Just finished Season 1 of the series
My Brilliant Friend on DVD.
**spoilers below**
I didn’t really know anything about the show (as I hadn't read the books on which this series was based), so I checked out the trailer. Although two kids seemed to be the focus of the series, and considering kids in shows/movies more often than not
annoy me, I was surprised to find myself intrigued by the trailer. It looked to be a show about friendship, and that interested me (especially nowadays when it seems so many characters in shows are backstabby and betray each other in some way or are just generally not nice to each other). Plus, I liked the music used in the trailer.
The first thing I thought of after watching the first episode was that question posed to children who do everything their friends do - ‘If you friends jumped off a cliff, would
you jump off a cliff?”. That seemed to be the logic of one of the show’s two main characters - Elena ‘Lenù’ Greco, who befriends the character of Raffaella ‘Lila’ Cerullo in class after she shows just how smart she is (up until that point, Lenù was the ‘smartest’ in the class).
The teacher, recognising the two students’ smarts (and pretty much declaring the rest of the class ‘dimwits’ in comparison. Seriously, the teachers in this show have no qualms about putting down any students who aren’t exceptional), then decided to have a boys’ class join them and there was a competition of sorts where Lenù and Lila went up against two boys with answering a bunch of questions. For a while it looked like the boys were kicking the girls’ butts, but Lila started kicking
their butts. Oddly, though, at one point she knew the answer, but wouldn’t speak up/denied that she knew it. Eventually other boys from the class started heckling one of the two representing them in the competition and a fight broke out (complete with cursing - there’s quite a bit of that in this series, and surprisingly a good percentage of it comes out of the mouths of these children. I’m no prude, but it’s something I wasn’t quite expecting).
It’s not long before Lenù is following Lila, she even ‘helps’ her by handing her a rock to throw at the boys who’re throwing stones at her in retaliation for her ‘embarrassing’ them in the competition. All I could think during that scene was none of those passing motorists thought to say, “Hey! Quit throwing rocks at each other! Or at least do it somewhere where you’re less likely to hit my car!” (but I guess there was no need to worry about that, since all the rocks that were thrown miraculously managed to avoid hitting any of the vehicles that were passing between them). Lila managed to hit one the boys, I think, but that was nothing compared to him nailing her in the head with a rock. That looked pretty nasty. Lila’s father expresses concern over his daughter (which just seems really odd when you compare it to how badly he mistreats her in the next episode...and pretty much throughout the season).
One could say that Lila is a bit of a ‘bad’ influence on Lenù, as she gets her to do things she was clearly feeling hesitant about/would likely never normally do. One of the earliest examples of this I can recall is when they exchange their dolls. I mean, just the fact that Lila manages to convince Lenù to exchange her nice-looking doll for Lila’s not-so-nice-looking one is the first indicator of the influence she has over her new ‘friend’. Then she takes it a step further by tossing Lenù’s doll down a sewer grate. The simple act of one child discarding the other’s property, then convincing them to do the same, is just the beginning.
Lila’s influence over Lenù only becomes stronger when she convinces her to go to the local mobster, Don Achilles (who beats people up/has people beaten up, which we witnessed at one point), to get their dolls back (because Lila says he took them after they threw them down the sewer grate). The two of them are either very brave or very stupid to knock on this man’s door and demand such things. Amazingly, after some glaring and questioning, he gives them money to go buy new ones (I guess the fact that Lila didn't back down showed him she had guts. So did Lenù, staying put and holding her friend's hand). After hiding the money in a stone wall out in the middle of wherever while they decide what to do with it, they eventually use it to buy the book Little Women (the person who sold it to them didn’t question how they had this money/could afford it). They read it multiple times together and Lila plans to learn how to write a book from having read it, and then write one herself with Lenù - which she’s positive will make them rich (excellent plan).
Other random thoughts/things of note about the first two episodes:
The boy who threw rocks at Lila apparently
likes her (great way of showing it, kid). Meanwhile, the boy Lenù had a crush on reminded me of young Fred Savage from
The Wonder Years.
Lila’s mum was against her going to school/learning, despite being told by others how smart she is. Her father seemed a bit more reasonable...that was until he tossed her out a window (it might not have been super high up, but still...what a bastard). But I’m getting ahead of myself.
This^ took place after Lila managed to convince Lenù to ‘go to the sea’, against Lenù’s concerns about them getting caught, but then Lila herself chickened out halfway there and they began the long journey home (which seemed to take a lot longer than it did for them to get out that far). Consequently, Lenù got in trouble with her mum and then we learned how horrible she was when she told her husband he had to beat their daughter to punish her. The father, who’d previously seemed okay in comparison to the mother, proceeded to do exactly that and beat poor Lenù repeatedly as if just to prove a point.
There’s violence like this pretty much every episode - adults beating up other adults in the street, kids beating up other kids in the street, adults beating up kids, etc. I must say, this show is pretty full-on when it comes to showing just how awful these kids’ lives, their parents, other kids they know and just people in general are. The second episode ends with Don Achilles being killed, and then the next episode is titled ‘The Metamorphoses’ - which is fitting, considering the young actresses who were playing Lenù and Lila as kids are replaced by somewhat older actresses portraying them as teenagers. I was a bit surprised we only had two episodes with the kid versions of the characters, as I thought they'd be in more of the show considering they're the versions of them that we see on the DVD cover.
At this point I should mention the two kid actresses were pretty impressive with their performances in the roles. They had some heavy stuff to deal with, and at times they seemed older than their years - as did the characters themselves (though other times the characters actually acted like
kids). There was a lot of intense staring, and I was somewhat shocked at the things the actresses had to do/say in their roles, but they were well-cast, I thought. Kudos should also be given for the casting of the actresses who take over the roles and play the characters as teenagers. The casting people managed to find two actresses who not only matched the younger ones physically, but also their performances (albeit more grown up).
And with the leap ahead in time, so came a change in the opening credits. Beforehand, it’d be been old-fashioned family photos of all the kid characters in the show with their parents/siblings, but now it was these kids grown up, with fewer family members included.
At the start of the third episode, it seemed like Lila was acting quite bitchy towards Lenù (even more than she sometimes did when they were younger). I felt bad for Lenù, as the person she thought was her ‘best friend’ seemed to be avoiding her/not acting very nice towards her. Though there
were signs that Lila hadn’t become a
completely different person, as she was the only one of the girls watching another girl they all knew named Ada Capuccio (it was her brother who got beat up at the beginning of the episode, after he defended her honor from the guys calling her s horrible names) to catch onto the fact that the guys taking her for a ‘spin’ in their car (after attempting to entice her in, then making lewd remarks about how her wearing lipstick was just for them, then forcing her into the car and driving away) are going to be doing more than just ‘kissing’ (which is all the other girls believe is going to be happening). So at least Lila stands up for
her.
Though it continues to mystify me how all these goings on happen in full view of everyone and nobody does anything about them (the episode started with guys beating up another guy and kicking him while he was down...but no one intervened. Instead, they just all looked on/gawked. I guess it’s a different time/place, but still.
It also appeared Lenù’s parents hadn’t improved with age (not that they
looked any different. Why is it whenever these leaps ahead in time happen in shows, the adult characters don’t seem to age, while the younger/kid characters
do?). After briefly encouraging Lenù at one point (must’ve been an anomaly) in one of the episodes, her mother was back to being against her attending school (citing the cost of it all as the reason for her anger) and her father took things further by threatening to break Lenù’s legs. Later into the episode, though, they were all smiles (well, maybe not her
mother. She
never smiles...though she does lend a bracelet to her) and congratulating Lenù/boasting about her smarts. Their reactions give me whiplash.
At least Lenù found some solace in the library, with a kindly librarian who seemed to be one of the only truly decent people in the neighbourhood. It was good to see Lila eventually start acting friendly (more or less) again towards Lenù later in the episode. She helped her learn Latin, thereby helping her pass her test (which beforehand she'd been in danger of failing) and eventually let her in on the secret she’d been keeping with her older brother, Rino - that they were designing fancy shoes they didn’t want their father to know about, in the hopes of eventually getting a business going.
We even got to see some of that old Lila fierceness when she stuck up for Lenù, as the guys from earlier came around again to take her for a ‘spin’ in their car. One of them got physical with her and broke her mother’s bracelet she’d been given, and Lila was right on him with her knife she’d shown to Lenù earlier in the episode that she kept on her person for protection. She managed to get the guy to apologise and climb back into his car, looking rather sheepish. It was pretty clear Lila wouldn’t have hesitated to slit the guy’s throat (the voice-over even said as much). And it’s not like anyone would’ve stopped it or even
reacted to it really if she
had (as was proven by all the public beatings and whatnot that had gone on since the first episode).
I forgot to mention that on top of everything else going on, Lenù was also having to deal with that affliction most teenagers suffer from - acne. To top things off, she got bribed with money to show her breasts to two guys from her class in the bathroom. In the next episode, one of the two who were perving on her, named Gino, outright asked her to go steady with him. She eventually agreed, but that was only out of competitiveness with Lila (who had several guys interested in her). Eventually, though, Lenù ditched his Gino's - and deservedly so.
Meanwhile, the list of guys interested in Lila included...
Pasquale (whose father was wrongly accused of killing Don Achille). He eventually proposed to Lila, but she politely declined. There was also Enzo, who threw rocks at her when they were kids. Then there was the biggest pain in the butt - Marcello, who just wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. He kept pursuing her, and worst of all he had her father (along with the rest of her family) wrapped around his finger.
In the episode titled ‘The Shoes’, he was basically trying to force Lila to marry him by proposing in front of her family. Naturally, her father wanted this more than anything, but she was firmly against it. The previous episode, her brother had been insulting her and he continued doing so because of their whole shoe ‘business’, which their father looked to be impressed by to start with (as he was complimenting the shoe and who made it)...that was until he started laying into Lila’s brother (both verbally and physically). There was always plenty of tension whenever Lila’s family was onscreen, especially with her father present. When Rino attempted to stick up for his sister (and this was coming after he’d previously treated her so awfully), his father really let loose on him. The last we saw of them in the episode titled ‘The Island’, he was attacking his son. Considering this family would threaten to ‘kill’ each other on a regular basis, you couldn't tell when it was just talk and when they actually
meant it.
By comparison, it appeared Lenù was doing a lot better than Lila, as her teacher who’d been encouraging her all this time sent her on a vacation to live with her cousin in Ischia. This seemed like a wise move, as when she got there, there were no public beatings, no death or constant cursing. We even got to hear Lenù speak a bit of English (which totally took me by surprise, as I’d gotten so used to reading the subtitles) with a family who she'd gotten to know quite well (I wish we could’ve seen some of that). Then the family of the kid who I thought looked like young Fred Savage (whose actual name was Nino) turned up. Eventually, young Fred Savage (who’d grown up to look
nothing like Fred Savage) arrived too and Lenù wondered why he was seemingly not interested in her anymore. He eventually kissed her, but then ditched her the following day. Lenù was about to leave to go be there for/support Lila (who she'd been writing to, but getting no replies from, then finally
did and learned just how bad a time Lila was having), when Nino’s father came into her room at night and sexually assaulted her. It was an extremely uncomfortable scene to watch and went on for what seemed like a painfully prolonged time.
When Lenù returned home, she was greeted by her mother with a delightful “What did you do? Did you misbehave? Did the teacher’s friend kick you out?” (mother of the year, this one), assuming
she’d done something wrong and that was why she was back from her vacation early. At least her father was in one of his better moods that episode and actually
complimented his daughter.
It wasn't not long before Lenù reunited with Lila (who actually
smiled a few times in the episode - though at least one of those smiles was due to her relishing getting back at Marcello for his relentless unwanted pursuit of her). Not only did Lila have all the guys mentioned above^ chasing after her, but now there was Stefano in the mix, who was into her as well (he was one of the kids who was ‘humiliated’ by Lila during that competition all those years ago between the boys’ class and girls’ class). As badly as Stefano had treated her when they were kids, she still seemed to prefer him over Marcello (to be honest,
none of the guys in the neighbourhood were exactly saints. Even the ‘nicer’ ones had their dodgy moments, as we would see later on). Stefano was also the son of Don Achille.
Stefano, like Marcello, tried to buy his way into Lila’s favour (and her father’s) by buying the shoe Lila’s father had raged about previously. He
seemed genuine in his feelings for Lila (at least to them, anyway), but Lila’s father was still all about Marcello, even when Stefano made his intentions towards Lila known and said he wanted to marry her (if you needed further evidence of what sort of guy Stefano was, just look at how he told Lila's father “give her to me” at one point before saying they should leave it up to Lila to decide whether she wanted to marry him or not). Naturally, Lila said 'yes' to Stefano, after he'd officially proposed right in front of her father (who clearly wasn't happy...but then, when
was he?).
With Part 1 of Lila’s plan complete, Part 2 involved her pretending to want to go get ice cream with Marcello (who’d been hanging out at her home, watching the TV he bought the family, waiting for her and being denied seeing her). Of course, this was just a cover, as what she
really wanted was to tell him off once and for all, threatening him to the point where she came right out and said she’ll kill him if he didn’t kill her first in retaliation for her accepting the proposal of his rival. And you know what? I totally
believed her threat 100%. Lila's
intense. Was it the smartest move? Probably not, given what sorts of violence went on in the neighbourhood on a regular basis and that kind of scumbag Marcello had proven himself to be....but, man, it sure was
satisfying.
Speaking of scumbags, Nino’s slimy bastard of a father and what he did to Lenù was still (naturally) on her mind, as much as she tried not to think of it. Like Lila, she too had another admirer in the form of Antonio (she was ignoring Nino, since he reminded her of what his father had done every time she saw him), who was Ada’s brother. During one of her classes, where she was called upon to read a blackboard from her chair, Lenù discovered her eyesight wasn’t so good anymore and was forced to get glasses. This was apparently back in the days when wearing glasses were considered as making one look ‘ugly’. She’d already been feeling bad about her appearance due to her acne (points to the show for not letting up on that, as most show’s wouldn’t even bother including it on teenage characters – their skin was always so flawless - but in this show, not only did Lenù
have acne, but it didn’t just magically disappear overnight), and then, of course, her mother (who could always be counted on to make her feel even
worse about herself) blamed the fact that Lenù was constantly reading books for her eyesight problems. To add insult to injury, Nino’s scumbag father turned up, but at least Antonio helped to keep him at bay (as decent as Antonio seemed, though, even
he got a bit too handsy for Lenù earlier on at one of the change rooms on the beach). By the final episode of the season, she’d already grown sick of him Antonio and was clearly more interested in Nino (though, personally, I found him dull/boring).
Meanwhile, Lila was helping convince her father, brother and Stefano that the shoes they'd made were right (this was after Stefano lost it at her father because he'd made alterations to her designs, dismissing them as just ‘drawings of a girl’. Her brother was also back to insulting her again). As her wedding drew near, she made Stefano promise he wouldn’t let Marcello be present (which seemed like a real possibility, since his father was going to be there, playing an important role).
We got some good scenes between the two friends in the season final (which seemed only right, since it was their friendship that this show was based around), like the one where Lila served as Lenù’s editor as she read her work. There’d been this contrast all season where Lenù was the one who was going to school and getting these good grades and being encouraged (well...by
some people, at least), whereas Lila’s talent had been getting kept back by her family, even though she was clearly brilliant enough. It was just that she hadn’t had the same opportunities. I was actually surprised to hear Lila call Lenù “my brilliant friend”, as I’d always thought the title was referring to Lila. This occurred in a scene with Lila in a bathtub, making Lenù (who was washing her) promise she’d go to college/continue studying. Where there may have been jealousy at one point, the encouragement here from Lila felt genuine.
For a while, we got to see Lila actually looking
happy for a change (I think she smiled more in the final episode than all the others combined). Of course, there were upsets - Lenù’s mother was still horrible (I kept switching back and forth between who I thought was the worse parent - Lenù’s mother or Lila’s father), Antonio’s jealousy of Nino (I was amused when he went off at Lenù, sounding so outraged she’d want to be with someone who *gasp*
hadn’t shaved and wasn’t wearing a tie!), Nino acting like a major jerk to Lenù (purposely withholding her article from being published) and, worst of all, Marcello showing up at the wedding (the way it was shot - with Lenù seeing him, but not letting us the audience see who she’d spotted straight away - was almost like a horror movie/slasher movie and very effective, I thought, as I wondered if it was Nino’s father she’d seen, going by her reaction).
Marcello’s presence (combined with the fact he was wearing Lila’s shoes she'd created), after Stefano promised he
wouldn’t let him be there, was the perfect way to ruin her wedding day. She looked absolutely devastated and Lenù knew it, as they stared across at each other. This wasn’t quite what I was expecting as an ending to the season, but it certainly was packed with tons of emotion. Both actresses did a superb job of conveying so much without uttering a word in that final scene.
I must say, I wasn’t sure about this show when I started watching it (almost every character did/said something - or in the case of certain characters,
many things - that made me dislike them), it seemed rather depressing at times, and I couldn't always keep track of all the characters (I basically needed a chart for that, and I've left quite a lot of them out of my review here, as I've forgotten a bunch), but despite all the horribleness that went on throughout (and the fact that I couldn't always keep track of what was going on or understand certain characters' actions), I was drawn into this story of the two main characters. There was so much complexity here. They weren’t all one thing. They had both ‘good’
and ‘bad’ in them. By the end of the season, I just wanted to keep watching. I’m a bit annoyed that I’ll now be waiting who knows how long to see Season 2.