Back to 15 Season 2 Review: Also known as De Volta aos 15, it stars Maisa Silva as Anita, Camila Queiroz as Anita (adult), João Guilherme as Fabricio, Bruno Montaleone as Fabricio (adult), Klara Castanho as Carol, Yana Sardenberg as Carol (adult), Antonio Carrara as Joel, Gabriel Stauffer as Joel (adult), Caio Cabral as Henrique, Bruno Ferreira as Henrique (adult), Amanda Acevedo as Luiza, Mariana Rios as Luiza (adult), Nila as Cesar, Alice as Camila, and others. It is based on Bruna Vieira’s 2013 novel of the same name. The Brazilian series is directed by Viviane Jundi and Dainara Toffoli.
There are a total of six episodes of approximately 40 minutes. The teen drama has English subtitles and is also dubbed in English.
Netflix’s Back to 15 Season 2 Review Contains No Spoilers
Back to 15 Season 2 starts where Season 1 ended. After being disheartened that Anita stood up to him on a date, Joel decides to hack her photo blog to delete a picture she clicked of him in the past. At the same time, Anita tries to log in, but the website shows an error. She changes her password, but it is too late, as Joel gets into her account. The photo blog takes both of them back to 2006, when they were 15 years old and in high school.
When Anita discovers that Joel has also time travelled, they fix everything to have a perfect future. Anita wants her date with Henrique back and also help her sister, Luiza. Joel wants to be with Anita. But seeing her disinterest towards him, he only desires his life back to normal. But the high school drama and complications affect their plans. From going back and forth from the “imperfect” future to the past, Anita and Joel have much to deal with.
The first season of Netflix’s Back to 15 showed us the typical teenage high school drama where Anita enjoyed time travel. Eventually, she realises that time travel is a wider concept as there are multiple timelines. But what mattered to her was getting to spend more time with her family, especially her dad and her friends, and seeking out the love she couldn’t get in the very beginning. But season 2 adds more drama, twists, and lots of love triangles—or, as Joel says, maybe a square or cube.
The series delves into the attempts of our protagonist, Anita, to control the events of 2006 for a better future. Most of her ideas with Joel fail terribly. There’s already a twisted narrative, and the multiple love interests of Carol and Anita also appear forced. There’s never a buildup in any equation except for Carol and Henrique’s. Anita is busy trying to control everything and everyone around her, appearing emotionally absent and ignorant of other people’s feelings.
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Back to Season 15 Season 2 shows positive character development for characters like Henrique, Joel, Fabriocio, Cesar, Leo, Carol, and Luiza. But Anita is still the same. Only in the last episode did we see some sensibility in her. Her reason for teaming up with Joel to fix everything also has selfish motives. It would’ve made sense if Anita was really a 15-year-old teenager. But it was a 30-year-old woman in a teen girl’s body behaving immaturely.
I know that such fantasy teen dramas aren’t to be taken seriously. But one can expect some transition for the leading character. Romance has also been one of the key elements of Back to 15 on Netflix. Yet, the makers seem in a hurry to switch the love interests from one person to another. The humorous aspects and the curiosity to see what happens to Joel and Anita make one stick to the end. So, a tempting screenplay for a mediocre story works like a charm.
Maisa Silva again carries the show as Anita with her phenomenal performance. Even though her character doesn’t bring anything new to the story until the very end, it’s good to watch her on screen. Antonio Carrara and Klara Castanho as Joel and Carol have the best arcs in season 2. The actors give a wonderful performance and make their respective characters quite likeable. The rest of the cast plays their parts well.
Back to 15 Season 2 Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, Netflix’s time-travelling series doesn’t move much forward with the story. For Anita, except for a personal loss, everything happens in haste. The makers don’t give enough time to develop an equation or subplot comprehensively. It’s sometimes fun, sometimes messy.
The series is now streaming on Netflix.