'My Brilliant Friend' Review: Will the New Year bring traces of a "civil war" as Lenu has claimed?
Lila and Lenu watched as a New Year's Eve celebration in their neighborhood turned into the early traces of a Civil War in the fourth episode of HBO's adaptation of the first book of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, 'My Brilliant Friend'. The story follows the plight of two young girls whose friendship is put to test not just by the feud in the neighborhood between the rich and the poor, but by also how the brilliance of one friend is perceived as a threat to the intellect by the other friend. Starring Margherita Mazzucco (as Elena/Lenu) and Gaia Girace (as Raffaella/Lila), the Saverio Costanzo-created show is set against the dangerous but fascinating Naples, Italy, in the 1950s, which can be said to play a distinguished character by itself.