Entertainment Weekly - 04.2020

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND:

THE STORY OF A NEW NAME

grades trouble, disapproving

glares from Mom, a boyfriend-

girlfriend makeout sesh awk-

wardly rounding second base. This

is an era of cultural transforma-

tion, though, and soon she’s debat-

ing class warfare at dance parties.

Lenù’s a sensitive four-eyes too

shy to reveal her true feelings for

brainy politi-hipster Nino (Fran-

cesco Serpico). Lila is every fiery

adjective ever written about Italian

women. They protect each other,

and compete bitterly. Girace brims

with glamorous assurance, giving

her rebel-with-a-cause polymath a

snarly humor. Mazzucco embodies

social passiveness and intellectual

strength, so Lenù becomes a sweet-

smiled “nice girl” taking mental

notes of the ruin around her.

My Brilliant Friend debuted

back in 2018, one of many recent

foreign-language TV shows bene-

fiting from adventurous American

ONE UNUSUAL THING I LOVE ABOUT

My Brilliant Friend is my complete

inability to figure out how old any-

one is. The passionate and brutal

adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s

Neapolitan quartet stars teen-

agers as teenagers, but the char-

acters grow up fast in 1960s

Naples. In season 2, designated

The Story of a New Name, after the

second book in the series, Lila

(Gaia Girace) starts off as a newly

married child-bride, and it’s not

long before she’s a cynical store

manager desperately housewifing

against her abusive husband, Ste-

fano (Gio vanni Amura). Lila’s best

friend Lenù (Margherita Maz-

zucco) experiences more recog-

nizably high-schoolish dramas:

unrequited-love quadrangle,

DAT E MARCH 16

NETWORK HBO

TIME 10 PM

↑ La vita’s not so dolce for Lenù (Margherita Mazzucco) and Lila (Gaia Girace)

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