Prisma is a 2022 Italian youth drama spanning 8 episodes, broadcast on Prime Video. The series addresses complex relationships shaped through gender identity, the search for orientation, the pains of adolescence, and twin brothers. It is an easy series to watch.
I liked the series because youth love, high school years, the LGBT theme, and the process of self-discovery are explained well in the series. The series is not just an LGBT story; it profoundly examines identity, belonging, and growing pains. This depth makes the series watchable.
For this reason, the series does not just offer a simple homosexual romance viewing; the discovery of the twin brothers’ inner worlds and this discovery newly define the world and life. Especially the psychology and differences of the twin brothers, the difference in their perspectives on life say a lot: actually, even twin brothers have independent identities and personalities from each other. It is like that in life too, every individual is considered a different personality and universe. The important thing must be self-acceptance and living without seeing another as the other. In the series, the gay one of the young twin brothers feels the evil in the outside world more because there is a heteronormative lifestyle imposed on him outside.
I had liked the series. It left a good impression. It was not a hollow youth production.
👉 Curator Recommendation: LGBT series worth watching
Prisma (2022) LGBT Series Plot, Summary
Andrea and Marco… Twin brothers who look alike but live completely different lives on the inside. Marco is an introverted youth who has retreated into his shell. Even though he is on the swimming team, his social circle is almost limited only to his brother and his friends. As someone who cannot open up to the girl he loves and is excluded, over time his communication with Andrea weakens.
Andrea, on the other hand, is more extroverted; he breaks up with his girlfriend Micol. But Micol has another reality: she is actually a lesbian and together with Nina. Andrea’s mind, however, is thoroughly confused. Knowing he is gay since his childhood, Andrea starts talking to Daniele from the swimming team through an account he opened with a female identity on Instagram. At the same time, he receives support from an LGBTQ+ association and strives to express himself more openly. In this process, he creates a new space for himself by befriending Micol.
Realities and Confrontations
On the other side, Marco too experiences problems in his own relationships. The paths of all these characters collide at some point, and everyone has to confront their own truth. Andrea finally tells his father that he is gay.
Even though his father already knowing this makes things easier, the real issue for Andrea is to reveal his true identity to Daniele. The conversation starting behind a virtual identity coming out to a familiar face will be a major turning point for him.
From the Series to Real Life
A Story of Identity: Twins, Orientations, and Conflicts
Prisma is a drama that profoundly handles themes like gender roles, the search for identity, and adolescent chaos. Although the series stays outside the border of passionate gay love, it explains LGBT themes very well. My favorite part of the story is that it doesn’t have a fiction set in an idealized world of rosy dreams. Be it the characters’ inner conflicts, deep disappointments, or the heavy headings of the impositions called the “norm” outside, they are explained very well. I was already focused on these themes.
The emotional differences and deep identity crises of the twins; their fears of exclusion become the psychological skeleton of the series. As a matter of fact, the reason for these deep identity crises in the series is actually that while Micol is someone who could quickly make peace with their gay identity; what makes this difficult is definitely outside influences. This is not just a simple fiction, it is like this in real life too. For example, even a simple movie or series cannot be tolerated, so much so that for LGBT individuals, sometimes even expressing oneself can be a huge threat to others. Actually, the threat is an entirely virtual fear in the thoughts in people’s brains. Actually, there is a social reality in this series too.
Mattia Carrano, who plays the twin brothers in the series, very successfully reflects the emotional transitions in both the Andrea and Marco characters. The acting is strong, you might think the twins are real. The school and youth environment, colors, and clothes are as they should be. Again, successfully playing both characters with a single actor is quite difficult. But they succeeded in this difficulty.
What is normal?
Finally: The Twin brothers choosing different paths from each other allows them to question not only their own individual journeys but at the same time their bonds of friendship and love. Even though the twin brothers are biologically completely identical, their paths, understandings of life, and gender roles are completely different. Actually, this difference told me a little something above. We as humans possess many common features. Our living spaces, our emotions, our need for shelter, our need to stay safe, our need for love—99% we actually want the same thing as humans.
Within that 1%, perhaps an even tinier ratio that we focus on, stand our divisions, those unnecessary areas we fight over stand there. Well, one of those unnecessaries, one of those unnecessary fights, is definitely nothing other than LGBT fights. No need to deepen the topic too much; after people accept each other as they are and eliminate the indisputable rights and wrongs in their minds, they will realize they truly exist, and existence will become more valuable. No thought, no life is of course superior to another.
What is important is perhaps not sexual identities, biological differences. What is important is hidden in the value we add to life and who we are. In the process of a human bringing themselves into existence, if they accept the person they are and freely become “themselves,” then they will have leveled up on the path to existing.
At the main axis of the series is the conveyance of the LGBT+ identity with multidimensional and different experiences. The series presents not just a youth story, but at the same time a tableau reflecting the diversity of society. As I said above, we must not see this diversity in life as the other, not only in the context of beliefs, different races, cultures, and religions, but also in the context of sexual orientations.
Every character’s inner conflict is quite realistic. And we actually see these conflicts everywhere when we step out of the series’ fiction and look at real life. The dialogues in the series are also as successful as the visual aesthetics. I think it is a successful series that appeals not only to young audiences but to everyone who loves LGBT-themed productions because it harbors queer themes. It was a good experience for me. After watching hundreds, perhaps thousands of movies and series, it is a distinct pleasure to put aside the ones that truly take a place in a person’s memory and to share them. Actually, my aim here is not to extract a summary of any series and comment on it. I want to entirely tell the echoing of its reflections in my memory. Discussions and contents outside of this truly do not interest me much.
