TV Review – My Brilliant Friend Season One

My Brilliant Friend Season One (HBO)
Written by Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo
Directed by Saverio Costanzo

We open with a phone call in the middle of the night. An older woman answers. Her friend has gone missing. The friend’s son is worried. The woman chastises him and ends the call. And then she remembers. This is the opening to My Brilliant Friend Season One, an adaptation of the first book in Italian author Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan trilogy. The entire series is couched in the search for meaning from past experiences, piecing together how the friendship of Elena & Lila came to be, mainly how their dreams of where their lives would go went so astray due to being women and growing up in the times that they did. That period is the post-war period in Italy, the universe consisting of a single tenement and the surrounding neighborhood. The result is a powerfully moving exploration of women coming of age and learning how little agency they are given by the society around them.

Elena “Lenu” Greco first takes notice of Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo when they are in primary school. Lila can read & write far earlier than the other children, and when it’s time to leave, as middle school is too expensive for most families, she is taken away from formal education. Meanwhile, Lenu can convince her father to find the money to keep her going, and she becomes one of the best students in the school. Eventually, high school looms on the horizon, and Lenu gets into a good one while Lila has nothing but work in her father’s cobbler shop. Adulthood approaches faster than they realize, and by the end of the first season, these young women are making choices that will shape the rest of their lives, often limited in scope by the men around them.

My Brilliant Friend is not just about these two but about their complicated love for a place. The neighborhood doesn’t look spectacular; a blade of grass feels like a rare thing. There’s a tunnel with a train track across the top, which serves as the threshold to the greater world. So much drama plays out among the stacked floors of the tenement, promises made, and betrayals that break them. The first two episodes feature a pair of brilliant child actors, Lena & Lila, as they witness a widow break down after the married man she has been having an affair with leaves suddenly with his family. Then they speculate after Don Achille, the most powerful man in the community, is found murdered, Lila especially inventing elaborate blood-drenched crime stories about it. They are learning to be adults by observing, especially Lenu, who can seem passive to the point of frustration.

I recently saw a complaint about the character of Lenu just reacting to things around her rather than pursuing something. The complainant argued that this made Lenu boring, but the show is about this character trait. Lenu is the opposite of the bold, willful Lila. While admirable, Lila’s defiance doesn’t get her very far in this particular time. Her father, brother, and eventual suitors have little tolerance for her aggression. It draws the boys nearer as she ages, but many frame it as a desire to tame her, to break this young woman of her will. Lila begins to settle into the only space that life seems to afford her and tries to use it to her advantage. There are many moments where she achieves some success, but there always seems to be a heavy cost, too. 

Lenu is an observer. From the start, she proclaims that she will watch Lila and do what she does because Lenu can see this person will do great things. Then Lenu passes Lila in life and needs to figure out what path to follow. In many ways, she realizes she’s living the life that Lila should have. Based on their personalities as children, Lenu seemed to be the one who would follow the traditional route, and Lila would rebel. But it turns out to be the opposite. We think the “friend” in the title is an apparent reference to Lila, but in the season one finale, that titular line is given to Lila concerning Lenu. Lila is the one who will observe as she is forced into a domestic existence, cheering Lenu on as she tries to go further in academics and with her writing. The friendship between these girls is intentionally never explained. We know why Lenu is drawn to Lila, but not the reverse. Early on, Lila pulls some nasty tricks on her supposed friend, but Lenu doesn’t allow this to create distance between them. She keeps returning and becomes an emotional pillar for Lila. 

The show never feels nostalgic; it’s an examination of the past, a confrontation of what brought us to the present moment. We spend New Year’s Eve on the rooftop of one of the tenements, fireworks exploding in the sky, and everyone having a wonderful time. But that devolves into a dispute between two warring families to the point that a gun is drawn and shots are fired across the roof. Every encounter is brimming with hostility, especially amongst the men. They are obsessed with showing off and proving themselves at the top of the heap. What gives this scene such emotional weight is that one of these boys will marry Lila in the future, and what sort of life will she have as a result?

Lenu’s story takes her away from the neighborhood one summer and to the island of Ischia, where she stays with a teacher’s sister. That summer is foundational in her growth, providing Lenu with her first kiss and more than just her first heartbreak. She also fosters a sense of independence, more tempered than Lila’s, which hints at much broader horizons ahead for the teenager. 

At the heart of this show are the jaw-dropping performances of Margherita Mazzucco as Lenu and Gaia Girace as Lila. Both women were 15/16 when they filmed the season; you wouldn’t know by the level of acting on display. They embody their roles entirely with confidence that many adult actors fail to have. Girace, in particular, is stunning as Lila; her anger boils up from within her with profound authenticity. Nothing about their performances feels like little kids awkwardly playing adults. They can convey maturing over four years, setting up season two as something quite special. I thought at first that new actors would be cast in the next season, but they continue on with these young women who will be playing older than their actual ages. I wouldn’t have much confidence in it if it wasn’t for these two, who undoubtedly prove themselves in the six episodes out of the eight they appear in.

As the first season ended, I was eager to continue and see where life leads Lenu and Lila next. Ariana even asked when I planned on us watching the following season. Look for that review near the end of October. For a few years, I’d noticed My Brilliant Friend getting a lot of acclaim, but it wasn’t discussed much in mainstream outlets. If you have been sleeping on this show, get on it now! You are missing out on one of the most well-written, performed, and directed programs on streaming/television at the moment. It’s an exploration of humanity that doesn’t have some gimmick connected to it, just the story of two young women learning about their world.