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Over the course of its four-season run, HBO’s My Brilliant Friend has featured gangland killings, sexual assaults, attacks by political revolutionaries, and other forms of violence. Yet time and again, the Italian drama series, based on Elena Ferrante’s quartet of Neapolitan novels, finds itself at its most savage, and powerful, in conversations between its two central characters, Elena and Lila.

Elena (played at various ages by Elisa Del Genio, Margherita Mazzucco, and most recently Alba Rohrwacher) and Lila (played by Ludovica Nasti, Gaia Girace, and now Irene Maiorino...

My Brilliant Friend is coming to an end.

The HBO series is airing its fourth and final season right now on Mondays at 9–10 p.m. Et on the network.

Based on the best-selling novels by Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco (Margherita Mazzucco) and Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo (Gaia Girace). Their story covers over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila — Elena’s brilliant best friend and worst enemy.

Season 4 delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila, who find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s. Amid motherhood, career demands, betrayals, threats, disappearances, and natural disasters, the two lifelong friends once again reside in the same neighborhood.

Fans are curious whether the show might be extending past Season 4, but we already know the answer.

Keep reading to find out more…

HBO is not renewing My Brilliant Friend for Season 5, and there’s a reason.

This week on My Brilliant Friend, Elena (Margherita Mazzucco) uncovers a troubling development: Carmen (Lucia D’Ambra) has been coerced into suing her for slander. In response, Elena and Lila (Gaia Girace) join forces to expose the Solara family’s shady dealings. They’re determined to bring the Solara brothers down, but soon realize their exposé might not […]

My Brilliant Friend: The Investigation...

It all started about a year ago. The Good Mothers, the Anglo-Italian series based on the eponymous book by journalist Alex Perry, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, winning the inaugural, and thanks to budget cuts one and only, prize for best new series at the festival’s TV sidebar, the Berlinale Series.

Roughly twelve months later, the show, produced by House Productions and Fremantle-owned Wildside, which is currently airing on Hulu, and on Disney+ outside the U.S., is in the running for this year’s Critics Choice Awards in the Best Foreign Language TV Series category. The Good Mothers will go up against South Korean series Bargain, The Glory, Mask Girl and Moving, the German period drama The Interpreter of Silence, and the hit French crime series Lupin.

Based on true events, The Good Mothers was adapted for television by Stephen Butchard (Baghdad Central) and directed by...

Berlinale Series Award is the time an A-festival has established a prize specifically for a series.

Disney+ drama The Good Mothers, about women who defy the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, has won the first ever Berlinale Series Award.

The Italian language series is produced through the UK’s House Productions and Italy’s Wildside, a Fremantle company, and launches on Disney+ on April 5.

It follows the true story of three women who were born into ‘Ndrangheta mafia clan and how they worked with a female prosecutor to bring it down from the inside.

Based on the book by Alex Perry and adapted by Stephen Butchard,...

Berlinale Series Award is the time an A-festival has established a prize specifically for a series.

Disney+ drama The Good Mothers, about women who defy the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, has won the first ever Berlinale Series Award.

The Italian language series is produced through the UK’s House Productions and Italy’s Wildside, and launches on Disney+ on April 5.

It follows the true story of three women who were born into ‘Ndrangheta mafia clan and how they worked with a female prosecutor to bring it down from the inside.

Based on the book by Alex Perry and adapted by Stephen Butchard,...

The Good Mothers, Disney+’s hard-hitting mafia drama series, has won the first ever Berlinale Series Award.

Forged in co-operation with Deadline, the award is the first of its kind for TV at a major film festival.

Revealed as winner at the Berlin Zoo Palast in the past few minutes, the Italian drama from Baghdad Central scribe Stephen Butchard tells the true story of how three courageous women inside the notorious Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta mafia worked with female prosecutor, Alessandra Cerreti, to bring down down a criminal empire. The Good Mothers is directed by Julian Jarrold and Elisa Amoruso and stars Gaia Girace, Valentina Bellè, Barbara Chichiarelli, Simona Distefano and Micaela Ramazzotti. Producers are House Productions and Wildside. It streams on Disney+ from April 5.

Related: 2023 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming

The Berlinale Series Award Jury, comprised of former Yes Studios boss Danna Stern, Moonlight star André Holland...

New Disney+ original series “The Good Mothers,” which provides a fresh female take on the Calabrian mob, marks a case of truly organic collaboration between the U.K. and Italy to ensure that a great story didn’t risk losing an iota of authenticity.

The show, which is competing in the “Berlinale Series” section, depicts the Calabrian mob through the prism of three daring women inside the ‘Ndrangheta organized crime clan who collaborated with a female prosecutor and withstood the consequences of their attempt to escape its iron grip. It is produced produced by Juliette Howell, Tessa Ross and Harriet Spencer for London’s House Productions, which originated the project, and by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Rome’s Wildside, a Fremantle company, which helped to firmly root the story in its Calabrian context.

“Good Mothers” is based on a book by U.K.-based journalist Alex Perry and...

Shooting is underway in Naples on the fourth and final season of HBO/Rai series “My Brilliant Friend” which sees some key casting changes in the lead roles of the two best friends, Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, no longer played by Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace.

For the fourth season of the Elena Ferrante quadrilogy, titled “The Story of the Lost Child,” as previously announced, Alba Rohrwacher (on the left of the first look image) is playing Elena Greco, aka Lenù. Irene Maiorino (“Gomorrah”) has now been announced as Lila. And additionally, Fabrizio Gifuni (“Exterior Night”) will play Nino Sarratore, the writer who has long been the object of Lenù’s affection. Sarratore was previously played by Francesco Serpico.

The fourth season of “Brilliant Friend” is being directed by Laura Bispuri, known for the transgender-themed drama “Sworn Virgin” and for “Daughter of Mine.” Both films starred Rohrwacher and played in Berlin.

Click here to read the full article.

In August, FX chief John Landgraf told reporters that Peak TV — a handy piece of vernacular that he’s been credited with creating — would finally actually peak this year, a threshold that seems plausible given the condensing and consolidating in the media landscape.

The sense of contraction, rather than endless expansion, is reflected in my annual Top 10 list, which includes a trio of my best-of regulars that reached satisfying endings in 2022 (and I still couldn’t find space for concluding favorites like Paramount+’s The Good Fight and Netflix’s Derry Girls).

Many of the series on my list capture TV’s evolving anything-can-happen ethos, according to which even ongoing shows can take a nearly anthological approach to episodic storytelling. And while I couldn’t (or didn’t want to) include all the big IP-driven shows that dominated the discourse of the early fall,...

To mark the release of My Brilliant Friend on 2nd May, we’ve been given a copy to give away on DVD.

Set in the 1970s, series three finds Lila (Gaia Girace) struggling to hold her life together as a single mother, with an unrelenting job in a factory after leaving her abusive husband. Meanwhile, having spread her wings to study in Pisa, Elena (Margherita Mazzucco) has become a successful author and is welcomed into an affluent and prosperous world.

Elena and Lina must navigate a stream of hopes and uncertainties in a rapidly changing world with a seemingly limitless number of possibilities. They drift in and out of one another’s lives as they contend with new challenges – but as ever, remain bound to one another by a ferocious and unbreakable bond, where passions and rivalries flicker beneath the surface…

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents...

Awards

TripleC, a gateway organization that helps deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse people access the arts and media, will receive a BAFTA TV Craft Special Award during the British Academy Television Craft Awards. Actor Cherylee Houston (“Coronation Street”) founded TripleC and with a group of friends including Melissa Johns (“Grantchester”), they have built a platform for making the creative screen industry more inclusive.

Johns and Houston said: “When we set up this organization five years ago, we were just a group of disabled and non-disabled creatives coming together to see if we could make a change. I don’t think we ever knew the size of impact that that seed of an organization would have on the lives of so many deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent creatives. The recognition from BAFTA will support our drive for change and help ensure accessibility and inclusivity is high up on every agenda.”

Sara Putt,...

Britain’s Vertigo Films And Germany’s SquareOne Productions Team For Supernatural Drag Drama ‘Vamping’ British producer Vertigo Films and Germany’s SquareOne Productions, who collaborated on the successful StreetDance film franchise, are making a supernatural drama set in Berlin’s drag community. Vamping will run to eight parts and be aimed at young adults. It will follow a vampire community in the hedonistic, nocturnal LGBTQ+ club culture of Germany’s capital city through the eyes of young British performer Everett, who wakes up after a heavy night of celebratory partying to learn he has become a vampire. Matthew Jacobs Morgan (The Rig) – named as a rising star by Deadline last year – created the show, working alongside German multi-disciplinary artist and screenwriter Sophie-Yukiko Hasters, who is a central figure in Berlin’s Qtpoc (queer and trans person of color) community. SquareOne founder Al Munteanu and Vertigo co-founder Allan Niblo are...

Season 3 of the HBO Italian drama series "My Brilliant Friend" dropped during February of this year, thrilling fans who find themselves deeply invested in the intertwining lives of Lila (Gaia Girace) and Elena/Lenù (Margherita Mazzucco).

While season 4 of the series is already in the works, Elena and Lila's saga will, unfortunately, reach its conclusion, as the fourth season of "My Brilliant Friend" will also be the final one, per TVLine. As the series is a direct adaptation of Elena Ferrante's novel quadrilogy, season 4 of "My Brilliant Friend" will be based on "The Story of the Lost Child," the...

The post My Brilliant Friend Season 4 is Coming to HBO, But It Will End the Series appeared first on /Film.

My Brilliant Friend is coming to an end at HBO. But not quite yet.

The WarnerMedia-owned cable network and Italian public broadcaster Rai have renewed the series, which is based on Elena Ferrante’s book series, for a fourth and final season.

It comes as the third season, My Brilliant Friend: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, launched in the U.S. last month.

The fourth season will be based on Ferrante’s The Story of the Lost Child, the fourth book in her quadrilogy.

Cancellations/Renewals Scorecard: TV Shows Ended Or Continuing In 2021-22 Season

Created by Saverio Costanzo, My Brilliant Friend is produced by The Apartment, Fremantle Italy, Wildside and Fandango.

The third season, which stars Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace, follows Elena Greco and Lila, otherwise known as Raffaella Cerullo, both now grown women, during the great open sea of the 1970s. Lila took her...

“My Brilliant Friend” is set to close the book on Elena and Lila’s journey. The Italian- and Neapolitan-language television series has been renewed for a fourth and final season by co-producers HBO and Rai.

Based on the acclaimed “Neapolitan Novels” four-book series by Italian writer Elena Ferrante, “My Brilliant Friend” follows the coming-of-age of two best friends, Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, who grow up in a poor Naples neighborhood in the 1950s. As the smart-but-shy Elena continues her education and eventually ascends into the wealthy elite, the outspoken Lila is denied schooling by her family and struggles through an abusive marriage. The show, which is named after the first novel in Ferrante’s series, has adapted each book into an eight-episode season, with the fourth season set to adapt the final installment, “The Story of the Lost Child.”

The first three seasons of “My Brilliant Friend” have starred...

The 18-year-olds who played Lila and Lenù as teenagers in the first season of “My Brilliant Friend” continue to play them as the women approach 30, their complexions as smooth as their formica kitchens. The passage of time is instead marked on their bodies: pregnancies, sicknesses, and bruises that bloom and yellow across the episodes; modish fashions and haircuts. Season 3 of the HBO drama is subtitled “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay” after the Elena Ferrante novel it’s based on, the third in her Neapolitan Quartet. But the casting works so beautifully because those categories are collapsible or, worse, imaginary. No one leaves for good; no one stays the same. This isn’t a series about girls escaping into womanhood, but women shackled to their origins. That Lila and Lenù look as they did at 16 only reinforces the dark thesis that, for women who grew up poor in post-War Italy,...

Fans of the acclaimed Italian drama, "My Brilliant Friend," have to wait only a while longer, as season 3 of the HBO series is expected to drop as soon as February. The official trailer for "My Brilliant Friend" continues the saga of Lila (Gaia Girace) and Elena/Lenù (Margherita Mazzucco), focusing exclusively on their stories, as chronicled in novelist Elena Ferrante's "Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay," on which the third season is based. The latest season will most definitely also follow the telltale eight-episode model, widening its socio-cultural and coming-of-age themes. Watch the trailer for season 3 below.

Ferrante's novel...

The post My Brilliant Friend Season 3 Trailer: The Acclaimed Italian Drama Returns to HBO in February appeared first on /Film.

Veteran Italian auteur Daniele Luchetti, whose most recent film “The Ties” opened the 2020 Venice Film Festival, is now shooting season 3 of HBO-rai series “My Brilliant Friend,” taking the reins from helmer-showrunner Saverio Costanzo, who is taking a break.

The show’s hotly anticipated third season is based on the bestselling novel “My Brilliant Friend – Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” the third book of the quadrilogy by Elena Ferrante published in the U.S. by Europa Editions. It’s produced by The Apartment and Wildside, both Fremantle companies, along with FremantleMedia Italia and Fandango Production, in collaboration with Rai Fiction and HBO Entertainment. The story and screenplays are by Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo.

Luchetti spoke exclusively to Variety about the upcoming season’s cinematic references, the two protagonists’ journeys, and his personal connection to the material.

Saverio had told me that after referencing Neorealism in...

To mark the release of My Brilliant Friend on 3rd August, we’ve been given 2 copies to give away on DVD.

Elena Greco is an elderly writer whose best friend Lila has disappeared without a trace, so Elena begins to write the story of their lives growing up together in a mob-ruled, poverty-stricken neighbourhood in 1950s Naples. As children, Elena (Elisa Del Genio) and Lila’s (Ludovica Nasti) friendship is put to the test as financial disparities provide them with very different opportunities in life. Lila’s writing genius is stifled after her parents can no longer afford further education and put her to work, while Elena flourishes in school, no longer in the shadow of her friend’s brilliance.

The second series follows Elena (Margherita Mazzucco) and Lila (Gaia Girace) as adolescents into the Swinging Sixties, where this fierce, complex friendship must endure romantic rivalry and shocking violence, as...

The second season of HBO's Italian series My Brilliant Friend brought back to the screen the rich and complicated friendship of Elena Greco (Margherita Mazzucco) and Lila Cerullo (Gaia Girace), who are each growing into their own — which means, at times, growing apart. Creator Saverio Costanzo returned to direct six of the second season's eight episodes, set during 1950s postwar Naples. The Italian filmmaker spoke with THR about his working relationship with the series' author, Elena Ferrante, the importance of casting his two leads and his plans for the series.

How did you decide where to begin season two,...

[Editor’s note: The following review contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “My Brilliant Friend,” titled “The Blue Fairy.”]

“The Blue Fairy” is a low-key, gentle yet mostly joyous final hour of the second season of “My Brilliant Friend,” which wrapped Monday night. The eighth and last episode is loyal to the ending of the second book in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series, “The Story of a New Name,” so much so that, without a Season 3 to immediately dive into, you might find yourself headed to your bookshelf to revisit the third book, “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay.”

Buoyed no doubt by the show’s strong international fan base — that includes you, loyal readers, who’ve been following along with me all season — HBO renewed Saverio Costanzo’s jewel of a series for a Season 3. But with production among many things in Italy obviously halted, how long will it be until we get to see it? Either way, at least we know it’s coming,...

“My Brilliant Friend” will air its Season 2 finale on Monday, May 4, but fans of the critically acclaimed series can rest easy as HBO and Rai have renewed the show for a third season.

The ongoing Italian coming-of-age drama, which is co-produced by HBO, Fremantle, and Italian broadcaster Rai, is based on the Neapoliton Novels series by Italian author Elena Ferrante. The upcoming third season of “My Brilliant Friend” is based on Ferrante’s “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” the third book in the series.

“Bringing Elena Ferrante’s exquisite work to life has been such a joy and privilege,” Francesca Orsi, Evp of HBO programming, said in a statement. “The fact that viewers and critics alike have continued to embrace Elena and Lila’s story makes it all the more gratifying, and we thank the entire team led by Saverio Costanzo for their outstanding work on the second season.

In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix released the trailer for Jerry Seinfeld’s new comedy special, and ABC announced its new game show “Don’t.”

Renewals

HBO, Rai and Fremantle have announced the renewal of drama series “My Brilliant Friend” for a third season, titled “My Brilliant Friend: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay.” Just like the previous two seasons were inspired by the first two books in Elena Ferrante‘s four-part book series of the same name, Season 3 will be based on the third book in it. Filmed in Italian, “My Brilliant Friend” follows Elena Greco, played by Margherita Mazzucco and her friend Lila Cerullo, played by Gaia Girace, throughout the 60 years of their complicated and mysterious friendship. Season 2 of “My Brilliant Friend” is airing now on HBO, with its season finale set for May 4 at 10 p.m. “My Brilliant Friend: Those Who Leave and Those Who...

HBO has picked up another season of Italian drama adaptation My Brilliant Friend.

The series, which is co-produced with Italian public broadcaster Rai and Fremantle, is based on Elena Ferrante’s novels. The eight-part second season, My Brilliant Friend: The Story Of A New Name, debuted in the U.S. on March 16.

The third season will be based on Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Ferrante’s third book in the series.

It is produced by The Apartment, Wildside and Fandango with Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani producing for Fremantle’s The Apartment and Wildside and Domenico Procacci producing for Fandango. It was created for television by Saverio Costanz.

Starring Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace, the story and screenplays are by Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo. Paolo Sorrentino and Jennifer Schuur are the executive producers. Fremantle is the international distributor in association with Rai Com.

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “My Brilliant Friend” Season 2, Episode 7, “Ghosts.”]

“Ghosts” ends with a haunted Lenu (Margherita Mazzucco) recalling how her whole life is a series of “almosts” as she tosses a box containing Lila’s (Gaia Girace) innermost personal effects and writings over a bridge. The “ghosts” of this episode stalk every frame, and they’re the ghosts of dreams killed, hopes collapsed, and old friends and lovers who’ve drifted apart. As Lenu betrays her promise to Lila never to read the letters entrusted to her, director and series creator Saverio Costanzo makes an experimental choice, which is to shoot Lila’s epistolary reverie in 16mm. The rest of the series has, up to this point, been shot digitally, despite lacking the varnish of other contemporary series in favor of a loose, gritty, ’60s arthouse style.

The camerawork helps create a claustrophobic, gossamer atmosphere for the most intimate hour of “My Brilliant Friend” so far.

In “Rage,” the sun has set on the short but potent romance of Nino Sarratore (Francesco Serpico) and Lila Caracci (Gaia Girace). Director Saverio Costanzo is back after handing the camera to Alice Rohrwacher for the past two weeks spent in Ischia, but the transition is seamless. Costanzo appropriately sets the last moments of happiness for Nino and Lila all a swoon in the rain, set to the sad swell of Gino Paoli’s love song “Vivere Ancora.” It’s an achingly romantic sequence, especially a time where those of us single in quarantine assume we’ll never touch another human being or be touched again or experience love’s sweet, elusive kiss! But their life on the lam in a hovel somewhere in Naples hits a dead end once Nino grows resentful of Lila’s intellect. Nino is a Sarratore, through and through, so he was never not going...

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “My Brilliant Friend,” Season 2, Episode 5, “The Betrayal.”]

Nearly every moment of “The Betrayal,” from the unstable Dutch angles of the cinematography to Max Richter’s chilling score, is building up to the episode’s final third like a horror movie. “My Brilliant Friend” has been operating on this track all season, with morbid flourishes in the visuals and sound design mounting toward an awful inevitability. Directed by Alice Rohrwacher, this episode is the season’s darkest and strongest hour yet.

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This week, that came on the shoulders of a cast-aside Lenu (Margherita Mazzucco), now an enabling third wheel in the ongoing illicit affair between Nino and Lila, surrendering her virginity to Nino’s father, the shady railroad worker Donato Sarratore (Emanuele Valenti). Don fancies...

Trigger alert: To those for whom the exquisite pain of first unrequited love still scalds, Episode 4 of this season of “My Brilliant Friend,” titled “The Kiss,” could freshen those wounds. It’s an effective juxtaposition to experience Lenu’s (Margherita Mazzucco) internal torment — over learning that the broodingly handsome and cocksure Nino Sarratore (Francesco Serpico) prefers her best friend Lila (Gaia Girace) to her — against the beautiful backdrop of Ischia, a volcanic island at the edge of the gulf of Naples. The emotions are volcanic, too, with Lenu devastated at the episode’s end by this awful revelation.

“The Kiss” is the first episode of the season to be directed by Alice Rohrwacher, whose sister, the actress Alba Rohrwacher, provides the narration for the series (and will presumably play the next phase of grown-up Lenu next season). The director of last year’s surreal Netflix movie “Happy as Lazzaro,” Rohrwacher...

Lila Caracci, this week, is in a mood. As revealed in last week’s episode of HBO’s “My Brilliant Friend,” Naples’ resident rebel and feminist (played by Gaia Girace) is now pregnant by her abusive loser husband Stefano, and mama ain’t happy. The baby news came in total contradiction to Lila’s beliefs, as the miserable newlywed has firmly denounced marriage and children knowing they will offer no escape from her crummy life.

Lila remains, as ever, one twisted sister. She seems to almost manically flip between despair and sociopathic glee like in, say, the moment she feels a pang in her womb, pulls out blood from between her legs, holds out her hand to Lenu (Margherita Mazzucco) and, with a sick grin, says, “Does this mean the baby is dead?” Indeed, in the opening scene, Lila has miscarried.

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Get married. Have a baby. Raise the children. Please the husband. Die. This is the cycle of life as laid out to the women in the world of the 1950s as depicted by “My Brilliant Friend,” and the dreary cadence against which the newly married Lila (Gaia Girace) is now rebelling. In this season, that rebellion culminates in the cunning Lila’s most visceral act of vengeance yet: the violent defamation of her wedding portrait.

Jumping back a bit, Lila has made it clear to Lenu (Margherita Mazzucco) she wants nothing to do with the industrial-marriage complex to which she’s wedded herself. “The idea of getting pregnant disgusts me!” she spews at Lenu, who’s asked by Lila’s cruel, shallow husband Stefano (Giovanni Amura) to carry the message that he wants a child. “She has an evil force inside her,” Stefano tells Lenu of his wife, whose dark...

Anyone who ever thought that secretive Italian author Elena Ferrante is actually a man hiding behind a female nom de plume is surely dreaming. The deeply realized dynamic between childhood best friends turned frenemies Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo could hardly be conjured from a male gaze. Their riveting, decades-long push-pull is explored across the four novels in Ferrante’s Neapolitan series, which have been adapted into an equally riveting series for HBO. The Italian production now begins a gorgeously wrought second season that vividly recreates 1950s postwar Naples, and the complex relationships among its denizens, all of whom are looking for something more among the ruins.

Director Saverio Costanzo returns to helm the first episode of the new season, lifting from the sequel to “My Brilliant Friend,” “The Story of a New Name.” However, this season he hands over directing duties on two episodes to fellow Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher,...

The first season of My Brilliant Friend, the excellent HBO adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, introduced viewers to Lila and Lenu, two bright little girls in 1950s Naples whose paths diverge when Lenu’s family allows her to enter middle school and Lila’s does not. In the second season, which premieres March 16th, the girls — now young women — discover that in order to wiggle out of the narrow constraints of poor women’s lives in postwar Italy, they’re going to have to get creative. Decades later,...

Three episodes into “My Brilliant Friend: The Story of a New Name” comes a scene as lovely and understated as it is pointed and bruising, a combination in which the show specializes, especially in this second season. Elena (Margherita Mazzucco), nervous about going to a party at her intimidating professor’s house, rifles through the lavish closet of her best friend, Lila (Gaia Girace). As she searches for a suitable outfit, she flicks past all of Lila’s louder dresses as Lila looks on, lip slightly upturned in fond amusement at Elena’s palpable stress. As framed by director Saverio Costanzo, almost the entire scene plays out in the reflection of a bifurcated mirror on Lila’s closet, keeping each woman on either side of a dividing line. When Lila crosses over to help Elena with a dress, she briefly disappears in the fold of the glass as Elena stares into it,...

In venturing out of the Luzzatti quarter of Naples where most of the first season of “My Brilliant Friend” is set, the second season, subtitled “The Story of a New Name,” breaks new ground in several ways that are key to understanding the show’s overall vision and ambitious aesthetic scope.

The eight new episodes based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling “Neapolitan Novels” debut March 16 in the U.S. and sees the tale evolve on many levels as the friendship between Lila (Gaia Girace) and Elena (Margherita Mazzucco) is tested by new twists. The former is now unhappily married while the latter is a model student who moves to Pisa. And then there is a crucial holiday on the island of Ischia where they meet up with old childhood friend Nino Sarratore (Francesco Serpico).

“When I read the books I had the impression that the characters moved in different ways...

Amazing Stories

Steven Spielberg’s Eighties hit anthology series is getting a modern update on Apple TV+. The new teaser introduces us to five different stories, and although plot specifics remain a mystery, each has a flair for the supernatural. From otherworldly bursts of energy in the sky to a grandfather (portrayed by Robert Forster) who develops superhero powers from a long-forgotten ring, fantastical possibilities are brought to everyday life. (March 6th)

Big Time Adolescence

“When you get older you realize that’s kinda all life is: just a bunch...

It’s perhaps not the most popular show on HBO, but “My Brilliant Friend,” is coming back for a second season on HBO in March. An Italian-language series created by Saverio Costanzo, known for “Private,” “The Solitude of Prime Numbers,” “Hungry Hearts,” and the Italian version of HBO’s “In Treatment,” “My Brilliant Friend” is based on the bestselling series by Elena Ferrante.

Read More: The 60 Most Anticipated TV Shows Of 2020

The second season, subtitled, “The Story of a New Name,” based on the second book in the quadrilogy, features Margherita Mazzucco as Elena and Gaia Girace as Lila.

Continue reading ‘My Brilliant Friend’ Trailer: HBO’s Italian Drama Adds Alice Rohrwacher As A Director at The Playlist.

Lila and Lenú’s friendship strains and strengthens in the new trailer for Season Two of My Brilliant Friend, based on the second book of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, The Story of a New Name. The show returns to HBO March 16th.

The new trailer opens with a harrowing scene in which Lenú (Margherita Mazzucco) pays her first visit to Lila (Gaia Girace) following the latter’s honeymoon with her new husband Stefano (Giovanni Amura). After answering the door with sunglasses on, Lila removes them to reveal a black eye and tells Lenú,...

When Paolo Sorrentino needed a new conclave of cardinals for HBO’s “The New Pope,” his specialized casting agent Alessandra Troisi sent a team combing through Rome’s community centers for senior citizens who, she says, are the “biggest reservoirs” from which high-ranking prelates get picked.

For cloistered nuns, Swiss Guards and papal chair-lifters, instead they headed straight for the streets of the Eternal City, where they selected roughly 7,000 people from 65 countries who appear in the flamboyant show’s second series. “All the extras in Paolo’s movies or TV series come from street-casting, rather than being professional extras,” Troisi says. And Sorrentino always wants to know what these people do in real life. “He draws inspiration from this information,” she says.

For another HBO Italian original, “My Brilliant Friend,” based on Elena Ferrante’s best-selling series of Neapolitan novels, casting agent Laura Muccino and her team saw roughly 9,000 kids...

Better Call Saul, Season Five

The Breaking Bad prequel series is back for another season, finding Jim McGill/Saul Goodman increasingly wrapped up in criminal activity. Though the clip is set to Jim Reeves’ mellow country song “Welcome To My World,” scenes showcase a much harsher reality filled with late-night visits from the police, street brawls and the return of ex-cartel leader Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis). The trailer also promises the return of DEA agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) and a kiss shared between Saul (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim (Rhea Seehorn). (Feb.

In today’s TV news roundup, Apple TV Plus announces Jen Tullock and Zach Cherry have been cast in upcoming series “Severance” and HBO sets a premiere date for “My Brilliant Friend: The Story of a New Name.”

Castings

Jen Tullock and Zach Cherry will join Patricia Arquette, Adam Scott and Britt Lower in Apple TV Plus’ new workplace thriller, “Severance.” Tullock will star as Devon, sister of Mark (Scott), while Cherry will portray one of Mark’s employees named Dylan. Written and created by Dan Erickson, the series follows Lumen Industries, a company aiming to take work-life balance to the next level and centers on lead character Mark, an employee with a dark past trying to put himself back together. Arquette stars as Mark’s boss at Lumen Industries. Lower plays Helly, a woman who struggles to find peace with the decision she made to do the severance procedure.

The sprawling tale of Lila and Lenù continues through the fraught years of adolescence in the new trailer for Season Two of My Brilliant Friend, based on the second book in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, The Story of a New Name. The show will return March 16th on HBO.

The second season finds Gaia Girace and Margherita Mazzucco reprising their roles as the teenaged Lila and Lenù, respectively. The story picks up with Lila bucking against her new husband, the abusive and overbearing Stefano (Giovanni Amura), while Lenù continues...

In today’s TV news roundup, Hulu drops the trailer for Season 2 of “Light as a Feather” and Netflix reveals an animated series based on the video game “Cuphead” is in the works.

First Looks

HBO and Rai Fiction have released the first image from Season 2 of “My Brilliant Friend – The Story of a New Name,” featuring Margherita Mazzucco as Elena and Gaia Girace as Lila. Based on the second book in Elena Ferrante’s four-part series, the show follows childhood friends Elena and Gaia as they grow old together in their poor neighborhood. Saverio Costanzo will return to direct Season 2.

Netflix has released the first look at the fourth season of its original series “Last Chance U,” premiering July 19. The Emmy-nominated series follows a junior college football program, shedding light on the ugliness that often hides behind the glamour of sports.

Hulu has posted the official trailer for the...

HBO has released the first official image from the second season of My Brilliant Friend, featuring Margherita Mazzucco as Elena and Gaia Girace as Lila will return to direct six episodes and Alice Rohrwacher will direct two episodes.

My Brilliant Friend is an HBO and Rai Fiction series, produced by Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani for Wildside and by Domenico Procacci for Fandango, in collaboration with Rai Fiction and HBO Entertainment, in co-production with Umedia. Story and screenplays by Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo. Paolo Sorrentino and Jennifer Schuur are the executive producers.

Fremantle will distribute internationally in association with Rai Com.

In a Gold Derby exclusive, we have learned the category placements of the key Emmy Awards contenders for HBO. For this season, the premium network has returning champs “Game of Thrones”, “Barry” (Bill Hader), “Veep” (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), newcomers “Gentleman Jack” (Suranne Jones) and “Succession” (Brian Cox), plus limited series “Chernobyl” (Jared Harris), “Sharp Objects” (Amy Adams) and “True Detective” (Mahershala Ali) as part of their 2019 campaign.

Below, the list of HBO lead, supporting and guest submissions for their comedy, drama, TV movies and limited series. More names might be added by the network on the final Emmy ballot. Also note that performers not included on this list may well be submitted by their personal reps.

SEECarmen Ejogo Interview: ‘True Detective’

“Ballers”

Comedy Series

Comedy Actor – Dwayne Johnson

Comedy Supporting Actress – Joy Bryant, Brittany S. Hall

Comedy Supporting Actor – Russell Brand, London Brown, Donovan W. Carter, Rob Corddry, Troy Garity, Omar Miller,...

To mark the release of My Brilliant Friend on 18th March, we’ve been given a copy to give away on Blu-ray.

When the most important friend in her life seems to have disappeared without a trace, Elena Greco, a now elderly woman immersed in a house full of books, turns on her computer and starts writing the story of their friendship. She met Raffaella Cerullo (Ludovica Nasti and Gaia Girace), whom she has always called Lila, in the first year of primary school in 1950. Set in a dangerous and fascinating Naples, their story begins and goes on to cover over 60 years of their lives as she tries to describe the mystery of Lila, Elena’s brilliant friend and – in a way – her best friend, and her worst enemy.

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The Small Print

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When Saverio Costanzo, the director of HBO and Rai’s “My Brilliant Friend,” started to plan how he would depict the grand but gritty city of Naples — one that’s so vivid in the imaginations of millions of Elena Ferrante readers, he quickly decided that the working-class neighborhood at the core of her four Neapolitan novels had to be fictional.

“Our starting point was always the fake city,” he says, noting that precisely because no other city in Italy has such a strong identity, keeping the right distance from Naples was what enabled him to represent it so intensely.

The drab ’hood called Rione Luzzatti was reconstructed on the grounds of an abandoned glass factory in Caserta, about 20 miles north of Naples, a roughly 5-acre converted space that’s become among the largest sets in Europe. Production designer Giancarlo Basili and local craftsmen built many of the story’s most...

My Brilliant Friend is heading to China after digital platform iQIYI struck a deal with distributor Fremantle International.

My Brilliant Friend is the tale of Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life. She met Raffaella Cerullo, whom she has always called Lila, in the first year of primary school in 1950. Set in a dangerous and fascinating Naples, their story goes on to cover more than 60 years of their lives and explores the mystery of Lila, Elena’s brilliant friend and – in a way – both her best friend and her worst enemy.

Filmed in Italian, the eight-episode first season stars newcomers Elisa Del Genio and Ludovica Nasti as the younger versions of Elena and Lila, while Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace portray teenage versions of the characters. All episodes are directed by Saverio Costanzo.

My Brilliant Friend is an HBO, Rai Fiction and Timvision series, produced by Lorenzo Mieli...

HBO and Italian broadcaster Rai have renewed “My Brilliant Friend” for a second season ahead of the Season 1 finale.

The eight-episode first season of the show is based on Elena Ferrante’s best-selling book of the same name, which is the first of her four-part series published in the U.S. by Europa Editions. Season 2 will be based on “The Story of a New Name,” her second book in the series.

“We’re thrilled that Elena Ferrante’s epic story has resonated so powerfully with viewers and critics, and we look forward to the continuing journey of Elena and Lila,” said Casey Bloys, president of HBO Programming.

The series is the tale of Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life. She met Raffaella Cerullo, whom she has always called Lila, in the first year of primary school in 1950. Set in Naples, their story goes on to cover...

HBO and Rai have ordered a second season of the critically praised series My Brilliant Friend.

The eight-episode first season is based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling book of the same name, which is the first of her four-part series published in the U.S. by Europa Editions. Season 2 will be based on The Story of a New Name, her second book in the series. A start date for production has not yet been announced.

“We’re thrilled that Elena Ferrante’s epic story has resonated so powerfully with viewers and critics, and we look forward to the continuing journey of Elena and Lila,” said Casey Bloys, president, HBO Programming, in announcing the news Tuesday.

“Rai is deeply proud of the extraordinary success of My Brilliant Friend. It’s an important milestone that confirms our commitment to focusing on international co-production, as well as on the value of Italian talent,...