She’s beautiful, smart, ironic and fearless: Lidia Poët, Italy’s first female law graduate who was not admitted to the bar because she was a woman, fights for women’s rights and assists the working poor.
The plot takes place in Turin, the first capital of a united Italy. It is the royal city par excellence. It is dotted with magnificent castles, Savoy royal palaces and imposing fortresses. The city’s status grew in the 19th century when it became the intellectual and political centre of the Risorgimento movement.
The Law According to Lidia Poët is Italy’s best Netflix show that has taken viewers around the world by storm since its launch on 15 March 2023. It was the most watched Netflix show in Italy and Switzerland and it ranked in the top 5 of many countries like France, Germany and Spain.
The Law According to Lidia Poët Season 2 was shot in Turin, Italy, and directed by Matteo Rovere (episode 1), Letizia Lamartire (episodes 2, 3 and 4) and Pippo Mezzapesa (episodes 5 and 6). The script was written by Flaminia Gressi, Guido Iuculano and Davide Orsini.
Is The Law According to Lidia Poët based on a true story? Yes, partly. Lidia Poët, who lived in Turin from 1855 to 1949, studied law, but was not admitted to the bar because she was a woman. Therfore, she assisted her brother Enrico, a lawyer. But the glamorous part of Lidia Poët, her love stories and the Agatha Christie-style whodunnit were invented by the script writers.
In Season 2, which premiered on Netflix on 30 October 2024, Lidia is determined to keep fighting for equality and to change the law in Italy, given the fact that women face many restrictions and don’t have the same rights as men, e. g. female law graduates are not admitted to the bar. Therefore, she convinces her brother Enrico (Pier Luigi Pasino), a respectable lawyer, to run for parliament.
Her friend Anna (Valentina Cervi) and her husband Filippo Cravero (Paolo Briguglia), a senator, who often host soirées for influential politicians, support Lidia’s progressive ideas.
Lidia teams up again with Jacopo who previously made her a marriage proposal. She refused because her aim in life is neither to be wife nor a mother. She wants to fight for women’s rights.
Matilda De Angelis, who plays Lidia Poët, is a 29-year old actress and singer from Bologna, Italy. She had leading roles in various Italian films and series, e. g. in Citadel – Diana and Robbing Mussolini. In 2020, she even had a minor role in The Undoing starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. In 2024, she played in Across The River Into The Trees alongside Josh Hutcherson. In 2025, the actress will appear alongside Caleb Landry Jones and Zoe Bleu in Dracula: A Love Tale, a gothic horror film by French film director Luc Besson.
Matilda De Angelis is in a relationship with singer/musician Alessandro De Santis of the musical duo Santi Francesi.
The Law According to Lidia Poët Season 2 bridges feminism and passion. Even though Lidia and Jacopo ended their passionate relationship, they are forced to meet again to conduct a secret investigation that concerns them both.
The main new character of Season 2 is Fourneau, the king’s prosecutor. To Lidia’s surprise, he treats her as equal to male lawyers despite his high office. He’s one of the few people who call her “Dottoressa Poët” instead of “Signorina Poët”. [In Italy, it is a sign of respect to call a woman who holds a university degree like a B.A. or a M.A. dottoressa. Italy is probably the only country in Europe where any person holding a university degree has the title of dottore or dottoressa (doctor in English).]
Fourneau, who admires Lidia for her intelligence, audacity and beauty, suffers from an autoimmune disorder. He sometimes has to inject a drug in an arm vein when he feels sick. At the beginning, we tought it might be diabetes (insulin was invented in 1921). But in season 5, Forneau tells Lidia that he suffers from left frontal meningioma, a tumor that grows from the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. Typical symptoms are headaches, vision problems and seizures.
Fourneau is played by Gianmarco Saurino, a 31-year-old Italian actor who played in various Italian series and films, e. g. Doc nelle tue mani and Maschile plurale. He has nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram.
Jacopo Barberis is a journalist of the Gazzetta Piemontese who helps Lidia Poët to solve various murder cases. He is the brother of Enrico’s wife and also Marianna’s uncle. Jacopo is played by Eduardo Scarpetta, a 31-year-old actor from Naples whose grandfather was a famous actor. In 2022, Eduardo won the prestigious Donatello award for his role as Michele in Ferzan Özpetek’s remake of Le fate ignoranti alongside Luca Argentero (although the original movie was much better). The actor has 106’000 followers on Instagram.
The Italian Netflix series is a feast for the eyes for couture lovers. The amazing costumes were designed by Stefano Ciammitti. In the case of Lidia Poët, an aristocrat, they reflect her personality, the esoteric obscurity versus the bold colours.
If you love haute couture, take a look at our Youtube channel and especially the haute couture and couture runway shows from Paris and Barcelona.
Should you ever visit Turin, you might opt for the Lidia Poët guided tour (in Italian only) in order to discover some of the film locations.
If you liked our article Lidia Poët Season 2 Bridges Feminism and Passion, read our latest articles about Netflix series and movies.
Photos: Courtesy of Camilla Cattabriga and Lilia Carlone, Netflix; © 2024 Netflix, Inc.
