# Maxton Hall — The World Between Us

Maxton Hall — The World Between Us (German: Maxton Hall — Die Welt zwischen uns) is a six-part German-language television series on Amazon Prime Video. It is adapted from the Mona Kasten [de] book Save Me. The cast is led by Damian Hardung as James Beaufort and Harriet Herbig-Matten as Ruby Bell. The series premiered on May 9, 2024, and had the most successful series launch of any non-American Prime Original ever. Maxton Hall became the most popular series on Prime Video worldwide shortly after its release, ranking #1 in the charts in over 120 regions.

## Plot
### Season 1

Ruby Bell, a brilliant and determined young woman, enters the opulent world of Maxton Hall on a scholarship. Her singular focus is securing a place at Oxford University, a stark contrast to the carefree extravagance of her wealthy classmates. Among them is James Beaufort, an arrogant heir, whose life revolves around privilege.
After forgetting to submit a document for her referral letter to Mr Sutton, a teacher at the school, she stumbles upon Lydia Beaufort having a secret affair with Mr. Sutton. Lydia thinks Ruby will expose her relationship, so she resorts to her brother James for help. James attempts to buy out Ruby, who in turn refuses all of his attempts.
Ruby then requests the school headmaster, Mr. Lexington, for the letter in place of Mr. Sutton since she no longer holds him in high regard as she did before. She informs Mr. Lexington that she is the chairman for the event organisation committee, so he makes a deal with Ruby that if she manages to pull off the upcoming event aimed to attract new potential students successfully, he would consider to write her letter.
Mr. Sutton breaks up with Lydia even after she begs him to keep things the way they are. The party progresses smoothly until the strippers James invited to ruin Ruby's event show up, since he believes that Ruby has underlying intentions to ruin the Beaufort family with Lydia's secret.
The headmaster is enraged and takes James off the lacrosse team and denies Ruby her letter. However, he is willing to reverse his decision if Ruby and James manage to throw a successful donor gala for the school. After the initial phase of animosity, Ruby and James begin to bond over the next few weeks with James helping out to the best of his ability.
James prepares for the 'Young Beaufort' line, an idea that Lydia had come up with and worked hard on for years, however, their father sees Lydia unfit to lead as future CEO. Unfortunately, the press conference clashes with the gala - which James had promised Ruby that he'd attend since it was her birthday as well. After an intense conversation with his father forcing him to go to the conference, James makes a decision in the spur of the moment when rehearsing lines with Lydia in the car, and decides to go to the gala.
James' father's wrath knows no bounds when he discovers his son's relationship with Ruby since he catches them kissing in the basement of the gala. He views her as beneath them and resorts to blackmail, threatening to destroy Ruby's future to force James to break things off. Heartbroken and desperate to protect Ruby, James makes the agonising decision to end their relationship.
Having seen Lydia at the gala, Mr. Sutton approaches Lydia and asks her to run away with him. They agree to meet the following Thursday. However, Lydia decides to stay at a photoshoot with her family, leaving Mr. Sutton heartbroken and their escape dreams shattered. Just as they all attempt to create lives without their true loves, Lydia discovers she's pregnant with Mr. Sutton's child.
During the Oxford colleges interview period, a 2nd year student seemingly takes a liking to Ruby. James is overcome with jealousy as he watches the two get close at a bar. Ruby publicly lashes out at him for talking down to the student at an Oxford student Q&A. They have an angry confrontation in which James comes to a realisation that he has never once done what he wanted for himself. James kisses Ruby in retaliation but Ruby asks James why he had ignored her up until then, to which he explains his dad's threats. They reconcile and have sex, Ruby nails her interviews, and James doesn't attend his final interview.
Upon arrival back home, James and Lydia are informed that their mother has died. James becomes angry at his father for his demeanour and tackles him. Dragged off his father by his driver, James storms away, walking the streets. He finds himself in front of Ruby's house, but after seeing her happy with her family, he walks away, and the season ends.

## Cast
### Main

* Damian Hardung as James Beaufort: a legacy student at Maxton Hall, Ruby's boyfriend, Lydia's twin brother
* Harriet Herbig-Matten as Ruby Bell: a scholarship student at Maxton Hall, preparing for Oxford, James' girlfriend

### Recurring

* Sonja Weißer as Lydia Beaufort: a legacy student at Maxton Hall, James' twin sister, Graham's girlfriend
* Eidin Jalali [de] as Graham Sutton: Teacher at Maxton Hall, Lydia's boyfriend
* Fedja van Huêt as Mortimer Beaufort: James and Lydia's father, Cordelia's husband
* Justus Riesner as Alistair Ellington: a student at Maxton Hall, Elaine's brother, James' best friend, Keshav's boyfriend
* Andrea Guo [de] as Lin Wang: a student at Maxton Hall, Ruby's best friend
* Runa Greiner [de] as Ember Bell: Ruby's sister, Helen and Angus' daughter
* Martin Neuhaus [de] as Angus Bell: Ruby and Ember's father, Helen's husband
* Julia-Maria Köhler [de] as Helen Bell: Ruby and Ember's mother, Angus' wife
* Ben Felipe [de] as Cyril Vega: a student at Maxton Hall, James' friend, Lydia's one-sided admirer
* Govinda Gabriel Cholleti [de] as Keshav "Kesh" Patel: a student at Maxton Hall, Alistair's boyfriend, James' friend
* Clelia Sarto [de] as Cordelia Beaufort: James and Lydia's mother, Mortimer's wife
* Eli Riccardi as Elaine Ellington: a student at Maxton Hall, Alistair's sister, James's one-sided admirer

## Production

The six-part series, directed by Martin Schreier and Tarek Roehlinger, was recorded in 2022. The series is produced by Markus Brunnemann and Valentin Debler, and executive produced by Ceylan Yildirim for UFA Fiction. Daphne Ferraro is the head writer.
The cast is led by Damian Hardung as James and Harriet Herbig-Matten as Ruby, and also includes Sonja Weißer, Ben Felipe, Fedja van Huêt, Runa Greiner, Justus Riesner, Clelia Sarto, Andrea Guo, Eidin Jalali.
Filming took place mainly in Germany between the beginning of July and the end of September 2022. The filming location for the private school Maxton Hall was the Marienburg Castle. In Potsdam, Brandenburg's state capital and UNESCO city of film, scenes were shot at the Old Market Square: The St. Nicholas Church represents the University of Oxford and the Museum Barberini serves as the London representative of the Beaufort company. The Potsdam City Palace can also be seen. Party scenes were filmed at a villa in the Neubabelsberg villa colony, Ruby's family house is located in the New Garden. The Beaufort family seat is represented by the manor house Ganz in Kyritz. In England, small scenes were filmed in London and Oxford.
It was renewed for a second series in May 2024 after achieving the largest ever first week global viewership for an international original on Amazon Prime Video. Filming on season two is scheduled for Berlin and London for the summer of 2024 with Tarek Roehlinger and Martin Schreier returning as directors. The second season is scheduled to premiere in the end of 2025.

## Broadcast

The series premiered on 9 May 2024 on Amazon Prime Video.

## Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 67% critics rating, based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 4.50/10.