Prisma

Prisma is an Italian coming-of-age drama series created for Amazon Prime Video by Ludovico Bessegato, the creator of Skam Italia, with co-writer Alice Urciuolo, and produced by Cross Productions. It follows two seventeen-year-old identical twins, Andrea and Marco, both played by Mattia Carrano, and their group of friends in the town of Latina as they search for their place in the world.^{1 • 2} The series ran for two seasons of eight episodes each, released in 2022 and 2024, and was not renewed for a third season.^{3 • 4}

Production

Origins. Bessegato, a director, screenwriter, and showrunner who became known for the Italian adaptation of the Norwegian teen series Skam, developed Prisma with Alice Urciuolo, who had worked with him on Skam Italia and brought the idea of a series about twins, one of whom was searching for his gender identity.^{15 • 12} It was based on a completely original screenplay, albeit inspired by true biographical stories, and is regarded as one of Amazon Prime Video's first original Italian series and the first Italian teen original series for that platform.²

The writing followed an extended research phase: the creators spent a year of fieldwork with interviews, meetings, and conversations with young people, and built the characters from those encounters; a trans girl, Jessica Giorgia Senesi, served as a consultant, and one scene is practically a transcription of her account.¹² The producers described this as replicating the "SKAM method", with thousands of interviews with young people, consultants, and observation in schools.¹⁶ Shooting lasted 15 to 16 weeks.¹⁷

The double role. Both twins are played by a single actor, Mattia Carrano, in his debut role. The production initially searched for monozygotic twins and turned to Carrano, originally cast as Andrea, after finding he could become Marco with great naturalness; a camera test convinced the team the doubling could work, though they remained uncertain until the final edit.¹² The mise-en-scène of the double, achieved through stand-ins and complex directorial constructions, is a defining production feature of the series.²

Setting. The series is set and filmed in Latina and nearby Sabaudia, in Lazio. Bessegato chose Latina because it resembles no other Italian city: founded under the Fascist regime, it has no historic center, no rooted local dialect, and no long traditions, and nearby locations include a former nuclear power plant, the beaches of Sabaudia, and coastal lakes.² Season 1 locations included the municipal swimming pool, the Liceo Manzoni, and the rationalist architecture of the city; season 2 filming began in Sabaudia in May 2023 and returned to Latina sites including the Hotel Fogliano and the Latina Fiori shopping center.¹⁸ Critics noted the contrast between the rationalist monumental architecture of Latina and the characters' personal experience of growth and liberation.¹⁹

Release and reception

The first two episodes had their world premiere out of competition at the 75th Locarno Film Festival in August 2022, and the complete first season launched on Prime Video on 21 September 2022.^{15 • 1} The second season, written with Francesca Scialanca, was released on 6 June 2024.²⁰

Italian critics received the series positively. Reviewers placed it alongside Skam Italia at the top of Italian adolescent-themed serial production, and compared its atmosphere and themes to British series such as Sex Education and Heartstopper and the American Euphoria.^{14 • 11} Particular praise went to Carrano's dual performance, with small facial expressions and minimal movements making clear which twin he was playing, and to the casting of Chiara Bordi, who had been the first woman to compete in Miss Italia with a prosthesis and whose physical disability is portrayed without rhetoric.^{11 • 12} The series won the Nastro d'Argento as best dramedy series and the Diversity Award in 2023.¹⁰ Academic work has examined Prisma as a case study in queer representation, gender fluidity, and transitional spaces in Italian television.^{13 • 21}

Cancellation and later broadcast

In September 2024, Bessegato announced that Prime Video had not renewed the series for a third season. The choice generated heated reactions online, and the two completed seasons later moved to Rai 2, where they were broadcast free-to-air.⁴

References

1. Prisma – Serie TV (2022), ComingSoon.it
2. Luca Barra (2026). Prisma: Building a Game of Mirrors, in Contemporary Italian Youth Television, Palgrave.
3. Prisma, Beta Film GmbH product page
4. Prisma: dopo la cancellazione di Prime Video, la serie sbarca su Rai 2, La Gazzetta dello Sport
5. Prisma, Cineuropa film page
6. Prisma, Cross Productions
7. Prisma, Crew United
8. Prisma Summary & Series Guide, Pogdesign
9. Dove è girato Prisma? Le location, TvSerial
10. Chi siamo, Cross Productions
11. Prisma – Serie TV (2022), MYmovies.it
12. Ludovico Bessegato, da 'Skam' a 'Prisma', la Repubblica (20 September 2022)
13. Johnny L. Bertolio (2024). Prisma: relationships, metamorphosis and queerness, SERIARTE
14. Prisma (2022), recensione di scapigliato, FilmTV.it
15. Series review: Prisma, Cineuropa (22 August 2022)
16. GEMINI-SCAPES report on SKAM and Prisma representation
17. Prisma: dalle storie vere all'identità fluida, intervista ai creatori, Cinematographe.it
18. PRISMA, partono da Sabaudia le riprese della seconda stagione, Radio Studio 93
19. Beyond 'Destination Italy': Revitalising Italian Television's Spatial Capital, Springer
20. Prisma 2, la recensione della seconda stagione, Movieplayer.it
21. GEMINI D6.7 report on SKAM and Prisma transitional spaces

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Comedy, drama, and general-genre web series › Premiered 2022 to 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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