Only For Love review: A decent musical with an unnecessary, stretched-out storyline

Only For Love follows the story of a band out on the road looking for success and a girl approaching big names in the music industry, hoping they will make her song famous. The series is now streaming on Netflix.

Story

The death of the beloved musical sensation Daniel Soh leaves the nation in mourning, but Tadeu and Deusa’s country band believes the show must go on. So, instead of mourning, they celebrate the legacy of Daniel by covering and honoring his music.

The same cover song of theirs goes viral with Daniel Soh’s manager Cesar taking a note of it. Cesar auditions the band, but only picks up Deusa for a solo career of her own.

While Deusa climbs the steps of success, the band finds help in the form of Eva, who came to Goiania looking for popular artists in the industry who can sing her song and help her make it famous.

Performances

The characters of Filipe Bragança as Tadeu and Lucy Alves as Deusa give us a fresh love story over the cliched ones in the musicals that are based on jealousy.

Lucy Alves, much like her character, takes time to delve into the changes Deusa goes through from an on-road country performer to a national pop star.

Agnes Nunes as Eva literally owns the screen whenever she is on, although there are times we see much less of her.

Micael Borges as Valdo certainly needed more screen presence. Borges was fun to watch, especially because he was able to blend in with almost any character on screen. Let it be Nunes’ Eva or Valdo’s half-brother Nelton, played by Adriano Ferreira.

Adriano Ferreria certainly was a surprise package as we move ahead in the episodes. Watching him and Micael Borges together is a treat in the finale.

Also, his chemistry with Clarissa Müller as Luana is quite heart-warming and they both probably have the cutest moments in the entire show.

Positives

The show as a musical tries to tell the story of almost every kind of individual hoping to make it big in the industry.

Let it be Deusa who was picked up from the road through a viral video or Roberta who struggles for years to get a gig or even someone like Eva who could find help just like that.

Thus, we get a pretty fresh musical story and also a look into Brazilian country and pop music.

The music is pretty good, especially the songs involving the band. Most of the songs done when the band is just having fun singing along in their RV are worth a listen. You are bound to sing along if you know the words or tap to the beats.

Negatives

The show kind off retains some of the story elements of musicals that we have seen over the years and are tired of.

Apart from that, despite being a simple tale, the story has been a bit stretched out unnecessarily with complications towards the finale. Thus, having hour-long episodes makes a lot less sense if only music is going to triumph over the plot.

Verdict

Only For Love is a one-time laid-back watch unless you are a musician. Some of the songs in the show and some heart-warming moments are probably the only two reasons viewers may find themselves coming back to the show.

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Also Read: I Used to be Famous review: Musical drama shines despite predictable plot