'My Brilliant Friend' Season 3: What drew Elena to Lila?
HBO's upcoming series, 'My Brilliant Friend', is based on the modern masterpiece of Italy's most acclaimed author, Elena Ferrante. 'My Brilliant Friend' is an intense and warmhearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila, and will be seeing its third installment at the end of February 2022.
Their story in itself is a meticulous portrait of two women who chose friendship as little girls; one that is a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. The drama series revolves around the everyday lives of these two women, the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country, and the ways in which transformed the relationship between the two protagonists. What is so special about their friendship? Read on to know more.
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There are several little somethings that gripped Elena to befriend Lila at a young age. They were practically sisters, without the label.
When you form a strong bond with someone at a tender age, you basically share everything and tend to be out of sorts when they're away.
Even still, friendship is not always sunshine and rainbows. It's bound to have pangs of jealousy, competitiveness, and even shades of cruelty that people only rant out to those they love the most. Having said that, when we're kids, teenagers, and even all through our early twenties, we don’t normally tend to understand how to rationalize those feelings as of yet. The possessiveness that makes our youngest and oldest female friendships so intense is also what makes them toxic, in a way.
While many of us may have abandoned and let go of intoxicating and unhealthy friendships when life demands different priorities, most will agree that it is possible for someone to be both a best friend as well as the worst enemy. When friendships like these eventually become overwhelming and exhausting, we reach our saturation point and break free. Lila and Elena shared exactly this very type of relationship.
In fact, during the first season of 'My Brilliant Friend', the series starts off with Elena, now in her 60s, wondering what became of her vivacious and boisterous childhood friend, Lila. Although heartwrenching to recall the past in the likes of this context, it is also a reminder that we never really lose the love for someone we once were so close to. It also teaches us how far a person can go before deciding that a friendship with someone brings more sadness than joy.
Having said that, neither of the two characters are likable all the time. While Lila tends to be the harder, more selfish, and insensitive of the two, Elena is the one to continuously impress her friend when she’s at her lowest. While Lila resorts to both nurturing and punishing means, Elena sometimes wished her friend were dead. They bring out both the worst and best in each other, and there is a certain pull that always somehow brings them back to one another. Like magnets, opposites attract and such is the case with Elena and Lila.
The fact that makes the series gripping is mainly to do with long-lost and familiar, important relationships. Although not many talk about or discuss them, these extraordinary childhood friendships and memories are relatable to a lot of us, in more ways than one.
Season 3 of 'My Brilliant Friend' premieres on February 28, 2022, on HBO.
