Maxton Hall: The World Between Us (Die Welt zwischen uns) is a German teen romance drama series released on Prime Video. Based on the novel ‘Save Me‘ by Mona Kasten, the series is created by Daphne Ferraro and directed by Martin Schreier and Tarek Roehlinger. It consists of 6 episodes and has a runtime of about 45-53 minutes.
The cast of the series includes Harriet Herbig-Matten as Ruby Bell, Damian Hardung as James Beaufort, Sonja Weißer as Lydia Beaufort, Andrea Guo as Lin Wang, Justus Riesner as Alistair Ellington, Fedja van Huêt as Mortimer Beaufort, Ben Felipe as Cyril Vega, Runa Greiner as Ember Bell, Martin Neuhaus as Angus Bell, Julia-Maria Köhler as Helen Bell, Clelia Sarto, and Eidin Jalali.
In Maxton Hall: The World Between Us, when Ruby accidentally witnesses a shocking secret at Maxton Hall private school, the arrogant millionaire heir James Beaufort must confront the clever scholarship student, for better or worse. He is intent on silencing Ruby, but their fiery verbal sparring unexpectedly sparks a connection between them.
Maxton Hall: The World Between Us Review
Based on the first novel of the trilogy (Save Me, Save You, Save Us), the show introduces us to the Beaufort heir, James. He seems to wake up from a presumable one-night stand and steps out to see his friends still hanging out from yesterday’s pool party. As he follows along with their shenanigans, his sister Lydia runs crying to him, fearing that their father will get mad at something she did. James tries to console her and get to know the reason behind it, that’s when Ruby Bell enters their lives.
And who exactly is Ruby Bell? A scholarship student in an elite school filled with the children of millionaires. Her only purpose is to get a great recommendation from Maxton Hall’s teachers to ensure a place at Oxford University. She would be the first one in her family to ever go to college. Thus, it’s quite a big deal for her and excelling at Maxton Hall is her only ticket. However, she accidentally witnesses her teacher, Mr Sutton kissing Lydia Beaufort in the classroom. Revealing the reason why Lydia was crying about getting caught.
James being the protective brother, makes it his mission to silence Ruby Bell. His strategy? – Give the person an amount of money they could even imagine, and if that doesn’t work he even offers himself, a chance to get intimate with James Beaufort. Little did he know, Ruby Bell wasn’t the type of person who would accept any of his terms. In fact, she never intended to tell a soul about what happened but James’s disrespectful behaviour creates a feeling of enmity towards him.
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Sceptical that Ruby might use the information for some nefarious reason, he keeps a close eye on her and even teaches her a lesson for refusing. She aggressively tries to maintain a distance from the rich bully guy and maintain her anonymity in the school. Ruby wanting to be invisible is a big part of her personality. Coming from an economically weak background, she thinks keeping a low profile and staying out of other’s business would make her school life easier and she can just concentrate on her goals. At the same time, to get a good recommendation means putting yourself out and standing apart from the crowd – creating a conflict between her mindset and actions.
Good Things About Maxton Hall: The World Between Us
Being a teen drama with the age-old enemies-to-lovers trope, one might expect quite cliche elements as we have seen before. However, even if there are some generic elements (male lead getting obsessed with revenge for no specific reason etc), they aren’t stretched or overly dramatic. In a sense, they are fairly realistic and show exactly how teens would normally behave.
The most appreciable thing was the slow build-up of romance between the leads Harriet Herbig-Matten and Damian Hardung. James isn’t a bully for the sake of being one rude fellow. But he has his personal reasons. And the way their connection transforms from adversaries to friendship wasn’t something instant – like we have seen where characters lust over each other from the first glance and jump on it as soon as their proximity decreases. Their gradual relationship has ups and downs but it doesn’t transform into love, without testing their true feelings.
Also, the characters were quite subtle. All of their actions (ir/rational) were justified over the course of six episodes. While Ruby’s abhorrence towards James seemed a bit much at times, as we get to know about her life, we somewhat understand her perspective. Similarly, James’ character isn’t only some rich brat but has a hidden vulnerability as well, that makes him likeable. One might even feel pity for him, and the credit for that goes to the actor’s performance because James could have become a stiff constipated character. But Hardung fills it with intricate emotions that help us to connect.
Some Not-So-Good Things About Maxton Hall: The World Between Us
First of all, the portrayal of a forbidden teacher-student relationship as ‘true love’, definitely doesn’t sit well. No matter even if they met outside of the school first, the age difference doesn’t make it less of a predatory relationship. Lydia is a teenage schoolgirl and Mr Sutton has already completed college. One might pity James but Lydia’s character arc was not at all redemptive. It is understandable that she craved the lack of love from an authoritative figure like her teacher but claiming it to be the ‘love of her life’ and continuously going back to it throughout was irresponsible and gives a wrong message.
Secondly, Harriet Herbig-Matten’s performance as Ruby Bell was subpar for a lead. Anytime she shares the scene with James, she becomes so stiff and seems unable to portray a range of emotions. One can not remember her doing anything else than glaring at other people with teary eyes and pursed lips. Kudos to her though, for being able to bring out the tears in every single scene she was offended (and that’s the whole series).
Final Thoughts
Overall, it’s an entertaining teen drama show to watch. The pacing of the story is just right, depictions are fairly realistic and the performance is mostly good enough. Not having read the novels, it seems that they have followed the events of Save Me, which majorly revolved around James’ redemption and their budding romance leaving the space to carry it forward in the next seasons – to show how their relationship blossoms and what issues they come across.
Rating: 4/5
Maxton Hall: The World Between Us is available to watch on Prime Video.
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