These days its Channel 4 rather than the BBC, ITV, 5 or Sky etc where we get our intelligent crime drama fix.
Professor T. is the latest example - this time from Belgium. In my opinion its a hugely better offering than the BBC's total re-working of the Agatha Christie classic The ABC Murders.
Well the first two seasons are incredibly good. Sadly most of the wonderful connections are lost in the third season which is downright awful and we lost all interest in it. Just watch the first two seasons and be prepared for a let down in the third. The Rabet Teerlinck interface was tough at the start but very watchable now harrowing start of the third season building to the hiring of a rabid wound up top as a chief inspector. Well.. now we have lost most of our interest.
Until then this drama is cohesive in that it successfully stitches together threads within a university criminology department and plain clothes police. This is generally as in the synergy between the two institutions and singular as in cases where T helps the police plain clothes unit. It also has plenty of individual people related back stories including dealing with mental illness. Let's face it you might think that a bad recipe.
As you get through the Episodes this is not so as appropriately mental illness can trigger a lot of crimes. Apparently one good example is shame. I am not going to tell you which episode but its a stand out one. Even Professor T has some form of mental illness which anyone, who has come across it, should recognise. Yet this does in no way stops him from being key to solving crimes. In fact its the opposite. He is a "necessary evil" for the police as he annoys many people he comes into "contact" with. Notice the use of inverted commas.
So NB a team or group of people holds this brilliant drama together - not just Professor T. Also there is a lot of humour; mostly at the university were T works, which is very important when dealing with, at times, heavy drama. It's a great recipe just like their often Palm Oil free chocolate. Well done Belgium.
Professor T. is the latest example - this time from Belgium. In my opinion its a hugely better offering than the BBC's total re-working of the Agatha Christie classic The ABC Murders.
Well the first two seasons are incredibly good. Sadly most of the wonderful connections are lost in the third season which is downright awful and we lost all interest in it. Just watch the first two seasons and be prepared for a let down in the third. The Rabet Teerlinck interface was tough at the start but very watchable now harrowing start of the third season building to the hiring of a rabid wound up top as a chief inspector. Well.. now we have lost most of our interest.
Until then this drama is cohesive in that it successfully stitches together threads within a university criminology department and plain clothes police. This is generally as in the synergy between the two institutions and singular as in cases where T helps the police plain clothes unit. It also has plenty of individual people related back stories including dealing with mental illness. Let's face it you might think that a bad recipe.
As you get through the Episodes this is not so as appropriately mental illness can trigger a lot of crimes. Apparently one good example is shame. I am not going to tell you which episode but its a stand out one. Even Professor T has some form of mental illness which anyone, who has come across it, should recognise. Yet this does in no way stops him from being key to solving crimes. In fact its the opposite. He is a "necessary evil" for the police as he annoys many people he comes into "contact" with. Notice the use of inverted commas.
So NB a team or group of people holds this brilliant drama together - not just Professor T. Also there is a lot of humour; mostly at the university were T works, which is very important when dealing with, at times, heavy drama. It's a great recipe just like their often Palm Oil free chocolate. Well done Belgium.