Em Família
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 A sad way to end Manoel Carlos' soap opera author career with this blunder.
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Em Família is a Brazilian telenovela produced by Rede Globo and originally aired from February 3 to July 18, 2014 in 143 chapters, with the last chapter re-aired the following day, July 19. It replaced Amor à Vida and was replaced by Império, being the 6th "novela das nove" aired by the network. It was the last telenovela written by Manoel Carlos.
Why Is Not In The Family
- While the story looks good, unfortunately is poorly executed, contributed to the problematic production that the telenovela had with a production plagued with problems, such as script delays and the death of Maneco's son, which resulted in the telenovela being postponed and replaced by Amor à Vida of Walcyr Carrasco, which was originally going to come after this soap opera and in the first week of the telenovela, due to executive meddling, Globo accelerated the chapters of the first two phases so that the third phase arrived ahead of schedule. The third phase, which would begin in chapter 10, started early in chapter 7. The reason for the acceleration would have been the slow pace that was causing the low ratings for the soap opera.
- The plot where mother (Helena) and daughter (Luiza) get involved with the same man (Laerte), has already been used in a better previous telenovela of Manoel Carlos, Laços de Família, with Vera Fischer's Helena and Camila getting involved with the same man, Edu.
- Speaking of which, Laerte and Luiza are not a good couple, mainly with Laerte being a bad character and a very insane person who did unacceptable stuff and ends up with Laerte killed by Lívia at his wedding with Luiza, who ends up being alone in the last chapter.
- Awful characters like Helena (in the beginning and middle of the third phase), Miss Lauren and as mentioned before Laerte.
- Gabriel Braga Nunes is very horrible as Laerte (which was a character that was never well-developed in the telenovela), since was very disappointed with the direction of his character and his inexpressiveness only harmed the character even more. To add more salt in the injury, there were reports that he and the cast of the soap were not getting along.[1]
- The opening where there is a family tree was not original, since was used a $30 internet video to make the opening, showing laziness and unoriginality.[2]
- The casting of Natália do Vale as the mother of Júlia Lemmertz' Helena was a miscast that was heavily criticized by viewers, since she didn't go through an aging process for her character.
- The telenovela missed some opportunities that would have been good for the telenovela itself, as Shirley should have been the villain of the telenovela, which was left only in the promise.
- It ended Maneco's author career on a sour note, since was his last soap opera and unfortunately it didn't ended well his author career. Altough the first bad soap operas written by him were Páginas da Vida and Viver a Vida, despite being weak, they were better than this soap opera.
Redeeming Qualities
- The theme song "Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar", in this time covered by Brazilian singer Ana Carolina is very touching and at same time, emotional, considering it was the theme song of the last telenovela written by Manoel Carlos.
- Good acting (except Gabriel Braga Nunes as Laerte, as mentioned before) by the cast of the telenovela, especially Júlia Lemmertz as Helena, in honor of her late mother Lilian Lemmertz, who was the first Maneco's Helena in the telenovela Baila Comigo. Vivianne Pasmanter deserves a special mention for her very great acting as Shirley, if the character had officially been the villain of the soap opera.
- It has some emotional scenes like Cadu meeting the family of the donor of his heart.
- There's a few good couples such as Clara and Marina (Clarina) with the bad development at first, which resulted in rejection but fortunately it improved later and ended up even kissing, breaking the taboo which started with Felix and Niko kissing in Amor à Vida, Virgílio and Helena and Verônica and Cadu (although the last one that ended up only happening in the final stretch of the soap opera).
Reception
Nilson Xavier, from UOL, published on his blog: "The first chapter of 'Em Família' had a shack with the family, Oscar Magrini's ass, Bruna Marquezine's implicit nudity, procession and dream with the right to animation. The character Shirley drew attention, who seems to be the "pest" of the time, the villainous girl, spoiled and always present in the plots of Maneco (Manoel Carlos). And it was already clear the personality of the protagonists, Helena and Laerte. The cast, mostly unknown to the general public (with many child actors and teenagers) may have caused some strangeness. But then comes the definitive phase with the medallions. The opening is beautiful, and the ending – called "Momentos" – looks like it will tell a story daily. Family moments à la Maneco. Perhaps the public really needs to take a break from the supposedly "innovative" feuilletons – those that use serial language, nervous camera and the like – and rescue the good old feuilleton. Although Manoel Carlos' last plot, Viver a Vida, from 2009, was not a great success."
Raphael Scire, from Notícias da TV said: "Divided into three phases, Em Família premiered this Monday (3) with the promise of being Manoel Carlos' last soap opera. The opening chapter was lukewarm and still didn't let the viewer really feel the story. Helena, the author's great heroine, was presented as a child and teenager, and so the audience did not have the chance to see the main characteristic of the character, which, by extension, guaranteed the success of his other protagonists: motherhood."