Prisma, an Italian teen drama on Amazon Prime, features identical twins who "approach life in a very different way." It's labeled LGBTQ, so here goes. The episodes are named after colors: #1 is "Red."
Scene 1: A party in the town square. Andrea (Mattia Carrano, right) and his two buds are encouraging his twin brother, Marco (also Mattia), to go talk to a girl he likes. That's quite a large cheering squad. He approaches in slow motion, while her hair blows in the wind, Girl of His Dreams-style. The three buddies look on eagerly. But before he can inch his way across the square, Dream Girl is called away. Opportunity lost!
Scene 2: Later, at the bar, Andrea approaches Carola, the Girl of Marco's Dreams, and flirts with her -- as Marco! Then he returns to his friends and reports that he has broken the ice for his brother. This upsets Marco, who storms out.
Scene 3: Four months earlier. Andrea enters the very elegant house and sees smashed crystal and blood on the floor. Something is wrong! He rushes into the basement to find Marco with a torn and bleeding arm, nearly unconscious from blood loss. "We have to get you to the hospital!"
Now: Andrea comes home from the party, climbs into bed, and texts someone named "His Highness." An online boyfriend? Marco comes in, pouting, and insists that he apologize (some beefcake as he gets undressed).
Plot dump; tomorrow they will be starting at separate schools, as Marco will be going to the next level, but Andrea is a screw-up and has to repeat the year. This is supposed to be LGBTQ-themed. We've established that Marco is hetero. That leaves Andrea?
Scene 4: Breakfast with the twins' dad and preteen sister. Andrea gets a phone call; Dad won't believe that it's from a friend: probably he's still dealing drugs.
Andrea goes to his new school, and enters a classroom full of girls. The sole boy, Fabio (Vittorio Aisa), aka Snuggles, is thrilled to see another boy. Yeah, girls are gross. Andre snubs him and sits by the window. A girl comes in late. Andrea stares.
Flashback to Andrea and the girl -- Nina -- dating, making out, cooking together. Wait -- he has an arm injury. Is this Marco? I can't really tell them apart. Then Andrea/Marco catches her in bed with another girl, and dumps her. That must be the LGBTQ part.
Now he glares angrily at her. How dare she be enrolled in the same school as me?
Scene 5: Marco's Dream Girl complains about Andrea pretending to be his brother at the party last night. "He's the worst...arrogant!" Uh-oh, that's a sure sign that she's into him. She invites Andrea/Marco's Lesbian Ex to hang out with her and her boyfriend, Daniele. But no one else -- Boyfriend Daniele is so hot that she only trusts him around girls who don't like boys.
Scene 6: Two bullies burst into the locker room, where Lucio (Pietro Sparvoli) is drawing a picture of a dick. They film him and threaten to tell his sister (is this supposed to imply that he's gay?). then dance.
The morose Marco interrupts them. Wearing a swimsuit -- nice bulge. They don't believe that he can still swim fast after his arm injury, so he offers to prove it.
Scene 7: Marco and one of the bullies in a swim match. Hey, it's Daniele (Lorenzo Zurzola), Dream Girl's boyfriend. Small world. OMG, an even more impressive bulge! Nice chest, too. I can see why Dream Girl keeps him on a short leash.
The swim coach yells at Marco -- he's not supposed to be swimming yet. He's still recovering from his arm injury.
Scene 8: Andrea walking through a marijuana greenhouse. He offers to buy some plants for 210 euros, then texts His Highness about the deal. So a drug customer, not a boyfriend.
Meanwhile, Dream Girl Carola chats with Boyfriend Daniele. He kisses her on the cheeks instead of the mouth, which upsets her, then rushes off. Maybe Daniele is not into girls. He was dancing with his fellow bully earlier.
Carola sees a newspaper article about Marco being a great swimmer, and thinks "Maybe I should give him a try. After all, he likes girls." She greets him as he passes: "I didn't know that you swam!" Wait -- if her boyfriend is a swimmer, she must go to all the matches, so she must have heard his name a lot. "So, want to make out?"
Scene 9: Andrea going to a decrepit shack on the beach. The heavily tattooed Vittorio (famous singer LXX Blood) invites him in. "The others aren't here yet. While we're waiting, do you want to make out?" Just kidding -- he said "Want to listen to our new rap song?"
The "others" are Dream Girl's Boyfriend Daniele and his fellow bully, Ilo!
During the drug deal, they refer to Daniele's online girlfriend, No One Knows Me Like, as a "munter" (ugly person). So he's straight, just not into Dream Girl because of the Munter. He counters: "She's sent me a lot of photos, but no face shots. So how do you know that she is ugly?" "Why else would she hide her face?"
Five Months Earlier: Everyone at school chases Andrea down the hallway. He ducks into the bathroom and flushes his marijuana down the toilet. He's busted anyway, and fails the school year and has to repeat. "Why do you need to make money this way?" the Headmaster asks. Andrea won't answer.
Now: Andrea goes home and opens a package he got in the mail. It contains a a rather dowdy lady's dress. Somebody give this boy some fashion tips! He puts it on and gazes longingly at himself in the mirror. So he's selling drugs so he can afford lady's clothes? Are they that expensive?
He takes a selfie, with his face blocked off, and sends it to...you guessed it..,Daniele, the boyfriend of his brother's Dream Girl! He's the Munter, hiding his face so Daniele won't know that he's a boy, or a trans girl who hasn't transitioned yet.
Scene 10: The twins, their Dad, and three of Dad's friends watching a soccer match. Women bustle around, offering cake and wine. Marco texts Andrea and their two other friends that he talked to Dream Girl earlier.
Then Andrea texts His Highness -- Daniele -- to ask how he liked the photos. "Fine, but I still want a face shot. How can I be sure that you're not messing with me? You could be a pervert" (The Italian is: maniac). "Give me a face shot in two minutes, or I'll block you and report your profile."
What to do? Andrea sneaks into the bathroom and calls the LGBTQ Helpline, but they're closed. So he sends a photo of his ex-girlfriend. Daniele is satisfied. The end.
Beefcake: Lots of hunky guys in swimsuits.
Other Sights: Exteriors of Latina, about 70 km south of Rome.
Heterosexism: Surprisingly little. No locker room chatter about boobs.
LGBTQ Characters: Andrea: trans, nonbinary, or a femme gay boy into drag, and interested in Daniele, who seems to like guys. Andrea/Marco's lesbian ex. Maybe Lucio, who draws dicks on the wall of the boys' locker room. Plus one of the twins' friends is rather femme, but how will he ever find the time for a centric plotline?
Character Overload: Marco and Andrea, their two buds, the Dream Girl, the Lesbian Ex-Girlfriend, Daniele, his fellow bully, the head drug buyer, Lucio, two Mean Girls. You need a diagram to keep all of the connections straight. Plus seven of the eight episodes feature Leo Rivosecchi as Andrea's confidant from the LGBTQ Help Line.
My Grade A-
Update: Andrea comes out to friends and his dad, but we never hear the conversation, so we don't know his gender identity. Does he end up with Daniele? Also unclear. But we do get a good shot of Daniele's bare butt.
