4 Reasons to Watch My Brilliant Friend if You Haven't Already

In the 2010s, Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels was published – the story of Lila and Lenu, two friends from a poor neighborhood in Naples. The novels were immediately loved by audiences and soon received a TV series adaptation that became a real sensation.

In honor of the release of the final fourth season, whose first episode was released on September 9 on HBO and Max, we share reasons to watch My Brilliant Friend.

1. It Is a Rare Opportunity to See the Real Italy on Screen

My Brilliant Friend is the first Italian project acquired by HBO. Nowadays we don't see this country very often on the screen. Perhaps this show, with its deservedly high scores, will be a chance for Italy to truly enter the world film market.

And in addition to the impressive interiors of the Vatican Palace and the statues in the garden of the Papal Residence we saw in The Young Pope, viewers will also see other things: the narrow streets of poor Neapolitan neighborhoods, Pisa with ancient university buildings, embankments and windows of expensive shops.

2. It Is the Resurrection of Italian Neorealism

Italian neorealism is a bit of an anomaly in art. The directors who worked in this genre in the 20th century made films that were simultaneously political, surprisingly humane, and very lyrical. One such film is Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves, in which the protagonist and his young son search for a stolen bicycle. Without it, the man will not be able to feed his family.

It seemed that this combination of the political, the social and the poetic in one bottle was a thing of the past, but My Brilliant Friend clearly inherits it. The series slowly and in detail reproduces the life of ordinary people: the poverty in which Lenu and Lila's families live. It shows how the "owners" of the neighborhood, the mafia-linked Solara brothers, keep the locals in fear by lending money at high interest rates.

This glorification of everyday life gives the story a lyricism that finally makes you believe that this very era is coming to life on the screen.

3. This Is a Story of Friendship that Lasts for Decades

The novel and series begin in the 1950s, when Lenu and Lila meet, and end in the 2010s, when Lenu, now an older woman, tries to solve the mystery of Lila's disappearance. Their friendship has lasted more than sixty years and is a unique and complex emotional relationship. It includes sincere affection, a desire to support each other, rivalry, and mutual jealousy of talent.

Lila and Lenu are far from a model of healthy friendship – this is an imperfect relationship between imperfect people. But they shared a poor childhood in the midst of post-war chaos, dreamed of a better life together, experienced defeats and victories. There was so much in this strange, sometimes cold, sometimes warm relationship that it inevitably sticks in the memory.

4. It's an Exploration of What It Means to Be a Woman

My Brilliant Friend can be called a women's story. It speaks frankly about the fears and vulnerabilities of women's lives: the difficulties of getting an education, sex, relationships, family, motherhood, social inequality, misogyny.

It seems that there is no subject that the story does not touch. These numerous observations, accurate, sad, funny, painful, add up to a visual and very vivid study of what it is to be a woman. That is why the series and its literary basis have found their way into the hearts of female audiences.