[imagesource: HBO / RAI / TIMvision]

In the UK, they’re describing My Brilliant Friend’s viewing figures as “boutique”.

Which is to say, as The Telegraph points out, having given the Italian series based on Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels a five-star review, “hardly anyone watches it, but those of you who do, gosh, aren’t you clever?”

The viewing numbers are in the millions over in Italy, making this HBO series one of the best-loved and most-watched TV shows in the country.

Lauded as the “best drama on TV” it is now in its third season, which sees two girls’ friendship thrive and waver right into the mid-1960s:

The story revolves around the helter-skelter friendship between two poor girls from Naples, Elena (Margherita Mazzucco) and Lila (Gaia Girace), whose lives rebound and ricochet off each other’s constantly, as the decades go by.

As we reach the events of Ferrante’s third novel, with Daniele Luchetti picking up directing duties from the formidable Saverio Costanzo, bookish Elena is a celebrated, controversial novelist. Lila – beautiful, feral, brilliant Lila – works in a salami factory.

Take a peek at the official trailer:

Season two begins with Elena writing the story of their friendship, a book that becomes semi-autobiographical, confessional, and sexually explicit, throwing Italy into a bit of a tizzy when we watch it being released into the public in season three.

This “sublime television” trio is available for streaming on HBO.

Note that even if we don’t have access to HBO here in South Africa, you can easily get a VPN and subscribe to overseas streaming services.

Or, like so many people under the age of 40 these days, you probably already know a way to download whatever you want off the internet for free.

[source:telegraph]