Lila and Max: Why 'My Brilliant Friend' Is One of the Greatest Television Series Of All Time

My wife and I finished the final season of My Brilliant Friend, the HBO Max series based on Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, more than a week ago and I've been trying to work out how to express what I want to say about it. There aren't many TV series that have affected me the way this one did.

I find it hard to even explain the details of what this series is, to be honest, because I think a basic description of what the show is about is perhaps not all that interesting. "A couple of girls grow up in a poor part of Italy in the late 1940s and we follow their lives into the 1980s." The closest thing I might compare it to would be Mad Men, but Mad Men has the intrigue of the advertising industry to draw you in, whereas My Brilliant Friend has no similar hook (Italian culture, maybe?). Still, both series are about characters, their relationships with each other, and their relationships to the events of the real world during what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest and most interesting time periods in modern history (the 1960s). But there are two other reasons that I believe My Brilliant Friend rose from excellent to transcendent for me across its four seasons—Max Richter and Lila Cerullo.

As we finished watching the final episodes of the series, I had accumulated a lot of thoughts and ideas that I was very eager to talk about. Then, Richter's intricate strings appeared and as they swelled and enveloped every part of those final moments, all my thoughts vanished. By the time that last episode had ended a few minutes later, I couldn't do anything but sit in stunned silence for what felt like hours. What Richter created for this series (inspired by Vivaldi? making use of some amount of reworked Vivaldi?) was one of the most moving musical accompaniments I've ever experienced, in a class that probably only includes the likes of John Williams, Pixar, and some of my favorite stage musicals. Like Mad Men, I never once skipped the intro to this show, but Richter's score felt as though it were woven into every aspect of the series and became a completely inseparable part of my experience.

As for Lila, the series revolves around the friendship of Elena "Lenu" Greco and Raffaella "Lila" Cerullo. Who exactly is telling the story and thus describing the other as their "brilliant friend" is a perspective that, I think, changes in fascinating ways throughout the series. Both of these characters are unforgettable, but after watching three (or four) different actresses playing each one over four seasons, I think Lila Cerullo is likely one of my favorite characters of all time. By the final few episodes, I realized I was in love with her, I was terrified of her, I wanted to be her, I wanted to be protected by her, and in some ways, I hated her. While similar to other complicated characters in television (Don Draper, Tony Soprano, Tyrion Lannister) and beyond, I struggle to think of any example where I've felt more compelled and affected than by Lila Cerullo.

I could probably talk about a hundred different themes, ideas, stories, and feelings that this series evoked in me and continue rambling for months, but I'll stop here and say, once again, that My Brilliant Friend is one of the greatest series I've ever seen and I absolutely think you should watch it. For my part, before I rewatch it from the beginning (which I plan to do, many times), I would love to read Elena Ferrante's source material first. Of course, with Richter's score playing softly while I do.