'Professor T's Season 4 Premiere Jumps "Overboard" Into the Deep End

Sometimes, after a tragedy, people regress into old habits and comfortable personas. After years of a personality shaped by PTSD, Professor T’s Jasper Tempest (Ben Miller) reverts to the solace of his OCD routines in Season 4’s premiere, “Overboard,” following the death of the series' other main lead, DI Lisa Donckers (Emma Naomi) in the Season 3 finale. Contrasting with that somber end, this new season opens with a light and jaunty tone. Led by frolicking classical music, Jasper returns to his compulsive morning routine, his university, and his classroom. As the saying goes, “Life goes on.”

(We should note here that in the original Belgian version of Professor T, Annelies Donckers does exit the show after the first two seasons, and the series goes on without her. But she voluntarily leaves the force and goes off to live her life, so this is a significant shift into original territory, even if the series is still *very* loosely technically remaking the original.)

But grief will not be denied. Jasper is plagued by flashes of Donckers’ death while trying to teach the episode’s theme, faulty memory. In the end, he finds he can’t finish the lecture. In his subsequent session with Dr. Goldberg (Juliet Stevenson), he mentions his “intrusive thoughts” are usually only triggered by requests from Dan Winters (Barney White) – whom he’s been avoiding, along with abstaining from helping the police, for six months. Dr. Goldberg points out that his regressive behavior is an attempt to regain control after Donckers’ death, but he avoids this introspection.