Classic and fresh, “La legge di Lidia Poët” has all the makings of entertainment

The ingredients dear to our present serial are all in “The law of Lidia Poët”, a Netflix series produced together with Greenland and available today on the streaming platform. A courageous and pioneering female protagonist, a true story (in costume), intrigue, love, murder and unorthodox investigations. We are in Turin at the end of the 19th century – 1883 to be precise – and Lidia was still a young girl when she became the first woman ever to join the Bar Association.

Opposed by many, paid less than her male colleagues, decidedly less taken seriously, Poët demonstrates her professional qualities in the field even if these don’t always seem enough for her to keep a job. She begins, despite herself, to collaborate in her brother’s law firm (initially more than recalcitrant) to then gradually become familiar with her profession and revealing her determination. As far as the genre is concerned, we are between the classic legal drama (Lidia is in fact the lawyer who investigates) and the relational in costume (ample examples, Anglo-Saxon-style).

One case per episode to be solved – it is assumed – and some vertical lines involving in particular the “feminist” struggle of Poët, the relationship between Lidia and her brother-in-law Jacopo (Eduardo Scarpetta), a handsome journalist with a mysterious past who passes information to the young woman, helping her to extricate herself from the secrets and the unsaid of Turin’s high society. Narratively, the series has a very classic structure while a more peculiar touch is found in the aesthetics and in the direction (which was seen between Matteo Rovere and Letizia La Martire).

The absolute protagonist, who holds up the role well, is Matilda De Angelis, together with Eduardo Scarpetta and Dario Aita. The series is written by Guido Iuculano and Davide Orsini together with Elisa Dondi, Daniela Gambaro and Paolo Piccirillo. It is enjoyable and flows lightly, entertaining with a few more reflective moments. In short, it does what it is plausible to have set for itself. What are the themes of “The Law of Lidia Poët”? The series investigates, quite clearly, issues related to the affirmation of women and particular freedoms. Lidia is a nonconformist, determined to assert her professional goals while not abdicating her personalityalone in a masculine way that, due to socio-cultural heritage, does not want to recognize her role.

She fights for what she feels defrauded of without this aspect being excessively ideologized but managing to make it emerge from the practical and concrete choices that Poët has to face.

What is the true story of Lidia Poët?

Little known to the general public (to which this series clearly addresses), the figure of Lidia Poët was a forerunner not only in the world of advocacy but more generally she anticipated themes and social battles that found a further continuation in the twentieth century. Born in 1855 in Perrero (in today’s Piedmont), Poët graduated as a teacher and then attended high school and graduated in law. Not without copious controversies in this regard, Lidia was accepted into the Bar Association, only to be canceled shortly after by the Court of Appeal of Turin.

The sentence was then confirmed by the Court of Cassation since, as stated in the legal reasoning, “Women cannot practice law”.

What is the aesthetics of “The Law of Lidia Poët”?

If from a narrative point of view the series appears solid but with fairly classic features, there is instead a more innovative element in the staging and in the aesthetic choices of language. A scenography, natural and not, which strongly characterizes the story, helps, opulent and with attention to detail and in which you can appreciate the bourgeois villas of Piedmont, the Opera theater and rich halls decorated with stuccos. The visual texture of the story is interesting (in the pilot, the morgue scene stands out surrounded by yellow tones, very effective) and some directorial choices that give dynamism to the story.

What is the tone of “The Law of Lidia Poët” in three bars?

“Are you afraid of being beaten by a woman in the courtroom?”.

“I don’t need a man to pay for me”.

“If God wanted you to be a lawyer, He didn’t make you a woman”.