Director Robert Dornhelm amazed by the character journey on PBS' 'Vienna Blood'

Dec. 30—When Robert Dornhelm signed on to direct the pilot episode of "Vienna Blood" a few years ago, he never imagined it going beyond one season.

He says the series was planned as a limited run, but here he is, ready for season three to premiere at 9 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 8, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. The new season has six episodes that will air on Sundays through Feb. 12, and are also available on the PBS Video app.

"I think we managed to have more throughout the journey," he says of the new season. "There's more humanity and relationship."

Set in 1908, season three finds brilliant young English doctor Max Liebermann, played by Matthew Beard, and Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt, played by Juergen Maurer, working as an established crime-solving duo, having cracked several of Vienna's most mysterious and deadly cases.

Now a published author in the field of criminal psychopathy, Max has finally moved out of his parents' house and into a plush apartment of his own.

And bolstered by his successful investigations with Max, Oskar's star is on the rise in the department and — for the first time in a long time — he seems open to letting someone into his life.

Love has not run so smoothly for Max. Amelia Lydgate, played by Jessica De Gouw, has returned to England.

Max's former fiancé Clara, Luise von Finckh, has turned her sights from marriage to a career as a journalist, discovering that investigating murder can be as thrilling as romance.

Dornhelm says the new season finds Max and Oskar once again thrust into the dark underbelly of glittering Viennese society, with episodes set in a luxury fashion house, the Chinese antiquities trade and the budding world of cinema.

"I grew up in Vienna and am always happy to return to this special place," he says. "Being able to see the journeys of each character has been really fun. Usually, I don't work with characters I love as I have with 'Vienna Blood.' It's been great to see the humanity begin to come out a lot more."

Dornhelm says historically, the time period is very interesting.

"There's this blending of nationalism with the art world and it's modernism," he says. "It's also at the beginning of the first world war where some brilliant minds thought that war would clear the air. We just never learned from the first two world wars."

Dornhelm made sure that the series felt fresh by helping keep the story line moving forward.

Like the viewers, he was interested to see where the duo's friendship would go.

"I really like Max and Oskar's relationship because you are connecting a straight-forward Austrian policeman with an intellectual," he says. "Combining the clever mind with someone who knows how the streets work is a great juxtaposition. They are so different that it's enjoyable.

"Oskaar is a film noir character and he's basically not a cozy guy. He's the lonesome man and (I) feel sympathy for him."

_WebHeadline">EXCERPT: Set in 1908, season three finds brilliant young English doctor Max Liebermann, played by Matthew Beard, and Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt, played by Juergen Maurer, working as an established crime-solving duo.

ON TV

The third season of "Vienna Blood" premieres at 9 p.m. Jan. 8. A new episode premieres on Sundays through Feb. 12, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1.