Back to 15 Season 2 Review: De Volta Aos 15 is a Brazilian teen comedy-drama series, inspired by Bruna Vieira’s novel of the same name. The lead director of the show is Maria de Medicis, with episodic directors Marina Person and Ian SBF. The first season was released in February 2022 and followed the story of 30-year-old Anita, who accidentally time-travels to when she was 15 and tries to change her future for the better.
The ensemble cast of the series includes Maisa Silva as Anita, Camila Queiroz as Adult Anita, Klara Castanho, João Guilherme as Fabricio, Caio Cabral, Antonio Carrara, Nila, Gabriel Stauffer, Amanda Azevedo, Felipe Camargo, Luciana Braga, Breno Ferreira, Lucca Picon and several others.
Back to 15 Season 2 Review
At the end of Back to 15 Season 1, Anita decides to go back to 2021 after making sure that everything will be changed in the future. And it does but only for her. She rekindles her romance with Henrique when she goes for a shoot in Paris. Meanwhile, Joel was waiting for her in Imperatriz and gets to know that she actually stood him up for Henrique. But when she gets to know how her sister Luiza is living an unhappy and estranged life, she decides to go back once again to help her. On the other side, Joel also tries to hack into Anita’s photoblog to delete his picture which started his infatuation with her.
Trying to log into the account at the same time, the website glitches and they both end up travelling back in time. Yet the only way back is to post something on Anita’s blog only. One would think that Anita’s character might have learnt something from travelling back and forth so many times but she is a lost cause. The issue of no character development remains a lacking point in the second season as well. And despite Joel being another time traveller, he remains a secondary character who doesn’t bring anything exciting to the story.
At times, Cesar seems to grab all the spotlight and rightly so, because it’s one of the good parts of the story. His journey of accepting his sexuality and owning up is impressive, along with his relationship with Fabricio is one heartwarming watch. If the lead character had a somewhat similar arc of redemption, then the story wouldn’t leave you frustrated. The lead character remains a trainwreck from season 1 to the latest.
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One of the unique parts of the story is how the future is always unpredictable. Anita can do something, thinking this will change things up for good but it’s not necessary that it will turn out as expected. Often in time-travelling stories, the person from the future is always one step ahead and has an idea of how things will be when they go back. But in the case of Anita, she could be either living her best life or the worst nightmare.
After the confusing end of last season, one expects that the second season might give her story a definite ending of how her future will be like. But the ending is what makes the whole season meaningless. We get no answers about her life in 2021 or whom she chose after having a love angle with almost all the characters on the show.
Anita is the true antagonist of the story and remains a two-dimensional character who pokes her nose into everyone’s life, wanting them to live the way she wants. It’s like she is trapped in her 15-year-old self mind and refuses to grow up. Also, the motive of the season was to change Luiza’s life but that subplot is dropped somewhere at the start only, to focus on Anita’s insignificant problems in life.
Final Thoughts
As a teen drama, it’s a decent story for a casual watch. However, it’s better to not have any hopes for the ending, as it will leave you disappointed. Imagining Anita as the antagonist whose life will remain disastrous no matter what might help in enjoying the overall story. The side characters are the ones to look out for and will keep you entertained with their personal development.
Rating: 2/5
Back to 15 Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.
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