HBO Brazil Debuts ‘Hard,’ New Sitcom With Porn Industry Setting

Just six months after wrapping up its porn-themed dramatic series The Deuce, HBO is once again mining the adult industry for subject matter — this time in Brazil.  On Sunday, HBO Brazil aired the series premiere of a new, half-hour comedy titled Hard, which appears to be a fairly routine “workplace sitcom,” except that in this case, the workplace is a struggling online porn production company. The first episode is now also available for viewing in the United States using HBO’s online services, such as HBO GO.   The series is based on a French sitcom of the same title, which has so far aired three seasons in France, in 2008, 2011, and 2015. The premise of both the original and the Brazilian version is that Sophia, an otherwise “June Cleaver” style housewife — according to a review by Decider — is suddenly widowed when her husband falls out of a tree as he tries to retrieve a stuck drone. Shortly after his death, Sophia finds out that the technology firm her husband had founded is bankrupt. But she also learns about the business that was actually supporting the family — porn. Turns out her husband was a successful porn entrepreneur — and now, so is she. Stunned and shocked, Sophia starts arranging to sell this company. But when she realizes that her husband has mortgaged their house to fund the porn enterprise, meaning she loses her family's home if she dumps the company, she decides to make a go of it. Watch HBO Brazil’s trailer for the six-episode series, below. Producer Fabiano Gullane told Variety that the main challenge of the series as “to adapt to Brazilian reality the French approach to sex,” but how well he achieved that, or what it even means, remains to be seen.   His concern, however, appears especially urgent, because the romantic through-line of the story appears to be a potential romance between the uptight Sophia — who finds the porn business “yucky,” according to Decider — and “Mastroduro,” a (fictional) male porn performer and global adult superstar. "I managed to relate to my character, and break my own prejudices toward this universe that I did not know," Natália Lage, the 42-year-old verteran Brazilian acrtress who portrays Sophia, said during am online press conference to promote the HBO series. Photo By HBO Brasil YouTube Screen Capture