La vida mentirosa de los adultos

When reading Elena Ferrante's books I had a feeling of shame, as I became increasingly conscious of the fact that what I was reading is bad literature well written. The same happens with this series.

Good cinematography, beautiful photography, effective soundtrack, spot on casting. And yet... It doesn't work.

The problem is the backbone of the story, the characters. Why is everyone in this so confused about everything? Like, all the time, constantly confused, tense, lost. Why? Why are the main characters doing what they do? What are their reasons? We don't know and we are not given a chance to know, to understand them at least a bit. We don't learn about them, we just see them being erratic and confused, all of them, all the time during the six episodes the season lasts. Boh.

As "The Lying Lives of Adults" (2023 release from Italy; 6 episodes each of about 50 min) opens, we are introduced to teenager Giovanna and her parents. She overhears her dad lamenting that Giovanna "is becoming a spitting image of my sister", Aunt Vittoria, from whom he's been estranged for years. Giovanna's curiosity is peaked. What has become of Aunt Vittoria? Why is she estranged from the family? At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is the latest film adaptation of Italian author Elena Ferrante, best known for her "My Brilliant Friend" saga (also adapted into a TV series). Once again the story is set in Napoli, but this time we are in the mid-90s (we can figure that out from various information in the initial episodes). In this type of series, what makes or brakes it is the storytelling, and once again Ferrera delivers the goods. One cannot help but compare this to "My Brilliant Friend" and it is true that it lacks the epic scale that "My Brilliant Friend" presented, and it also misses the iconic lead performances featured in "My Brilliant Friend". But I found "The Lying Life of Adults" nevertheless to be worth my time and attention.

"The Lying Life of Adults" was released by Netflix a few weeks ago in early January, and I just got around to binge-watching the 6 episodes over 2 consecutive evenings. If you are a fan of "My Brilliant Friend", I'd readily suggest you check this out as well, and draw your own conclusion. If you haven't seen either of "My Brilliant Friend" or "The Lying Life of Adults", I'd suggest you start with "My Brilliant Friend" (to date the TV adaptation of 3 of the 4 books have been released on HBO/HBO Max).

I have never read the novel by Elena Ferrante, so i can not make a direct comparison.

The series starts slowly, almost plotless. The story is not eventful, but it's the characterization and the development of the characters the real aim. The personal growth, the come of age, the discovery of the world is perfectly told in this raw, true and beautifully shot depiction on the background of an enchanting, then haunted Naples.

Valeria Golino's performance is astonishing and the rest of the cast is not of any less.

A small pearl to watch and appreciate on its own regardless the book, as a deep representation of human beings and their relationships.

The series is an interesting character study. Well acted, nice cinematography, good dialogue. Each character with an understandable background and human emotions that fit. The question of what it means to be an adult is well presented through various scenarios.

But when I am saying that, it isn't the whole truth, because much like that statement, this series isn't whole, it is missing something.

While every scene in itself is engaging, they seem disconnected from one another. Sure, there is a clear timeline and you will never be completely lost as to where the current scene takes place. But everything is disconnected on an emotional level.

Many many actions (primarily those of the protagonist) come out of nowhere. The interesting thing is, they aren't completely broken to the point where you would say "plot hole" or "mistake". You think to yourself "oh well, I guess it kind of adds up." And that would be fine. But it's almost as if this is the way the story is told in general. It's the style of the narration, because it just keeps happening, non stop. This has the upside, that you are always surprised and engaged to what's going on, but ultimately I ended up feeling stupid and deceived in the end. Believing that in the end, it would all add up to a grand conclusion. A precise message this would paint.

As I mentioned the protagonist is the main source of this disconnect. That is for two reasons: 1) she apparently loves to make those around her angry at her actions. Often (if not most of the time) her actions seem motivated by nothing more than to actively act against the interests of others. She provokes constantly. This alone wouldn't not allow the disconnect but 2) Our protagonist is very reserved with showing emotions in any way. She doesn't talk a lot about her emotions, her facial expression always stays empty, there are no inner our outer monologues that helps us understand what's going on inside her. When she talks she constantly seems to contradict herself because of reason 1). She mostly says things to rile others up. So we can't even gain a lot of insight when she talks (usually though she is very quiet and the others do the talking). Her actions more often than not seem to be solely motivated to provoke to the point where it's against her own interests. People give her advice and I guess she's like "I will show you, by shooting myself in the leg!". You get the sense that she is constantly scheming and manipulating, but to no benefit, no goal. So, to me our protagonist stays an enigma for the entire series. A coming-of-age story usually has the protagonist go through a change, but in this one, it honestly feels like everyone BUT our protagonist changes. Their personalities and their life. While she is just floating along. Being an ass to unlikeable people and nice people alike. To people who love her and to those who don't.

This irritating behaviour also extends to some of the side characters. At some point a character just suddenly leaves. It comes out of nowhere, the whole scene takes a few seconds, it is never mentioned again. And just as it is so often in this series you can come to a conclusion, it is not like the information can't be extracted from what Information was given before. But still, you have to guess and that makes you feel like you're watching a murder mystery and the detective keeps uncovering murderers without telling the motive or how it was done. Even worse is, that without a more extensive insight into our characters, their behaviour seems erratic. If we can't be bothered to know our characters motivation before they take action, we can't really feel any empathy when the scene takes place. Empathy should have a pretty important role in a story like this though. And there are just aren't many characters here that can evoke any.

Those few characters that can, are great and I love them! The mother is an excellent example. Her behaviour never seems out of place for her character, she is sympathetic, interesting, she is faced with problems to overcome and she changes throughout the plot.

In conclusion I have to say, that this is an interesting work, with some beautiful sights, a not-so-good soundtrack, great production, (some) wonderful characters, good dialogue, and interesting concept, but it's often irritating storytelling drags it down a lot.

This series is spellbinding. The narrative of coming of age is been done, but not like this series. It's filled with passion, loss, betrayals and pain. Director Angelis takes you on a journey that is exacting in adult hypocrisy concerning life and the chasms of growing up. The aunt played by Valeria Golino, spectacular performance as a jaded woman who lives her life fully but with pain brings her niece played by Giordana Marengo, who by the way is the female Timothy Chalamet brings a freshness to her role as tormented teenage figuring out her loyalties. Netflix did a wonderful job on this one.