'The Law According to Lidia Poët' Is Still the Best Period Drama You're Not Watching
When you think of "Netflix period drama," the odds are that your mind will jump right to Bridgerton. The colorful historical romance mixes swoony love stories with lavish costumes and an entertaining (if vaguely defined) take on what a post-racial Regency period might have been like. You can probably name a few others, too: The Crown's soapy take on the contemporary British monarchy or Peaky Blinders's gritty post-World War I gangland politics. There's the Bridgerton spin-off Queen Charlotte and the surprisingly popular German drama The Empress. However, you likely haven't sampled the streamer's hidden gem: The Law According to Lidia Poët.
You should fix that immediately. A lush period piece with firmly modern sensibilities, this Italian series is one part legal/crime procedural, one part family drama, and one part feminist manifesto, with a heaping dollop of romance and sexual tension on top. Best watched with the subtitles on to catch the arch delivery of its snappy dialogue, it's a series that will feel immediately and intimately familiar to fans of shows like Miss Scarlet or Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.
The story of yet another uber-capable woman forced to blaze a new trail through a male-dominated world that looks down on her, Lidia Poët, is a delight from its first moments. With the arrival of the show's second season, its appeal has only gotten stronger. Season 2 doubles down on what made the first so much fun, giving luminous star Matilda De Angelis more complicated material and even better fashion. (These hats!).
