The First Look at 'Vienna Blood' Season 4 Puts the Women on Equal Footing

It's been nearly two years since Vienna Blood Season 3 debuted on PBS in January 2023. The series, based on the Max Liebermann novels by Frank Tallis, has been an on-again/off-again wintertime mystery series for public television, originally debuting Season 1 in January 2020, only to have Season 2 delayed by lockdowns, finally arriving in 2022. However, though Season 3 turned up only a year later, it was clear the series was at a crossroads. The feature-length episodes (which PBS split into 45minute installments) had run through all of Tallis' stories that he'd initially published between 2005-2011, plus the 2018 belated addition that he published after the show was picked up for series, and unless he wrote more, there was no more material to adapt.

It was a tragic moment because the show had begun firing on all cylinders in the final installments after two seasons of trying to find its voice. The stories leaned into the incredibly talented ensemble cast who played Max Liebermann's (Matthew Beard) family and friends, working all of them into the mysteries he was solving. It made the show more like a Grantchester, one where viewers cared as much about the lives and drama of the Jewish community in Vienna in the years before the Great War as they did the cases Max solved along with his unlikely BFF, Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer).

However, the production company did manage to squeeze one more renewal out of the series before it eventually went under earlier in 2024, with one story to close what will almost certainly be the show's final season. That season has now begun airing on BBC 2, and the first images from it once again show how much the series has become an ensemble endeavor. 

Here is the new season's synopsis:

The fourth series features a single story – entitled "Mephisto Waltz." It’s Vienna, 1909, and the double murder of an arms dealer in police custody and a senior public official has shaken Vienna to its core. Doctor Max Liebermann has only just returned from a lecture tour when Inspector Rheinhardt asks for help in what could be the most dangerous case of their career. Oskar and Max discover a conspiracy that leads to the heart of the government. Can the Freudian psychoanalyst and detective do enough to stop a seditious mole known as ‘Mephisto’ from bringing the Austro-Hungarian Empire to destruction? And will their lives ever be the same again?

Season 4 will once again star Beard (Magpie Murders) and Maurer (Vorstadtweiber), reprising their roles as crime-fighting duo Doctor Max Liebermann and Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt. The series also will see the return of the main ensemble, all reprising their roles, including Luise von Finckh (Deutschland 89) as Max's ex-fiance, plucky reporter Clara Weiss, Amelia Bullmore (Scott & Bailey) as Max's mother, Rachel Liebermann, Conleth Hill (Holding) as his father, Mendel Liebermann, and Charlene McKenna (Peaky Blinders) as Max's widowed sister, Leah Liebermann. 

Season 4 will also include Maria Kostlinger (Die Liebe Geld) as Oskar's sometimes-girlfriend, Therese Thanhofer, Robert Reinagl (Tatort) as Max's boss, Dr. Julius Jaeger, Johannes Zeiler (Murder By The Lake) as Professor Preil, Simon Hatzl (Your Christmas or Mine 2) as Direktor Strasser, Miriam Hie (SOKO Linz) as archiveist Lisa Linder, Raphael von Bargen (The Regime) as Commissioner von Bulow, and Josef Ellers (Vienna Crime Squad) as Sergeant Haussmann. Guest stars for the new season include Leonie Benesch (Around the World in 80 Days) and Ulrike Beimpold (The Wall).

Steve Thompson (Leonardo) wrote all installments, with director Umut Dağ returning to helm all episodes. The series was produced by the late Endor Productions, which has since shuttered.

Vienna Blood Season 4 is currently airing/streaming as two feature-length episodes on BBC 2 and iPlayer. For the American market, the series is expected to be split into four 45-minute installments and arrive in early 2025; however, PBS has not made an official announcement yet as to whether it will bring the series back for one final hurrah in January 2025 or let the series final chapter land somewhere else. Seasons 1 through 3 are streaming on PBS Passport.