I watched all three episodes of this 2020 Van Der Valk and I enjoyed them. I like good police procedurals and it's a treat when I can watch one filmed in one of Europe's beautiful cities or the countryside.
Of the actors on Commissioner Van Der Valk's team, Elliot Barners-Worrell as Lt Cloovers and Luke Allen-Gale as Sgt de Vries were especially good. Warren and McCoy were good but not as strong as the above two actors.
It's a challenge to maintain viewers attention span over 90 minutes, especially so with a who-done-it and a number of characters with foreign names. Please be kinder to viewers - poor sound levels, strong regional British accents and other actors whose first language is not English, makes listening difficult. And lighting could have been better on interiors in dark old buildings and in long boats.
I'm not a big fan of flashbacks, but in this series it would have helped explain Van Der Valk's mercurial personality if we knew about his wife in Episode 1 not in Episode 3. Same with the Chief Commissioner.
I'd watch a series 2, it's good.
________________________________
I'm watching series 2 and enjoying it. The writing, the key to any successful series is very good. I also went back and re-watched series 1 and I scored it higher, the plots are very good.
Van Der Valk the commissioner, Hassell the inspector, de Vries the sergeant, Cloovers the lieutenant, Dahlman the chief commissioner and Davie the pathologist are very different personalities. There is some minor personal things but basically the characters are focused on solving the complicated crimes.
________________________________
Sadly Season 3 isn't that good, Brad de Vries (Luke Allen-Gale) and Job Cloovers (Elliot Bares-Worrell) have been replaced by two less experienced actors. Episode 2 is the best of the 3 episodes. And there is more of Emma Fielding (Julia Dahlman) and Darrell D'Silva (Henrik Davie). Luke Allen-Gale and Elliot Barnes-Worrell brought humor and acting skills their replacements ae stiff. In police dramas the top officers and pathologists come and go, New writers, this was probably farmed out by ITV, cliched episodes.. Chris Murray the creator is off writing his new series "Cannes Confidential". I dropped the rating, Season 1 & 2 were very good, Season 3 is poor.
