My Brilliant TV Series

After so many bungled novel-to-screen adaptations, one might have feared that one of the most critically-lauded serious fiction series of the 21st century would suffer a similar fate. But HBO's handsome adaptation of Elena Ferrante's first book My Brilliant Friend from her four-book Neapolitan series is just astonishing.

Filmed in Italian, the eight-episode drama begins when elderly writer Elena Greco receives a phone call informing her that her friend Lila Cerullo has vanished. Elena starts to reminisce about her six-decade-long friendship with the brilliant and mercurial Lila, a friendship that was simultaneously filled with love, admiration, jealousy and competition.

The Wall Street Journal TV critic called this the best HBO series since The Sopranos. We agree.