I noticed that it seems like Italian 1-2 (from English) seem to be a different course than the rest, or at least until Italian 3 (I assume the rest is like Italian 3).
Courses 1-2 seems to be an update that focuses on Learn with Locals (which are great), but the lessons are all out of order (with basic words being taught in lessons after the lessons with sentences comprising those words), comprised largely of lessons with 40+ words (as beginner courses), and contain many words and phrases that are not beginner-level. Remember that these are the entry-level courses.
Course 3, however, is from the same lesson plan as Brazilian Portuguese (an amazing lesson plan that does a great job teaching the language) and does a much better job teaching, with each lesson being a self-contained one that starts with basic words and ends in sentences. It also repeats words that are gone over in Courses 1-2 and have different actors, so obviously they are different courses.
Is there a way someone from the Memrise team can go through the first 2 Italian courses and update it so that it fits the Italian 3/Brazilian Portuguese plan, and fix how it starts new learners off with complicated phrases? You can leave the actors in for the words/phrases when we get to them, but Courses 1-2 are just not very beginner-friendly.