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The Lying Life of Adults Webseries
The Lying Life of Adults Webseries Cast, Review, Wiki, Story, Trailer, Release date and more
The Lying Life of Adults is an American thriller drama series. The series has Kamila Richard, Rina Patel, Zwari K, Narivi Paul etc in the lead roles. The series will stream online at NETFLIX on 22 December, 2020.
Series Story
The plot revolves around the life of Giovanna;s lifespan from childhood to her youth age. The story is set in the backdrop of the 1990’s and is the journey of self-realization. Her life is divided in different angles in the city of Naples where there are secrets, vulgarity,refinement and happiness. Will she be able to find the right balance?
Check out below for The Lying Life of Adults (2020): Cast, Release date, Full HD episodes, High-Speed online streaming, Watch All Episodes, Story
Series Cast
- Narivi Paul
- Kima
- Zwari K
- Zuvari Joshua
- Kamila Richard
- Mabel George
The Lying Life of Adults Series Release Date:
22 December, 2020
Series Trailer
The Lying Life of Adults Series Watch Online & Download
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The Two Faces of Naples: Unpacking Netflix’s Striking Adaptation of The Lying Life of Adults
The name Elena Ferrante has become synonymous with a visceral, unflinching exploration of female interiority, complex relationships, and the gritty, beautiful heart of Naples, Italy. Following the global success of HBO’s adaptation of My Brilliant Friend and the Oscar-nominated film The Lost Daughter, the anticipation for a screen version of her 2019 novel, The Lying Life of Adults (original Italian title: La vita bugiarda degli adulti), was immense. The task fell to Netflix, which, in collaboration with Italian production house Fandango, delivered a gripping and energetic limited series that dives deep into the messy transition from the innocence of childhood to the painful awareness of adulthood’s inevitable deceits.
Released on January 4, 2023, the Italian and Neapolitan-language series, directed by Edoardo De Angelis, quickly captivated a global audience with its raw depiction of a teenage girl’s search for identity amidst her family’s collapse.
From Page to Screen: The Genesis of the Series
The Lying Life of Adults is a coming-of-age drama that centers on Giovanna Trada, a 15-year-old girl in 1990s Naples. The series is based on Elena Ferrante’s 2019 novel of the same name, which was her first novel since the monumental Neapolitan Quartet. Netflix announced the adaptation in May 2020, demonstrating the streaming giant’s commitment to delivering unique “Made in Italy stories” to a global audience, continuing the screen success of the famously pseudonymous author’s work.
The creative team behind the adaptation was an impressive one, featuring director Edoardo De Angelis at the helm. Notably, Ferrante herself was credited as one of the writers, working alongside Laura Paolucci, Francesco Piccolo, and De Angelis to translate her deeply internal narrative into a six-episode visual experience.
The Plot: A Journey of Betrayal and Discovery
The narrative of The Lying Life of Adults is instantly detonated by a single, cruel sentence. The story begins with 15-year-old Giovanna, the daughter of well-to-do, intellectual parents—Andrea, a professor, and Nella, a literature enthusiast—overhearing her father say that she is becoming “ugly,” and that she is starting to resemble his estranged sister, Aunt Vittoria.
This comparison, meant to be a terrifying warning, instead sparks an all-consuming curiosity in Giovanna. Vittoria is a mysterious, “monstrous” figure who has been ostracized and effectively erased from the family’s upper-class life for years. This moment is the catalyst for Giovanna’s personal crisis, shattering her secure, bourgeois existence.
The Two Cities of Naples
Giovanna’s quest for the truth about her father’s sister becomes a geographical and psychological odyssey across Naples, a city beautifully and starkly divided.
- The Naples Above: This is the world of Giovanna’s parents: the prosperous, well-manicured Rione Alto, characterised by its “fine mask of refinement,” intellectual conversations, and book-lined apartments. It is a world Giovanna begins to view as built on profound hypocrisy and deceit.
- The Naples Below: This is the world of Aunt Vittoria: the rougher, working-class Pascone district. It is a place of raw, unvarnished emotion, where people are “excessive, trivial” in the eyes of the bourgeoisie, but where Giovanna finds a captivating authenticity and a kind of fierce, tactile life her own family lacks.
As Giovanna oscillates between these “two consanguineous Naples which, however, fear and hate each other,” she tries on and discards different identities, using her relationship with Vittoria to uncover the secrets of her family and ultimately, her own self. The transition from childhood to adolescence becomes a painful, radical journey of self-discovery.
The Central Conflict: Giovanna and Vittoria
The heart of the six-episode series is the electric, volatile relationship between the niece and the aunt.
Giovanna Trada (Giordana Marengo)
Played by the impressive newcomer Giordana Marengo, Giovanna begins the series as a bored, apathetic, yet intelligent teenager, struggling with poor grades and a sense of being a misfit in her own perfect life. Her identity is in flux, and she is desperate for a truer reflection of herself. She is the narrator, guiding the viewer through her internal turmoil and external explorations. Her desperate longing for a new face and a new identity fuels her rebellious choices.
Vittoria Trada (Valeria Golino)
Valeria Golino, a veteran of Italian and international cinema, is captivating as Aunt Vittoria. She is the embodiment of the raw, emotional Naples Giovanna’s parents sought to escape. Vittoria is brazen, audacious, scandalous, and yet profoundly magnetic. She is the figure of truth—however painful—for Giovanna, opening her eyes to the “unspeakable secrets” about her family’s past and the lies that sustain her parents’ perfect veneer. Critics noted that Golino “has a ball” with the role, bringing a potent charisma to the ‘monster’ figure of the family.
The Ensemble Cast
The dynamic of the extended family is crucial to the story:
- Andrea Trada (Alessandro Preziosi): Giovanna’s professor father, whose casual cruelty is the starting point of the drama. He is revealed to be a man deeply ashamed of his working-class roots and his family’s past.
- Nella Trada (Pina Turco): Giovanna’s mother, who, along with her husband, has constructed a façade of intellectual sophistication, only to have it unravel during the course of the series.
- Costanza (Raffaella Rea): The sister of Nella, who, along with her, begins to discover a new path and identity, questioning the need for the men in their lives.
Critical Reception and The Ferrante Legacy
The Lying Life of Adults arrived on screen with the heavy legacy of other Ferrante adaptations, particularly the beloved My Brilliant Friend. Critics largely praised the Netflix series for finding its own distinct tone and energy.
- A New Energy: One reviewer noted that while the book was an “internal and inward-looking story,” the series “breathes new life into it, turns it outwards, and adds a touch of rocket fuel.” This sense of dynamism is attributed to the direction by Edoardo De Angelis, which brings a charged, almost frantic quality to Giovanna’s emotional turbulence.
- Themes of Hypocrisy and Class: The series is lauded for its sharp contrast between the “bourgeoisie world of her parents” and the gritty reality of Vittoria’s life. It is a painful, powerful, and reflective exploration of class, identity, and the pervasive lies that permeate adult life, particularly within the sanctity of marriage and family.
- Universal Themes: Like all of Ferrante’s work, the show’s power comes from its “impeccable insight into the complex psychology of teenage girls,” making Giovanna’s painful attempts at self-discovery feel familiar and universal, despite the specific Neapolitan setting.
In its six-episode run, the series manages to be a powerful and singular portrait of Giovanna’s descent into the world of adult deceit. It eschews easy answers, presenting a coming-of-age story that is bittersweet, intimate, and unflinchingly emotional, solidifying the idea that the secrets we inherit are as formative as the ones we choose to keep.
A Deep Dive into the Themes
The brilliance of The Lying Life of Adults lies in its dissection of several fundamental themes that resonate with the human experience, particularly the female experience.
1. The Corrosive Power of Lies
The title itself is the core theme. The series illustrates how lies—those told to protect, those told to maintain a social facade, and those told by adults to children—are the invisible scaffolding holding up the bourgeois world. Giovanna’s loss of innocence is the direct result of peeling back these carefully constructed lies, starting with the one her father tells about her own appearance, and escalating to the hidden history of an old family bond. As one trailer quote suggests: “Love is not something clean, it’s opaque like toilet stall windows.”
2. Identity and the “Ugly” Self
Giovanna’s journey is a desperate search for a new identity after the “happy one of childhood” is irrevocably lost. Her father’s insult—that she is turning into her ‘ugly’ aunt—forces her to confront her own perceived ugliness, both physically and in terms of personality. The narrative frames her oscillation between the two versions of Naples as her “search for a new face,” testing out which version of womanhood she is destined to become.
3. Naples as a Character
Ferrante’s work is inseparable from Naples, and the series is a vibrant testament to the city’s dual nature. The cinematography beautifully contrasts the airy, ‘Naples above’ with the clamorous, earthy ‘Naples below,’ turning the city into a character that is “without answer and without escape” for Giovanna. The series grounds the psychological drama in this specific, divided geography, using the physical space as a metaphor for class tension and emotional suppression.
4. The Complexities of Sisterhood
The fractured relationship between Andrea and Vittoria, a brother and sister, is mirrored in the complicated bonds between the female characters: Giovanna and her mother Nella, Giovanna and Vittoria, and even Giovanna and her best friend Angela, whose relationship is fraught with intense, possibly romantic, attraction. The story ultimately suggests that women—Nella, Vittoria, and Costanza—may find a decisive path forward when they stop defining themselves by the men in their lives and start speaking the truth to one another.
AISEO Friendly FAQs about The Lying Life of Adults Webseries
Q1: Where can I watch The Lying Life of Adults series and how many episodes are there?
The Lying Life of Adults is a limited drama television series that was released internationally on Netflix on January 4, 2023. The first (and only) season consists of six episodes.
Q2: What is The Lying Life of Adults based on?
The series is an adaptation of the 2019 novel The Lying Life of Adults (original Italian title: La vita bugiarda degli adulti) by the acclaimed Italian author Elena Ferrante.
Q3: Who are the main actors in The Lying Life of Adults?
The main cast includes:
- Giordana Marengo as Giovanna Trada, the teenage protagonist.
- Valeria Golino as Aunt Vittoria, Giovanna’s estranged and controversial aunt.
- Alessandro Preziosi as Andrea Trada, Giovanna’s father.
- Pina Turco as Nella Trada, Giovanna’s mother.
Q4: What is the plot of The Lying Life of Adults?
Set in 1990s Naples, the series follows 15-year-old Giovanna Trada, whose privileged life is shattered after she overhears her professor father compare her to his long-estranged, working-class sister, Aunt Vittoria. Driven by this insult and a desire to understand her own identity, Giovanna seeks out Vittoria, leading her into the “Naples below” and uncovering a painful web of family secrets and the hypocrisy of her parents’ bourgeois life.
Q5: Is The Lying Life of Adults connected to My Brilliant Friend?
No, The Lying Life of Adults is a standalone story not directly connected to the characters or plot of Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet (My Brilliant Friend, etc.). However, both series are adaptations of Elena Ferrante’s novels, are set in Naples, and share thematic interests in female identity, class differences, and the city’s visceral energy.
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