'Professor T's Second Season Improves Upon Its Premise

The British remake of Professor T (the fourth version of the 2015 Belgian show of the same name having already been remade in German, French, and Czech) stars Ben Miller as the titular Professor Jasper Tempest, a brilliant criminology professor who becomes a regular consultant for the Cambridge police. Although not breaking any new ground, Professor T’s debut season was a serviceable entry into the police procedural genre, if hampered by a fear of diverting too far from its original material. The good news is that, as the show grows more comfortable, its second season is officially better than the first.

The series’ basic premise is that the professor epitomizes the “insufferable genius” trope. His OCD, germaphobia, and need for structure and order make him exhibit odd rituals and antisocial behaviors, all while brilliantly solving crimes. He is rude, arrogant, and supercilious, though he might describe it as simple honesty. His bluntness and gifted mind are entertaining but can get wearisome after too many episodes, despite the show’s attempts at sympathy by implying Professor Tempest’s mannerisms and neuroses have been formed by a traumatic past that haunts him.

Each season of the U.K. version of Professor T consists of six episodes (including the just filmed Season 3), whereas the original Belgian version had thirteen episodes per season. (This is in line with most of the remakes; the German version ran four installments a season, the French one ran six, and the Czech version eight.) Unfortunately, this leads to the story arcs, many of which are reworked adaptations from the Belgian series filtered through an English lens, being condensed and feeling truncated.