My Brilliant Friend
FriendshipA friend group's dynamics carry the show.This show: 10/10Coming of ageGrowing up as the central arc.This show: 10/10Female perspectiveWomen's experience as the defining lens.This show: 10/10Character studyInterior life matters more than plot.This show: 9/10Working classOrdinary people, ordinary money, real stakes.This show: 8/10NaturalisticUnderstated, lifelike performances and look.This show: 8/10Class divideWealth, poverty and the gulf between them.This show: 8/10MelancholicA wistful sadness woven through the story, even in its lighter moments.This show: 8/10
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Starring
Alba RohrwacherAnnarita VitoloMargherita MazzuccoGaia GiraceLuca GalloneAlessio Gallo
Written by
Saverio Costanzo
Starring
Alba RohrwacherAnnarita VitoloMargherita MazzuccoGaia GiraceLuca GalloneAlessio Gallo
Written by
Saverio Costanzo
Ratings per Episode
Votes per Episode
My Brilliant Friend Episode Ratings Heatmap
| Avg | E1 | E2 | E3 | E4 | E5 | E6 | E7 | E8 | E9 | E10 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | 8.4 | 8.1 | 8.6 | 8.2 | 8.4 | 8.1 | 8.8 | 8.1 | 8.7 | |||
| S2 | 8.4 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.3 | 8.6 | 8.9 | |||
| S3 | 8.3 | 8.0 | 8.7 | 8.2 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 8.6 | 8.1 | 8.5 | |||
| S4 | 7.9 | 7.8 | 7.3 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 8.4 | 7.8 | 7.6 | 8.5 | 8.6 |
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About
"A friendship as fierce as any rivalry"
Adapted from Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, this Italian-language series follows Elena and Lila, two girls from a poor, violent Naples neighborhood, as their intense friendship stretches from childhood into adulthood across decades of postwar Italy. It's slow, literary, and immersive rather than plot-driven, built on rivalry, love, ambition, and class anger. The dialect-heavy dialogue and unhurried pacing demand patience, but the performances and sense of place are extraordinary. It rewards viewers who want a novelistic, character-first drama over anything twisty or fast-moving.
Watch it for
the raw, decades-spanning portrait of two women's friendship against class and violence.
Maybe skip if
you want fast plotting rather than a slow, novelistic character study.
Written by our AI editor to help you decide, spoiler-free by design.
All Seasons
▶
Season 12018
8.46K87h 55m
Based on the international best-selling novel, when the most important friend in her life seems to have disappeared without a trace, Elena Greco, starts writing the story of their friendship.
▶
The Story of a New Name2020
8.44K87h 6m
Based on the second book of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet, 'The Story of a New Name', this second series sees Lila And Elena both feeling dissatisfied with their lives. Longing for escapism, a trip away threatens to destroy the very nature of their friendship and sends the two young women into very different worlds.
▶
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay2022
8.33K84h 35m
Season 3 picks up with Elena and Lila, both now grown women, during the great open sea of the 1970s. Lila took her young son and left her husband and a comfortable life to work as a factory worker in the toughest of conditions, while Elena left the neighborhood to study in Pisa, and is now an author of a successful novel that has paved the way to an affluent and cultivated world. They now navigate a scenario of hopes and uncertainties, still united by their strong and ambivalent bond.
▶
The Story of the Lost Child2024
7.93K103h 49m
Full Cast & Crew
Cast
Alba Rohrwacher Narrator, Elena Greco
Annarita Vitolo Immacolata Greco
Margherita Mazzucco Elena Greco
Gaia Girace Lila Cerullo
Luca Gallone Vittorio Greco
Alessio Gallo Michele Solara
Valentina Acca Nunzia Cerullo
Antonio Buonanno Fernando Cerullo
Francesco Serpico Nino Sarratore
Eduardo Scarpetta Pasquale Peluso
Crew
Saverio Costanzo
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