OfGiulia Taviani
From June 6th the second season of Prisma, the young adult series set in Latina
The universe of Andrea and Marco, the two Latina twins played in the series Prism from Mattia Carranofroze two years ago, interrupting at the most beautiful point: Andrea came out to Daniele (Lorenzo Zurzulo), confiding in him that he was the mysterious boy with whom she had been texting all that time, while at the same time the intimate video between Daniele and Carola tours the province of Lazio. June 6th the series returns to Amazon Prime Video with the second season.
Coming out and revenge porn
Here are two strong themes to use as cliffhangers, to the point of promising the viewer an equally high-level sequel. Two years after, Ludovico Bessegato (creator of the other excellent young series: Skam) kept his word, and created a second season, if possible, of a higher level than in the past.
The entire cast returns in the second season. And if the first one won a Silver Ribbon, these eight new episodes – created together with the co-director Francesca Scialanca – they can aim even higher, given the depth and seriousness with which they treat the topics already anticipated in the story: revenge porn, fluidity and gender transition.
The two twins walk away
Before going into the details of the themes it is good to focus on the relations, which intertwine like a puzzle. «After two years of waiting, we knew that the relationship between Andrea and Daniele was supposed to be the cornerstone of the second season – said Bessegato in an interview with HollywoodReporters – like the consequences of the diffusion of Carola’s intimate video, which had to produce reflections, and as well as the relationship between the twins, which had to change.”
And in fact the union and complicity that linked the two brothers played by Carrano – that precisely for Prism he made the first audition of his career – it falls apart. Andrea gains self-confidence, he no longer wants to hide and he enters the world of the LGBT+ community, examining, and not ignoring, his doubts and feelings. Marco, on the other hand, after Carola’s betrayal, once again enters a collision course not only with Daniele, but also with his twin, angry at being the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on in Andrea’s head, feeling betrayed by everyone, including his family, dedicating himself to swimming again.
In Prism there are no good and bad, there just are guys full of facetswho try to survive the new feelings that emerge towards the end of high school.
“Am I gay if I like a fluid person?”
The main theme, from which the series also took its name, is that of non-binarity, a concept not always fully understood. In fact, if the new generations are more aware and open to the community, there is not always full knowledge of what certain terms mean. “Am I gay if I like a fluid person?” searches the internet for one of the protagonists during the fourth episode, while Carrano himself a Vanity Fair he remembers: «At sixteen I wasn’t sure what transgender meant or bisexual.”
This is also why one of the new themes of the second season acquires an even more current and important value: the career alias. The role in question is that of Jacopo, who not only plays a character, but brings the actor’s personal story to the screen, Andrea Giammarino, who in 2022 at the Liceo Cavour in Rome fought to obtain the alias career (a condition that allows you to register or change your personal name with the one that corresponds to your identity). Pure realism, if you also count that the moment of transition experienced by Jacopo in front of the camera coincided with what Giammarino experienced in real life.
Carola from shame to courage
Many stories that intertwine with each other without the risk of being distorted. They are a constant evolution that also passes through the figure of Daniele, who on the one hand has to deal with Andrea’s revelation, and with a feeling that he is unable to understand, and on the other together with Carola, he is a victim of revenge porn. However, it is not he who faces the comments and judgments, but she, who with the support of her mother manages to show the public the various phases that from shame, to the courage to go out, to talk about it, to choose whether and how much to report.
Prism supports the new generations without blaming anyone for the decisions made, but making those who experience those feelings every day feel that they are not alone, and without making those who recognize themselves in those images suffer. This season manages to provide relief in a certain sense, It makes us understand that even though it seems impossible, we can get out of those problems too. And if everything goes according to plan – or if the numbers allow them – according to Bessegato one third season it will be more than likely.
June 6, 2024 (modified June 6, 2024 | 11:18)
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