Lady Voyeur
思慮なき眼差し
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A hacker watches her neighbour, a high-end escort, and starts writing herself into the appointments.
Miranda, a gifted hacker, turns twenty-eight watching other people. Through hacked security cameras she follows her new neighbour across the way, Cléo, a high-end escort, at work with her clients. Miranda's grandmother has Huntington's disease; Miranda has an even chance of carrying it and will not take the test. The series opens on New Year's Eve with Miranda attacked on a balcony, then goes back three months.
Cléo asks her to look after her dog while she spends a weekend with a client, and Miranda steps into her life. In Cléo's flat she sleeps with one of Cléo's regulars, Fernando; when another client tries to force himself on her, she fights him off, he falls against a table and dies, and Fernando helps her hide it. He tells her that he and Cléo were gathering evidence that the wealthy Heitor, husband of Fernando's sister Diana, is involved in sex trafficking, and Miranda goes to work for Heitor to hack his systems. She falls for both men.
Cléo does not come back. Following a video message from her, Miranda goes in her place to a sex party, is drugged, and comes round at Heitor's house to find Diana dead in the pool. Heitor is arrested, then asks Miranda to help him find out who his wife really was. The secrets pile up: Diana had trapped Heitor into marriage by letting him believe he had killed his friend Bernardo, whom she had killed herself; his daughter, Luisa, is not his; Fernando's former wife, Zoe, is murdered; Miranda's grandmother dies; a detective, Inês, begins to suspect Miranda, who is pregnant and does not know by whom. In scenes set in January she is held captive and buried alive, and escapes.
In the last episode Miranda's best friend, Rita, is murdered at a New Year's party. Cléo takes Miranda to the house where they grew up and tells her who she is: Gabriela, the older sister Miranda lost as a child. She blames Miranda, who saw it, for not saving her from the man who killed their mother and abused and raped her when they were girls, admits killing their grandmother, and reveals that she moved in opposite knowing Miranda would watch. Her partner was Fernando, who wanted to ruin Heitor and who killed Diana and Zoe. The police arrive in time, and Gabriela is killed in the struggle. Fernando has died fighting Heitor, and Vitória, who ran the trafficking ring, is being hunted abroad. Heitor is cleared, and he and Miranda start a life together. Her test comes back positive. She decides to live in the present, and to call her daughter Rita.
Starring
Débora Nascimentoas Miranda
A hacker who spends her nights watching her neighbours, afraid of the disease she may have inherited.
Miranda’s story
Miranda has shut herself in with her screens and her grandmother's illness, and her pleasure is watching Cléo across the way. Asked to mind Cléo's dog, she steps into her life: she sleeps with Fernando, fights off a client who dies, and lets Fernando hide the body. She goes to work for Heitor to hack his systems and falls for both men. Drugged at a sex party she attends in Cléo's place, she wakes near Diana's body. Pregnant, not knowing by whom, she is held captive and buried alive, and escapes. Cléo turns out to be her lost sister, Gabriela, and the police reach them in time. Miranda moves in with Heitor, learns her test is positive and chooses to live in the present; she will name her daughter after her murdered friend, Rita.
Emanuelle Araújoas Cléo
The high-end escort across the way, who vanishes after one weekend and turns out to be Miranda's lost sister, Gabriela.
Cléo’s story
Cléo moves into the flat opposite knowing that Miranda will watch her. She asks Miranda to mind her dog for a weekend, and vanishes. From then on she reaches Miranda through messages and videos, and sends her to a sex party in her place. In truth she is Gabriela, the older sister Miranda lost as a child, and the whole game is her revenge, planned with Fernando. When they were girls, their mother's boyfriend abused and raped Gabriela and then killed their mother; she blames Miranda, who saw it, for not saving her. She has since killed their grandmother. She takes Miranda back to the house where they grew up, tells her everything and means to finish her revenge there. The police arrive in time, and Gabriela is killed in the struggle.
Ângelo Rodriguesas Heitor
A rich, guarded businessman suspected of trafficking women and of killing his wife, whom Miranda comes to love.
Heitor’s story
Heitor's marriage to Diana is failing, and he has just learned that his daughter, Luisa, is not his. For thirteen years he has believed he caused the death of his friend Bernardo. Fernando and Cléo suspect him of trafficking women. He takes Miranda on to protect his company's systems, is wary of her friendship with Fernando, and asks her to look into his wife. When Diana is found dead in his pool, he is arrested, then asks Miranda to help him find out who his wife really was. Through her he learns that Diana killed Bernardo herself and let him carry the guilt. He comforts Miranda when her grandmother dies, and they spend the night together. In the end Fernando, who killed Diana, dies fighting him. Cleared, Heitor starts a life with Miranda.
Nikolas Antunesas Fernando
Cléo's client and Diana's brother, who helps Miranda hide an accidental death and draws her into his campaign against Heitor.
Débora Duarteas Dona Esther
Miranda's grandmother, living with Huntington's disease and dementia, who half-remembers the granddaughter everyone believes lost.
Why it matters
Lady Voyeur is based on Cornell Woolrich's story It Had to Be Murder, the source of Hitchcock's Rear Window, and it makes the watcher a woman whose looking is her own desire. The series lets Miranda's pleasure in watching a sex worker at work be hers, without apology, before it shows the cost: the watcher is being watched, and the woman across the way chose that window in order to be seen. Around this it sets harder subjects at thriller speed: women trafficked through rich men's parties, the abuse of a girl that nobody stopped, a disease a daughter may inherit and must decide whether to know about. Brazilian critics were divided; Omelete called it narrative chaos, while others praised its female point of view. In its first full week, in January 2023, it was the fourth most-watched non-English series on Netflix worldwide.