Why My Brilliant Friend is one of the best shows on TV

HBO’s dramatization of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novel begins its final season this week, so why isn’t the show getting the praise and ratings it so rightfully deserves?

Few novels in recent years have generated as much enthusiasm as those by Italian author Elena Ferrante: specifically, the author’s Neapolitan Quartet, which charts the lives of two childhood friends over four books spanning six decades, turning an intimate tale into an epic tale.

The four books published between 2011 and 2015 were It caused the “Ferrante fever”Millions of readers around the world have fallen under the spell of Elena (also known as Lenù) and her “dazzlingly terrifying” friend Lila. Ferrante writes: The identity remains a mystery It explores themes of friendship, desire, motherhood, misogyny, ambition, class and violence in relentless detail, set against the backdrop of an ever-changing Italy. This summer, the first book in the series, My Wonderful Friend, was named one of the best books of the 21st century. New York Times polldescribed it as “an uncompromising and unforgettable novel.”

By comparison, the TV version of My Brilliant Friend has flown a little under the radar. Despite its wildly popular source material, cinematic production values, and epic scope, the show, which premiered in 2018 and begins its fourth and final season this week, hasn’t received as much press as other HBO dramas (which the network co-produces with Italian broadcaster Rai). It hasn’t swept the awards, and it’s often left out of TV’s most prestigious roundups (it wasn’t nominated for BBC Culture’s own “Best Season”). Best TV series of the 21st century (2021)

But just as there are devotees of Ferrante’s book, the show has a legion of equally devoted fans, which makes you wonder: Why isn’t this show more widely regarded as the best show on television? Author and journalist Taffy Brodesser Akner asked X: Lately I’ve joined the opinion of many who think the show is criminally underrated: it’s a vivid recreation of Ferrante’s world, as complex as the novel, gripping and immersive, and one of the best-looking series on television.

When news first broke that Ferrante’s Neapolitan novel was being adapted for television, expectations were high, but so was anxiety. The book was beloved for its deep exploration of interiority, emotional nuance, and complex feelings. Language is essential to the book. When two girls get their hands on Louisa May Alcott’s Neapolitan Adventure, Little Women At the beginning of the first novel, there’s a realization that education and books might be an outlet for them – how do you portray a story so deeply connected to the power of the written word on television?

Series creator Saverio Costanzo, who directed the first two seasons and serves as co-writer and executive producer on the remaining seasons, knows all too well how difficult it can be to adapt a beloved book for the big screen. His 2010 film The Solitude of Prime Numbers was based on a novel by Paolo Giordano that won Italy’s prestigious Strega Prize. “It wasn’t very successful because my perspective on the book was different to the majority of readers,” he told the BBC. “So I vowed to myself that I would never adapt another best-seller.”

Coincidentally, a few years earlier he had been trying to adapt Ferrante’s novel The Lost Daughter for the screen: Ferrante had given him a tentative deal and six months to write the screenplay, but he couldn’t find a way to tie together the story, which is told partly in flashbacks. (Maggie Gyllenhaal later adapted the book into a film starring Olivia Colman.)

A few years later, Costanzo was in his kitchen when he got a sudden call from Ferrante’s publisher about a new project: a TV series based on “My Brilliant Friend” and other novels of hers set in Naples. He was hesitant to work with a well-known source material, but it was too good an opportunity to turn down. “I went back and read the book from beginning to end and it touched me deeply,” he says. “I felt it as a reader, like so many readers around the world do.”

Like many, Costanzo resonated with Ferrante’s deep exploration of friendship, refusing to sentimentalize it while showing how complicated, competitive, even cruel it can be, and how it shapes our lives. “Friendship is the freest relationship we experience in our lives,” Costanzo says. “It’s something that’s created from nothing, just willingness. It’s pure and dangerous at the same time. Maintaining a lifelong friendship is a full-time job, because you have to face your most vulnerable parts, your jealousy, your love, and your hate. There are no rules in friendship.”

Given the friendship between the book’s narrator, Elena “Renu” Greco, and Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo, who is at the heart of the story, finding the right actress for the role was essential. The audition process was long, with Costanzo and his team considering more than 9,000 candidates over eight months.

“The characters are so well-defined in Ferrante’s script that it’s impossible to miss them,” Costanzo says. “As I started looking for them, I knew when I met Lila and Elena, I’d know them right away.”

He found talent in Elisa Del Genio and Ludovica Nasti, who played the young girls, and Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Jirace, who took over after two episodes. Mazzucco and Jirace stayed on until the end of season three, playing women in their 30s despite still being teenagers themselves.

The new season sees new faces in the roles: Elena is played by Alba Rohrwacher (sister of filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher, who directed two episodes in season two) and Lila is played by Irene Maiorino (previously from Gomorrah). Maiorino bears a striking resemblance to her predecessor Jirache. Rohrwacher doesn’t look much like Mazzucco, but viewers will undoubtedly recognize her voice, as she has been the narrator of the show since its inception. Beyond these two women, the series features a vast number of supporting characters. Many of these have been recast throughout the seasons, although physical resemblance wasn’t the deciding factor. “Sometimes it’s luck,” Costanzo says. “Sometimes you just go for the soul of the character.”

Just as important as the casting was bringing to life the Neapolitan neighborhood the girls grew up in. “The neighborhood is as important a character as Elena and Lila,” Costanzo says. “We wanted to show how Italy has changed through that transition.”

The area that Ferrante describes in the book is a working-class neighborhood east of the city center that is now Thanks to Ferrante fans, it’s become an unexpected tourist spotIn the show, the neighborhood is an elaborate set, one of the largest ever built in Europe. Built on a former glass factory about a 45-minute drive from Naples, the 215,000-square-foot (19,974-square-metre) set has been transformed with each season, just like in real life. In the first season, it feels claustrophobic, grey and isolated. When Elena and Lila were growing up, the neighborhood was their whole universe, and they didn’t even see the ocean until they were older. “In the 1950s, it was an isolated neighborhood, far from the city,” Costanzo says. “Then slowly, people started building and the city got closer and closer to the neighborhood.”

It’s a neighborhood rife with poverty, violence, and organized crime (this isn’t a story about the mafia, but their presence is often felt). As the women grow up, their worlds gradually expand (though more than one another), but the neighborhood continues to shape their lives.

In My Brilliant Friend, the personal is political, and the trajectory of the girls’ lives is intertwined with that of the Italian nation. The economic growth and student movement of the 1960s, the bloody battle between Communist and Fascist movements, radical feminism, the legalization of divorce and, in the new season, rampant government corruption all influence Lenù and Lila’s experiences. “The politics behind Lila and Elena’s story, that’s the real driving force,” Costanzo says.

“My Brilliant Friend” is the first foreign-language series to premiere on HBO. The show isn’t just in Italian; it uses a lot of Neapolitan dialect, so even Italian viewers will need subtitles. The complexity of the language is key: Neapolitan is the language of the region, but Italian represents life beyond it. Of course, these subtle changes will be hard to understand for audiences, especially outside of Italy, but Ferrante’s refusal to round off any corners in his story is what makes the adaptation so successful. “Not for a moment did I use any tricks to make it easier for the viewer,” Costanzo says.

Ferrante co-wrote the screenplay with Costanzo, communicating only through email. The process previously described Costanzo described directing as “like working with a ghost.” But while she gave him feedback and opinions, she also gave him the freedom to pursue his vision for the show, a freedom she passed on to the other directors who took over: Daniele Luchetti in season three and Laura Bispry in season four. “I told the directors to do their own thing and do it from their own perspective,” Costanzo says. “I want them to feel the same freedom that I do.”

In this final season, based on Ferrante’s fourth book, The Story of a Lost Child, everything comes full circle as Lenù and Lila reunite in Naples after years of separation – it’s the 1980s, and decades of political and social unrest are drawing to a close, but not before a series of events once again throws the women’s lives and friendships into disarray.

For those who fell in love with My Brilliant Friend, saying goodbye to these characters will be difficult. And the show’s creators feel the same way: “I loved this project so much that I was ready to dedicate 10 years of my life to it,” says Costanzo. But for those who haven’t yet seen this enchanting show, you’re in for something very special.

My Brilliant Friend Season 4 is currently available to watch on HBO.