Series Page

Season 1 – My Brilliant Friend

2018

Drama

Romance

TRAILER

for My Brilliant Friend: Season 1 Teaser

List

93%

Tomatometer

57 Reviews

90%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

Pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante has written four mega-popular Neapolitan novels that explore the complicated intensity of female friendship. "My Brilliant Friend" is the first in the series, and also the first to be adapted for television. Filmed in Italian, the eight-episode drama centers on elderly author Elena Greco, who learns that the most important friend in her life, Lila Cerullo, has disappeared without a trace. It causes Elena to reflect on the early days of their friendship in dangerous but fascinating Naples, Italy, in the 1950s, when Elena and Lila are two very different girls at the top of their class. The story goes on to cover more than 60 years of their lives as Elena tries to describe the mystery of Lila.

Read Less

Watch on Fandango at Home

Buy Now

Fandango at Home

Prime Video

Max

Apple TV

Watch My Brilliant Friend — Season 1 with a subscription on Max, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

Critics Consensus

My Brilliant Friend is an expansive epic that gleans rapturous beauty from the most desolate of circumstances, but it is the intimacy between the central duo -- and the remarkable performances that bring them to life -- that audiences will remember most vividly.

Read Critics Reviews

Rachel Vorona Cote

Bitch Media

Mazzucco's performance as Elena is especially exquisite in its quiet articulation of need.

Mar 11, 2021

Full Review

Emily Nussbaum

New Yorker

My Brilliant Friend is often at its best when it invokes this same crisis of knowledge, of growing up where everyone knows your business and no one can admit the truth. It's about the escape hatch that clever girls squeeze through.

Dec 3, 2018

Full Review

Deborah Ross

The Mail on Sunday (UK)

This is an exquisite adaptation. This is like the books but better.

Rated: 5/5

Dec 3, 2018

Full Review

Linnete Manrique

PopMatters

HBO's My Brilliant Friend feels almost radical for its raw and un-romanticized depiction of female friendship and resistance in all its emotional complexities.

Jul 20, 2021

Full Review

David Zurawik

Baltimore Sun

The juxtaposition of their hopes and dreams versus the brutal reality of their lives under the rule of their uneducated fathers and male authority in the early episodes gets you rooting so hard for them you think your heart will burst.

Dec 19, 2019

Full Review

Víctor López G.

Espinof

An ambitious proposal whose start buries, with a tedious rhythm, its magnificent setting and production design. [Full Review in Spanish]

Rated: 2/5

Jul 10, 2019

Full Review

Read all reviews

Ari

WOW I'm hooked. The plot; the characters; the time and place! 👌

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/13/23

Full Review

Josh B

Beautifully crafted. Authentic.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/04/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Elena writes her first novel. An on-screen reviewer asks "why should we have to read a book about wretchedly miserable women?" And, he could have added, most of the men are rapists or would-be rapists, and the novelist's conclusion about heterosexual intimacy is that it's a bad idea for women, confirmed by the novelist's psycho best friend, who is only interested in heterosexual intimacy when she wants something from the man. Plus the novelist is a Communist or Communist sympathizer, who smilingly asserts "after Hiroshima the Americans should have been prosecuted for war crimes". The ultimate chick flick.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Good, but i don't like it so much, it's really well made, but. it doesn't inspire me to watch it again.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Fantastic. Brilliant. Lovely.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Brilliant show. The casting was perfect. You believe these characters are real. So absorbing.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/09/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Margherita Mazzucco

Elena as Teenager

Gaia Girace

Lila as Teenager

Elisa del Genio

Elena as Child

Ludovica Nasti

Lila as Child

Imma Villa

Manuela Solara

Elvis Esposito

Marcello Solara as Teenager

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

Episode 1

Aired Nov 18, 2018

Le Bambole (The Dolls)

The disappearance of her old friend, Lila Cerrullo, causes 60-year-old author Elena Greco to reflect on the early days of their friendship in 1950s Naples, when Elena and Lila are two very different girls at the top of their class.

Details

Episode 2

Aired Nov 19, 2018

I Soldi (The Money)

As fourth grade draws to an end, Elena and Lila fight with their families for the chance to continue their education; a trip out of town becomes a day Elena will never forget; a death changes things in the neighborhood forever.

Details

Episode 3

Aired Nov 25, 2018

The Metamorphoses

Elena grapples with the onset of puberty, her studies and her friendship with Lila, who now works in her family's shoe-repair store; as the girls' encounters with the opposite sex become more frequent, Lila takes a stand against the Solara brothers.

Details

Episode 4

Aired Nov 26, 2018

Dissolving Margins

Entering high school, Elena vows to stay ahead of Lila, academically and romantically; promising a better future for the neighborhood, Stefano Carracci invites Elena, Lila and their families over for New Year's Eve.

Details

Episode 5

Aired Dec 2, 2018

Le Scarpe (The Shoes)

Elena grows tired of Gino, while Lila rejects two potential suitors at a cost; a rare outing into the city turns violent; Elena worries about not being there for Lila after accepting an invitation to spend the summer away from the neighborhood.

Details

Episode 6

Aired Dec 3, 2018

L'isola (The Island)

On the island of Ischia, Elena runs into the Sarratore family, reigniting her childhood crush on Nino; Lila's resistance to Marcello's pressing courtship reaches a breaking point; an unexpected encounter leaves Elena shaken on her 15th birthday.

Details

Episode 7

Aired Dec 9, 2018

I Fidanzati (The Fiancés)

Elena returns to Naples to find Lila has made a romantic connection with Stefano, despite the looming presence of Marcello.

Details

Episode 8

Aired Dec 10, 2018

La Promessa (The Promise)

With sales of Cerullo shoes lagging, Stefano cuts a business deal with the Solaras; after Elena gets kicked out of a class for voicing her opinion, Nino encourages her to write an article about her experience for his magazine.

Details

The Time Traveler's Wife

37%

84%

The Time Traveler's Wife

TRAILER

for The Time Traveler's Wife

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City

82%

59%

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City

TRAILER

for Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City

Sally4Ever

97%

68%

Sally4Ever

The Collection

42%

94%

The Collection

Soundtrack

44%

90%

Soundtrack

TRAILER

for Soundtrack

Discover more movies and TV shows.

9 TV Shows You Should Binge-Watch This March

My Brilliant Friend: Season 1 Featurette - Recreating the Rione