The Life You Wanted (2024) Series Review

『Depicting Sincere Emotions and Wounds Amid Complex Feelings』

🎥 Series Overview

🎬 Title: The Life You Wanted (Original: La vita che volevi, 2024)
🌍 Country: 🇮🇹 Italy
🎞️ Genre: Drama / Romance / Social Reality
🗓️ Production & Release: Netflix, 6-episode miniseries
⏳ Runtime: Approximately 45 minutes per episode
📢 Director: Ivan Cotroneo
🖋️ Screenwriters: Ivan Cotroneo, Monica Rametta
📺 Platform: Netflix

👩‍💼 Cast: Vittoria Schisano – Gloria/Alexandro
Pina Turco – Marina

🧩 In-Depth Story Analysis (Spoilers)

🍂 Inevitable Encounter of Past and Present

In 'The Life You Wanted', the relationship between Gloria and Marina goes beyond simple friendship and represents the core axis of protagonist Gloria's identity struggle and self-acceptance journey. Their interactions weave together the series' major themes: past vs. present, truth vs. illusion, and responsibility vs. freedom.

🌊 Transcending Boundaries: Naples' 'Purity'

Their relationship began during their time at the University of Naples, when Gloria was at her most vulnerable, struggling with her gender identity.

• Acceptance Beyond Gender: Marina loved Gloria as she was during the period when she was neither fully male nor female. This demonstrated Marina's unconditional acceptance, unaffected by physical gender. She promised to support Gloria/Alexandro in discovering her true self.

• Gloria's Wounds: This period was confusing for Gloria. Her struggles and pain affected the relationship, and when Marina left, Gloria faced the tragic choice between 'her gender transition' and 'the person she loved'.

🧸 Division and Sealing: The 'Secret' of Divergent Choices

The decisive moment when they separated arose from the collision of Marina's pregnancy and Gloria's gender transition, a choice she could not avoid.

• Marina's Altruistic Sacrifice: Marina judged that revealing the pregnancy to Alexandro would make him abandon his transition to become the father of the child in a 'false life.' She chose to bear the painful secret herself, hoping the person she loved could fully find their true life. This concealment caused Gloria feelings of betrayal, but from Marina's perspective, it was the greatest sacrifice for Gloria's happiness.

• Gloria's 'Desired Life': Gloria erased her past with Marina and devoted herself to establishing a stable new identity as a successful entrepreneur and trans woman in Lecce. Her past with Marina was the greatest wound she paid for a new life.

⚖️ Reunion Conflict: A Test of Truth and Responsibility

Marina's sudden return shattered the 'glass castle' Gloria had spent years building. The revelation that Gloria/Alexandro was the father of Andrea pushed their relationship to the extreme.

• Forced Reconciliation with the Past: Gloria must confront both her 'male past' and 'parental responsibility' through Marina and the children.

• Affirmation of Love: Marina's ultimate goal was not to blame the 'betrayer' but to entrust her children to the person she truly loved—Alexandro/Gloria—regardless of gender or name, expressing ultimate trust.

👩‍👧‍👦 Completion of the Relationship: Redefining Family

Gloria and Marina's relationship is ultimately completed through fateful shared responsibility. Gloria accepts Marina's children and shares her final moments, signifying:

• Completion of Identity: Gloria fully lives as a trans woman while embracing the role of 'biological parent' through Marina's children, expanding her self-image beyond gender into a broader human scope.

• Birth of a New Family: Their tragic love and divergent fates leave a non-traditional family bound by blood and love in Lecce. Gloria chooses to take responsibility for the 'traces of love' left by Marina, reaching the essence of true happiness.

Their relationship portrays two people sacrificing their own happiness for the one they cherish most, ultimately meeting again through trials to achieve redemption and healing, forming a deeply moving mirror narrative.

🎯 Personal Rating (Subjective)

💕 Love Scene Level: ♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★