Stream It Or Skip It?

Abandoned: The Woman In The Decaying House is a 3-part docuseries based on the podcast of the same name that was created by Brazilian journalist Chico Felitti. It tells the story of how Felitti, curious about this seemingly abandoned house next to his building in São Paulo, led to him interviewing Margarida Bonetti, the woman who lived inside it. It also led to the discovery that she’s been hiding in her family’s house for over 20 years, since she and her husband Rene were accused of enslaving the family maid, Hilda Rosa dos Santos, when they were living in the Maryland town of Montgomery Village.

Opening Shot: A shot of a crumbling house in the middle of a wealthy São Paulo neighborhood.

The Gist: In the docuseries, Felitti is interviewed, and we hear his podcast audio of his interview with Bonetti, who would be occasionally seen in the neighborhood with her dogs, usually with white cream all over her face. We also hear from other neighbors of hers in São Paulo, along with neighbors of the Bonettis when they lived in Montgomery Village. We also hear from journalists in both countries and FBI agents that investigated the enslavement case.

But the biggest “get” of the series is an interview with Hilda Rosa dos Santos herself. Given that Bonetti denies everything in her interview with Felitti, dos Santos’ recollection of her experience is crucial, along with that of the Bonetti’s neighbors. Dos Santos wasn’t paid for her work, she lived in a dusty, damp basement, she subsisted on rice because Rene Bonetti padlocked the refrigerator and pantry. Most seriously, she had a leg injury and a growing tumor in her abdomen, which Rene Bonetti wouldn’t let her go to the hospital for because he would have to foot the bill.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The subject matter of Abandoned: The Woman In The Decaying House is unique even to the true crime podcast-turned-docuseries genre, so we’ll just link it to another podcast-turned-docuseries like Scamanda.

Our Take: The first two of the three episodes of Abandoned: The Woman In The Decaying House go by at a brisk pace, clocking in between 30-35 minutes, and they paint a fascinating picture of the privilege that the Bonettis felt and just how poorly they treated dos Santos, who was “gifted” to them by Rene’s parents, whom dos Santos worked for in Brazil, when they moved to Maryland. It’s definitely an interesting case, especially when we hear from dos Santos herself.

She knew things weren’t going well there, especially after an intercom was installed and she could be buzzed to help Rene or Margarida any time of the day or night, but she didn’t do anything about it. In fact, it took the neighbors to finally intervene when the Bonettis were away for weeks around Christmastime for dos Santos to even go to the hospital.

But what we wondered about while watching those two episodes (the only ones Prime made available) was why the neighbors didn’t intervene sooner? They saw dos Santos doing hard work, including digging a trench, that maids don’t generally do, they saw her outside working at night, and they saw that she was not doing well physically. Was Rene Bonetti that intimidating that no one wanted to intervene? Or did they just think that what happened in the Bonetti household wasn’t their business?

What we also learn is that, as soon as the FBI came to question the Bonettis about dos Santos, Margarida flew back to Brazil, where extraditions to other countries are banned. It’s there that she’s lived in her family’s crumbling mansion since 2000, and the fact that she denies anything serious happened with dos Santos meant that she was either delusional or that most of the cruelty was Rene’s doing. Either way, the case captivated Brazil when the police tried to remove her from the home in 2022, a result of Felitti’s podcast, though they had no legal standing to do so.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: “People couldn’t understand why Hilda couldn’t just leave the house,” says the FBI agent that investigated the case in Maryland.

Sleeper Star: All of the attention goes to Hilda Rosa dos Santos, who gives little digs to her former bosses/captors as she talks about them.

Most Pilot-y Line: There’s a fair amount of reenactments, especially of dos Santos limping around the Bonetti’s house and in the neighborhood. While there’s no dialogue, at times they are a bit intrusive.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Because of the unusual nature of the case that’s being examined, and the fact that it takes place on two different continents, Abandoned: The Woman In The Decaying House is a fascinating docuseries, one that lays out the facts of the case without a lot of fuss, and an engrossing interview with the victim.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.