Law of Lydia Poet
Watch if you like strong female characters who don't ask for permission — a story of how personal grievance turns into a public movement.
Netflix released on February 15, 2023, an Italian historical series about a real person — Lydia Poet, the first female lawyer in Italy, who was stripped of her license in 1883 for being "too much of a woman" for the court. Matilda De Angelis plays Lydia, who secretly helps her brother Enrico investigate murders in Turin in the 1880s while fighting for the right to return to legal practice. The format consists of two seasons of 6 episodes each (18 episodes total considering the split), with a third season announced for December 2024. The atmosphere is "Enola Holmes" meets "Memoirs of a Geisha" in baroque Turin: luxurious interiors of Palazzo Barolo, Belle Époque-style costumes, and progressive ideas that resonate sharply even today. The series does not shy away from showing the heroine's anger — she curses, engages in premarital sex, and challenges patriarchy without an exaggerated noble manner. Comparisons to "My Brilliant Friend" arise — both set in 19th century Italy, but here the focus is on law and political activism rather than the mafia.
Yes, announced for December 2024, filming began in Turin in early 2025.
18 episodes (2 seasons of 6 episodes, split into parts), plus the upcoming third season.
Yes, Lydia Poet is a real historical figure, although the detective plots are fictional.
In Turin, Italy, in historical buildings without using green screens for exteriors.
A play on words: both the "law" she follows and the "law" as a legal system she tries to change.