The detective series “Les Carnets de Max Liebermann” returns to France 3 this evening for new investigations… but with a major change since one of the main characters has changed performers between seasons 1 and 2.
Good news for lovers of detective series: Les Carnets de Max Liebermann, the first episodes of which were broadcast in February 2021 on France 3, returns this evening with a very successful new season 2, which is in line with the first and continues to mix psychoanalysis and astonishing and murky investigations in the streets of Vienna in the early 1900s.
The first episode of season 2, broadcast this Sunday at 9:10 p.m. on France 3, begins with the murder of a Hungarian countess who came to Vienna to cure her melancholy. Found drowned in her bathtub, the countess in question was none other than a patient of Dr. Liebermann!
All eyes therefore turn to Max (Matthew Beard) who, to clear his reputation and elucidate the crime, will once again join forces with his friend Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt (Jürgen Maurer).
Viewers who loved the first three episodes will find everything that makes the series salt in these new adventures of Max and Oskar. But they will certainly not fail to notice that a major character of the Notebooks of Max Liebermann changed interpreter between seasons 1 and 2.
MR Film GmbH/Endor Productions Ltd Jessica De Gouw and Lucy Griffiths, the two Amelia in the series
Camped by the actress Jessica De Gouw (Dracula, Arrow, Pennyworth) in the first season, the British scientist Amelia Lydgate, who assists Max and Oskar in their investigations, is now embodied by Lucy Griffiths, who notably distinguished herself in True Blood , Preacher, and Shadow and Bone.
The production never seems to have spoken about the reasons for Jessica De Gouw’s departure, but we can assume that a commitment to another project – she shot season 2 of The Secrets She Keeps last year – or that government restrictions linked to the Covid-19 epidemic may have prevented her from resuming her role since she resides in Australia while The Notebooks of Max Liebermann is filmed in Europe, and in particular in Austria.
Asked by Drama Quarterly at the time of the promotion of season 2, Lucy Griffiths, alias the new Amelia Lydgate, in any case explained that she had no trouble taking over the role, especially since she could be inspired of Jessica De Gouw’s performance, without copying it.
“I was very well received, I didn’t have the feeling that everyone was saying, ‘We miss Jess so much’. I had never taken on an existing role before, but it was quite nice to have a basis to work from Jez and Robert [le producteur et le réalisateur] told me not to try to copy Jessica, so I didn’t have the pressure to try to play the same way she did. But I had a starting point and an example to help me”.
To find out how Lucy Griffiths is doing in the skin of Amelia, go to France 3 this evening to discover the first of three episodes of season 2 of Max Liebermann’s Notebooks.