The aim of this work is to reflect how the Brazilian telenovela (soap opera) approaches the contemporary sociopolitical transformations within a period of 20 years, with four governmental transitions. Relevant aspects of these managements and their impacts on the themes of the telenovela were discussed from the period selected for the analysis. After a brief introduction about television in nowadays and the technological implications of its multiple resignifications, the research is divided into three parts. In the first one, the course in which TV Globo became hegemonic was discussed and it s proposed a reading of Brazil, mainly through the telenovela, which was in charge of offering cohesive narratives for this nation. In the second part, we have covered twenty recent years to understand how the telenovela has dealt with themes related to social transformations and political movements, identifying three thematic cycles of the telenovela. And, in the third part, we identified three themes that did not follow the political and social changes in the analyzed period and which we call taboos like the role of women, the black and sexual diversity. This categorization based on an analysis of the topics covered in TV Globo s telenovelas and compared to the issues covered in the series, both from open television, and by subscription or streaming.