Streaming series review - Professor T: Season 3

Professor T: Season 3 ***1/2 (out of 5) Fans of European mystery series may find this title familiar. That could be because the Belgian original which began in 2015, has spawned French, Czech, British and German versions. This review covers the last of those listed.

It seems as if ever since the huge success of Tony Shalhoub’s Monk, the idea of crime-solving cops or consultants with major psychological issues has blossomed globally. He wasn’t the first damaged-goods sleuth, but probably the most popular, here and abroad. Professor T (Matthias Matschke) teaches criminology and regularly assists Cologne’s homicide unit despite massive emotional problems and a painful history that gradually unfolds during the series. He’s brilliant, but somewhere on the Autism Spectrum. That, plus severe OCD and recurring flashbacks and/or psychotic hallucinations, makes our Adrian Monk and lesser-known successors like Eric McCormack’s professorial sleuth in Perception, or Tom Payne’s haunted FBI profiler in Prodigal Son seem like poster boys for mental health.

In the first two seasons, we learn that Professor T was traumatized as a child from discovering his father’s apparent suicide. Though always brilliant, other traumas related to crime kept him in the controlled environment of academia and away from real police work for years until a former student, Detective Anneliese Deckert (Lucie Heinze), coaxes him out of the hallowed halls to help her team between his classes. The seasons are four episodes, each with a new murder or murders to solve. As is typical of European fare, the shows are more cerebral and less violent than most of our counterparts. Murders occur almost entirely off-camera, and the stiffs are shown only as needed to understand the causes of their deaths. The tone throughout is mostly serious, though the Prof’s prickly nature provides moments of droll humor. His visions add another visceral dimension – especially vivid and unnerving in Season 3 - along with a nemesis trying to destroy what’s left of his sanity. Presumably, every great Sherlock must have a Moriarty.

All the scripts are well-written, with suitably complex scenarios to unravel in a satisfying balance with the personal lives and issues of the principals. Though each episode is primarily a stand-alone challenge, the essential backstories, recurring characters and carryover plot threads make it highly advisable to see the first two seasons before diving into the third. Matschke’s Prof is equally brusque and tactless with students, colleagues and suspects, mostly displaying no emotions in his default facial expression of one who just sucked on a lemon while smelling something malodorous. Even so, he’s an empathy-arousing protagonist.

Season 3 ends with a couple of surprising developments, but fear not, fellow closure cravers. We only have to wait a month for the arrival of the fourth and final season. Stay tuned… or whatever term applies to streaming.

(Professor T: Season 3, mostly in German with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice as of 12/19/23)