an Inland religion that worships the Process. The ‘two Founders’ of the heavenly Offshore are treated by the religion a bit like Adam & Eve, but this understanding hides a crime. Colorful festivals, sort of like Carnivale, are held on the day the Process starts each year. The series is a send-up of the whole concept of a meritocracy, which originated as a sarcastic joke in England, much as the phrase “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” did. Our own social Darwinist ‘process’ – class background, money, school, geographic origin, college tests, degrees, entrepreneurship, individualism – are the subtext for those paying attention.
What emerges from the Inland ghetto in response to the 3% is The Cause / La Causa – an underground group attempting to stop the Process and overthrow the 3%. The group is made up of rejects from the Process who deny that all deserving people pass or want to go to the Offshore. They send moles through the Process to undermine it from the inside. Ultimately in frustration some want to resort to offensive violence. A group of the street-wise form a close bond that is useful in their fight against the 3%.
There are some who refuse to take a side and ultimately one of these is a treacherous liberal ‘innocente’ - though she is not the worst. She is the person the writers want us to be most sympathetic with. This is why Season 3 starts off with a wonderful counter-cultural ‘third way’ commune, which then follows a Malthusian and undemocratic logic.
Like most liberal pacifist shows, the issue of forbidden violence by the oppressed is a crucial issue. It is only allowed defensively by the writers. The Process and the 3% have very high-tech agents and a military called the Division, along with surveillance, even within the Inland favela. Each person has an implanted tracking and control device embedded behind their ear. The ruthless ‘best’ people of the 3% are not afraid to use force. Their slogan is that suffering is good for character building – someone else’s suffering that is. They also have an alliance with a gang that does their bidding within the ruined city.
One character’s whole family has always passed the Process, and he thinks that an overwhelming desire to win by any means is the route to success. He is what passes for an aristocrat in the shabby city. Every child believes they will pass, and this ‘hope’ is what keeps the religion and the city alive, putting up with it for 105 years(!) The winners must leave their families and, unbeknownst to them, submit to sterilization – which is the real reason for the recruitment of new 20 year olds. There is no room for children or families in this utopia. Like so many modern dystopias, the sources of food, buildings or technology is magical. No one seems to work in either in the Offshore or the Inland. They just have romances and do exercises, or mill about and sell things in shredded clothing.
This concept of an Offshore ‘heaven’ is borrowed from the fantasies of some over-stressed worker who would just love to sit on a beach all day eating fruit, drinking champagne and having sex while doing nothing else – dull as that might become. It shows the human creation of all religious ‘heavens’ and the vulgar source of all corporate / libertarian utopias.
A modern and interesting series that focuses on the issues of class and meritless ‘merit.’ There are two more seasons but I doubt it ends well. This series, along with others, shows that Netflix is sourcing content from all over the world.
Other prior blog reviews on streaming series, use blog search box, upper left: “Thieves of the Wood,” “Ozark,” “Deadwood,” “Game of Thrones,” “Rebellion,” “Stateless,” “Hannah,” “The Peaky Blinders,” “Black Sails,” “Tremè,” “Vikings,” “Fargo,” “Damnation,” “Handmaid’s Tale,” “Hunger Games,” “Comrade Detective,” “The Wire, "Mayans M.C.”
P.S. - Seasons 3 & 4 do end better than expected...
Sorry for watching another one!
The Kulture Kommissar
October 10, 2020
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