It’s perhaps not the most popular show on HBO, but “My Brilliant Friend,” is coming back for a second season on HBO in March. An Italian-language series created by Saverio Costanzo, known for “Private,” “The Solitude of Prime Numbers,” “Hungry Hearts,” and the Italian version of HBO’s “In Treatment,” “My Brilliant Friend” is based on the bestselling series by Elena Ferrante.
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The second season, subtitled, “The Story of a New Name,” based on the second book in the quadrilogy, features Margherita Mazzucco as Elena and Gaia Girace as Lila. Told in flashback, the show is about an elderly woman who recounts the lifelong friendship and conflicts with a girl she met at primary school in Naples during the early 1950s. But primarily, it’s told from the point of view from a melancholy perspective as the older women discover her friend has suddenly gone missing. The show then transports to their younger years, detailing their friendship.
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This season, Costanzo will direct six episodes, and Alice Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro,” “Le Meraviglie“) will direct two episodes.
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My Brilliant Friend tells the story of Elena Greco, a now-elderly woman who discovers the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo, seems to have disappeared without a trace. A writer, immersed in a house full of books, Greco turns on her computer and starts writing the story of their tempestuous friendship, starting from the point when Elena met Lila their first year of primary school in 1950.
Season 2 of “My Brilliant Friend,” based on these beloved Neapolitan novels, premieres March 16 at 10 pm on HBO. Watch the first trailer below.