Jackie Bruleigh

Ah fall. The perfect season to return to Van Der Valk, everyone’s favorite cocktail of grumpy emo detectives, esoteric crimes, and the always gorgeous setting that is Amsterdam. We’ve got three delightful cases coming our way, and if you need a refresher on what happened previously, recaps for all the previous season are here.

Last week we learned that evil drug queenpin BiBi Franken, fresh off of blowing up her own son for daring to defy her, was waiting to meet Piet in whatever location would mess with him the most. So it’s not SUPER surprising that this week we’re heading right over to the crew’s beloved bar.

This week’s episode kicks off in what I can only describe as a gorgeous museum/art gallery with the kind of giant windows that people love and birds just hate. The irony of this description will become apparent soon.

We’re back right where we left off, bird fans: in the middle of the street, whilst the crime scene techs collect evidence from the body of Meatball. While they do their thing, Piet and Hassell speculate on who would want to kill Meatball anyway: he ostensibly did his part of the job, having delivered that giant bag of money. Was it retribution for killing Gerda? Or maybe it was the fact that he saw someone else at the scene and thus could rat out the murderer.

Somehow, reader, we’re on to the last case of the season (and we still don’t have an update on the most important case yet: Hendrik’s self-diagnosed throat cancer). Speaking of which: our episode kicks off with Piet and Hendrik chilling by a fire while Piet tries to talk Hendrik into getting a second opinion.

Last time we visited Amsterdam, we met a scary mystery assassin, a doofy billionaire, and a conspiracy theorist (and only one of them walked into a bar). And speaking of which, we kick off this week’s episode in Cliff’s bar, where the team uses security footage of the club to start searching for mystery assassin.

The following are four excellent shows I think you should watch in November. Why? Because they all give off strong late autumn vibes, and there’s something for everyone. All of these series are available for GBH members to stream any time on the PBS App.

Winter is here (allegedly — as a snow loving Boston resident, I’m miffed) and so is a drama fan favorite holiday tradition: the Call The Midwife Holiday Special! I’m here to recap the show just in case you missed it, or just couldn’t get enough of our favorite nurses, nuns, and other assorted denizens of Poplar.

Well, reader, it’s hard to believe that we’re back for another new season of the newly renamed Miss Scarlet. LAST season ended on a bonkers note with our pal Victoria Mars (Eliza) helping out Detective Mustache (Nash) after he got into even crazier shenanigans than usual, leaving him on the hook for kidnapping and obstruction charges. More importantly (and again I point you to the show name change), Duke Silver (William) officially left our friends to go take a job in America, leaving a lot of confusion and broken hearts in his wake.

Our second episode begins at a VERY swanky restaurant. Ivy and Barney the Morgue Bureaucrat have gone out for a nice dinner to celebrate the latter’s promotion to chief clerk, and invited Victoria Mars and Accountant along, for some reason. To be clear: Accountant is a surprisingly good hang. It’s Victoria Mars who surprises me, given her long-standing and barely contained feud with Ivy’s fiance.