Maxton Hall – The World Between Us with Damian Hardung and Harriet Herbig-Matten is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The series is only for die-hard spicy romance fans
The spicy romance genre has really caught fire in the cinema in recent years with representatives such as After Passion or Beautiful Disaster and can also be found again and again as an element in series such as Bridgerton or Elite. Mona Kasten’s bestselling novel series Save Me hit the German market in 2018 and has now been adapted as an elaborate series for Amazon Prime Video with Maxton Hall – Die Welt zwischen uns.
Starring How to sell Drugs online (Fast) star Damian Hardung and Bibi and Tina actress Harriet Herbig-Matten, the boarding school drama unfolds a forbidden romance between a rich bad boy and a model student from a poorer background. Even though we’ve probably seen enough of this Enemys to Lovers premise, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s doomed to fail – after all, you can’t completely reinvent the wheel. But then the whole thing has to stand out with an original or at least captivating production. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Maxton Hall.
Maxton Hall on Amazon Prime Video
New German series on Amazon Prime: This is what Maxton Hall is about
In order to realize her big dream of studying at Oxford University, shy Ruby Bell (Harriet Herbig-Matten) decides to make her next scholarship year at the elite boarding school Maxton Hall as quiet and determined as possible. But her plan is turned upside down when she suddenly becomes part of a secret involving the family of the school’s most popular guy, James Beauford (Damian Hardung). From then on, he pulls out all the stops to protect his wealthy and highly respected family from a scandal and begins to blackmail Ruby.
Watch the trailer for Maxton Hall – The World Between Us here:
The initial mutual dislike suddenly turns into something else, as fate brings Ruby and James together more and more often and they get to know unexpected sides of each other. Can they leave behind the world around them with its prejudices and rules that keep trying to tear them apart?
Maxton Hall on Amazon Prime: Enemys to Lovers in series has rarely been so unimaginative
When the opening sequence of Maxton Hall begins and we see a scantily covered, half-naked Damian Hardung lying on the bed next to his one-night stand, showing off his well-toned upper body, we are immediately told where we are: In a series that was primarily developed for a certain target audience to pine over. The opulent backdrop of Marienburg Castle in Lower Saxony, which is supposed to represent the eponymous British elite boarding school, also fits in with this superficial glamor, which unfortunately can’t really deliver on the inside what it promises on the outside.
Behind the thick stone walls are all kinds of hackneyed tropes, stereotypical characters that we already know from numerous other stories, and scenes that seem almost ridiculously close to being copied from other films. This includes, for example, the argument between Ruby and James in the classroom, which is strongly reminiscent of a scene from After Passion in which – of course – Pride and Prejudice is discussed. This Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy-like story unfolds in Maxton Hall in progressively more profound episodes than in some other genre cousins such as After Passion. However, to achieve the sophistication of Bridgerton or even an Austen work, a faux-British stately home or a Victorian prom is not enough.
(Harriet Herbig-Matten and Damian Hardung at Maxton Hall)
The fact that German actors play British pupils at a British boarding school against a German backdrop and address each other by British names unfortunately gives this plastic packaging another forced high-gloss polish. What may work on paper in Mona Kasten’s novel often doesn’t sound quite as intoxicating when spoken aloud. It might have worked better here to set the series entirely in a German setting and let Marienburg Castle be, well, Marienburg Castle, instead of pretending to have an English attitude that isn’t there.
Amazon Prime Video has already failed to attract an international audience with this mix with the novel adaptation Silver and the Book of Dreams, which was launched last December. It remains to be seen how Maxton Hall will fare on the streamer and whether we will see any more seasons. After all, with Save You and Save Us, there are still two continuing novels from Mona Kasten’s Maxton Hall series. However, apart from die-hard fans, no one would probably really miss them
