Having adapted Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels over three superlative series so far, My Brilliant Friend comes to a conclusion with its take on the fourth and final book, The Story of the Lost Child. Like its outstanding previous seasons, this Italian drama continues to be rich, sumptuous and deliciously overwrought, but at the same time thoughtful and surprisingly delicate. This beautiful take on Ferrante’s work has done nothing but impress since the very beginning, and it goes out on a high.
For the first time since season one, Lenù and Lila have been recast, with Alba Rohrwacher replacing Margherita Mazzucco and Irene Maiorino taking over from Gaia Girace. We rejoin Lenù in the late 1970s, when her writing career has truly taken off. As she travels Europe to give readings and speeches, her affair with Nino Sarratore (now played by Fabrizio Gifuni) is all-consuming, to the extent that she wonders if she loves him more than she loves her own daughters. The question of whether she loves him (or anyone) more than her work, however, remains an unspoken one, though it is at the heart of this tale.
