Lydia is a young Italian woman in 19th century Italian who graduates from law school and is accepted by the Bar but the chief magistrate refuses to allow her to practice because she is a woman. So instead of fighting the ruling she teams up with her brother who's a lawyer. He reluctantly allows her to assistant him in his cases. You might think this is a legal drama but you would be wrong. Lydia investigates the cases of the accused. Each episode is a different case which she of course solves. This turns into one of the major problems with the series. The cases are hardly unique. One is from a Nick and Nora Charles 40's movie. In one of the mysteries, Lydia leaks to a reporter that the police are going to collect more evidence, fingerprints at the crime scene that will expose the killer. Knowing he will include this information in his newspaper column, she waits at the crime scene for the killer. This little subterfuge is about as fresh as week old fish. In fact, most of the mysteries, are not that interesting and the script is really pretty trite.
Another problem is the dubbing. The subtitles you see do not match the dubbing very well and at times this is confusing. Years ago Hollywood discovered that having the actors speak English with an accent of the country makes the movie much more believable. Apparently Netflix has not learned this trick. In this series we have voice actors who sound like Midwest broadcasters and one with a slight Irish accent trying to convince the audience that they are Italian. It is almost laughable.
However there are some good things about the series. Matilda De Angelis who plays Lydia is bright, charming, and beautiful and is clearly an accomplished actress. The costumes are great and the music is good although it is a bit too modern for 19th century Italy.
Another problem is the dubbing. The subtitles you see do not match the dubbing very well and at times this is confusing. Years ago Hollywood discovered that having the actors speak English with an accent of the country makes the movie much more believable. Apparently Netflix has not learned this trick. In this series we have voice actors who sound like Midwest broadcasters and one with a slight Irish accent trying to convince the audience that they are Italian. It is almost laughable.
However there are some good things about the series. Matilda De Angelis who plays Lydia is bright, charming, and beautiful and is clearly an accomplished actress. The costumes are great and the music is good although it is a bit too modern for 19th century Italy.
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