# My Brilliant Friend (2018)

> An elderly writer reconstructs her turbulent lifelong friendship with a brilliant, unpredictable girl from a rough Naples neighborhood.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/67502

## Facts

- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 34
- Episode runtime: 57 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama
- Created by: Saverio Costanzo
- Network: Rai 1
- Cast: Margherita Mazzucco, Anna Rita Vitolo, Luca Gallone, Valentina Acca, Antonio Buonanno, Antonio Milo, Alessio Gallo, Francesco Serpico
- TMDB rating: 8.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7278862/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: melancholic, intimate, bittersweet, textured, tense

## What critics say

Audience reception is acclaimed, praising the acting, period costumes and emotionally textured portrait of a lifelong female friendship, though some viewers found the later seasons' portrayal of Elena harder to embrace.

## Synopsis

My Brilliant Friend (2018-2024) is an Italian literary drama series created by Saverio Costanzo for Rai 1, adapted from Elena Ferrante's novel. Margherita Mazzucco plays Elena Greco, a bookish girl from a poor Naples neighborhood, opposite Irene Maiorino as Lila Cerullo, the fiercely gifted friend whose brilliance both inspires and wounds her. Anna Rita Vitolo and Fabrizio Gifuni appear among the principal cast, and the story is framed by an elderly Elena at her desk, writing about the friendship that has defined her life. Each season moves forward through childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, following school ambitions, family violence, class resentment and the shifting alliances of the neighborhood. The show is a four-season serialized saga with an unhurried, intimate pace, its tone melancholic and textured, its period detail carefully rendered. Fans of Gomorrah, The Wonder Years and Call the Midwife will find resonance in its grounded emotional realism and its portrait of a community shaped by poverty and ambition. The series unfolds as a meditation on loyalty, envy and the cost of escaping one's origins.

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