The Lying Life of Adults

As coming-of-age stories go, Ferrante is one of the greatest storytellers ever to live, and this adaptation doesn’t just succeed on its own merits, but on hers as well.

So even though most of “The Lying Life of Adults” hinges on the most basic ideas of jealousy and betrayal, that background gives all of those developments a grander feel. It’s disorienting at points, but the show does an effective job of capturing the feeling of major events in your life happening beyond your perception.

When I read The Lying Life of Adults, I thought of it as a very internal and inward-looking story, but this version breathes new life into it, turns it outwards, and adds a touch of rocket fuel.

Anyone new to the story will find a well-told tale of more or less ordinary people in not especially extraordinary circumstances, with some exotic scenery — viewers not ready to leave Italy after “The White Lotus” may want to extend their stay here — and striking central performances by Giordana Marengo as main character and narrator Giovanna Trada, and Valeria Golina as her aunt Vittoria.

Eventually, however, “Lying Life” finds its way to a kind of dramatic maturity. ... Even minor Ferrante proves to hold a sense of what it was to live through its period — it’s just accompanied here by the altogether more familiar feeling of seeing a Netflix show with a few too many episodes for its own creative good.

The meandering and sometimes dreamy adaptation barely has enough plot and scale for a feature, yet its looseness allows for digressions that are sometimes provocative and just as frequently attractive wallpaper.

Despite its very casual pace, The Lying Life Of Adults has an interesting family story at its core that will inform how its main character comes of age.