My Brilliant Friend Season 4

[Snowxmas]

Anyone else watching?

Maybe I'll go back and try S4 again then... I wasn't enjoying it at all. Hated the way Lenu was so obsessed with Nino. I gave up with it.

Not sure what made me go back but it just suddenly starts to get better and better. I hope you'll feel same way. If you've followed it from the beginning, I think you'll be drawn right back in once it becomes less about Nino and Lenu and more about Lila and Lenu again. There's something hypnotic about them.

I was same. Go back to it if you can. First 2 or 3 episodes were hard going but once you're in, you're in and it just gets better and better.

Oh my!

Stunning opening to S4. No disappointment whatsoever - all the madness and heartbreak I remember. Just more hair.

And the clothes. And interiors. The train platform. How casually rich she looks …

(So weird that new Nino is so much less attractive than old / young Nino. But now he’s less convincingly irresistible he reminds me much, much more of his utter shit of a father. Every time he hugs her I’m angry all over again.)

Wow. Just wow.

Just watched the finale. Very gripping. Anyone know if the actress playing Elena in the very last scene ( many years later) is the same one who played her before? It looked like her but so much older, not sure how they could do that ?

It just gets better and better. It's totally exhilarating. I feel like I know those women.

Just started series 4 ,, I'm enjoying it so far

This is without a doubt one of the most stunning and compelling series ever made.

I started S4 two days ago - I'm applying all my willpower to limit myself to one episode per evening so that I can savour it and make the 10 episodes last as long as possible rather than binge. Unlike others I was hooked from the very start. I do recognise and accept the new actress as Lenu and think she portrays the character, with all her flaws, brilliantly. The confrontations with the two mothers in episode one were both incredible.

I've only watched the first two episodes so have only seen Lila once but that actress as absolutely nailed her mannerisms and speech patterns.

As a PP said, I know these women. I love everything about the series and I really need to visit Naples.

@PricklyBob Naples doesn't disappoint! I was there 2 years ago just for a few nights and the place is crazy - totally different to other cities like Rome or Milan. I really want to go to the coast near Naples though, as I only saw the 'historical centre'. When we drove from the airport we saw all the run down places further out of town, which I found really exciting as I'm also a big fan of Gomorrah, a tv series which is about criminal gangs in Naples. I can recommend that as well if you don't mind a bit of violence (it is very bloody at times). A more recent film Nostalgia is also set in Naples about someone returning there after many years away.

The confrontations with the two mothers in episode one were both incredible.

I actually fell asleep last night thinking fretfully about Immacolata and Adele!

POSSIBLY A BIT SPOILERY!

Having lived through the 70’s I know it was a different world (and I was in England, not Italy) but I don’t think anything has quite brought home to me the total dependency on the protection conferred by marriage that Elena’s mother’s outburst outlined. Elena was a famous author, more than able to take care of herself and her children, so - why? It was so terrifying.

And I come from a family accustomed to expressing what I believe are now called ‘big emotions’ () - but I think if I’d ever experienced that first confrontation as a daughter I would have died of shame and horror on the spot. I don’t know what the second one would have driven me to … Poor brilliant, stupid Elena.

Now I’ve watched Ep2 I think one episode a day is probably sensible. There’s so much to take in and ponder over. (I spend a lot of time fretting over the non-linearity, disorganisation and disasters in my own life - so I feel immense empathy for Elena, but good Lord - she doesn’t help herself.)

Possibly I’ll get over this but I’m still missing old/young Lenu/ Elena with her funny, awkward face. In truth Alba Rohrwacher is too beautiful to be able to accurately portray the insecurities that would attach to a young woman who grew up with no money, no family help and ‘only’ her brain to build a ladder out of poverty and deprivation with. Although it is funny that when tied down to normal everyday family life this Elena seems to take on exactly the same harassed and dishevelled look as her mother, just less extreme!

I've been to Naples many times as a drop off at the airport but when I went to Ischia my journey from Ischia port to the airport was just me in a taxi as I was only one going back. We went through the heart of it and the place was just buzzing. Early evening if I remember. Some stunning buildings. Some dilapidated. But all of it vibrant. For more of Naples, Walter Presents has a series called Inspector Ricciardi on 4. Typically Italian.

@Cathymaker I'll take a look at Inspector Ricciardi. I'll happily watch most things set in Italy, so thank you for that!

In that case, search Walter Presents and scroll down to Italy. There are a few. I've watched Ice Cold Murders and The Red Door series 1. Same actor in Ricciardi and Red Door and all 3 are a little bit bonkers but acceptably so if you love all things Italian. Nothing like My Brilliant Friend, which is just so real.

@Cathymaker thank you, I will do that. I agree, MBF is very real.

I absolutely LOVED Naples. I have never understood the hate for it. We stayed on the edge of the Centro Storico, our favourite pizza place was in Rione Sanita which is apparently dodgy but really wasn't, happily roamed around the Spanish quarter and Duomo at night. It honestly felt less scary to me that the industrial are around Manor House in London. But then again I wasn't in the industrial area of Napoli, so...

Ischia was amazing too. We stayed in a hotel above a thermal park, Neapolitan families had been going there for generations and we met those generations round the pool. Food was amazing, people really friendly. I'd go back to Naples and Ischia in a heartbeat. Plus all that incredible history within a really short train ride. Astonishing part of the world.

Is Walter Presents on Now tv? Loving MBF. Perfectly cast and so true to the books.

You can get Walter Presents dramas on 4.

Thanks

@TheDogIsInCharge that sounds wonderful. I'd happily see Naples again and explore more of it. Did you see Ripley? I don't know if that was genuinely filmed in Naples but they recreated it beautifully.

At Naples airport last September a woman getting on the plane had stayed in Naples itself and said she'd never go again cos it was dirty. My friend did a month around the Amalfi coast. Her least favourite spot was Sorrento and Naples her favourite. Horses for courses but I think Naples is a place that brings out real emotion if you fall into the loving it camp. It's special.

What was name of your Ischia hotel? I'm going back in June but trying to convince my sister in law to go and want to tempt her with a great hotel.

No one else currently watching or recently watched S4??

Watched the finale last week. The storylines were more disturbing than the previous seasons, I thought, but compulsive as always. Will miss it.

If she wants luxury then this isn't the place! It was pretty basic and rooms were old fashioned but everyone was really friendly, breakfast was a bit poor but the evening meal was three courses and tasty, every room had a glorious view and there was a thermal park at the bottom of the steps below the hotel next to the sea. You could buy discounted tickets for this if you stayed in the hotel - when we were there it was 5 euros. I was obsessed with the Kniepp pool there.

Bus stop right outside the hotel which took you to any of the other towns for 2 euros.

You could walk into Casamicciola Terme and there was a grocery store next door for wine/fruit etc.

Hotel
https://www.bagnitiello.it/en/

Thermal park
https://vagnitiello.it/en/parco.html