The New Testament, as well as more ancient advice and modern spiritual explorers, teaches us to be aware and be careful of being ruled by our passions.
This can be as mild as foolishly spending money on unnecessary things. Or choosing to spend time with the wrong people.
It can be as bad as letting fear, lust, anger, greed, pride, and the rest rule our lives.
On the other hand, a coldly rational outlook following the rules and inhibiting relationship fuels a life alone and unsatisfying.
A TV series from Belgium explores some of these themes with deep probing and gentle understanding. Professor T features the struggles of a genius criminologist professor who assists a former student now detective inspector in solving murders. Along the way the writers probe the struggles and growth of perhaps 10 other characters.
The acting is superb. The soundtrack outstanding. The spoken language is Flemish (with some French—it is Belgium, so both languages are spoken—and English). We found it on Amazon Prime. I realize there are people reading this in countries where you may not be able to find this program. But if you can, it’s worth it. It was recorded in 2015, 2016, and 2018. Three seasons of 13 episodes. We’ve watched it over the past month. I’m going to miss the characters.
There is an English version, as in performed in England in English. We have seen this one. Not as good. There are also versions in German and French. We have not seen those. Watch the Belgian one. I cried at the end.
Overcoming passions keys a sound life. But as a preacher I used to listen to said, “Jesus was the first cardiologist. He was concerned with the condition of our heart.”
Unless your heart is in the right condition, overcoming passions will leave you cold.
Faith Venture 
October 1, 2021 at 8:16 am |
Hmm, I watched the Professor T (the English one) is the one from Belgium called the same thing? I assume enough English to follow it. Thanks I really enjoyed the show originally saw the lead actor in Death in Paradise.
October 1, 2021 at 4:35 pm |
The Belgian one is the original. It is called Professor T. We used closed captioning (but maybe this one came with captioning). I don’t believe I’ve ever heard Flemish spoken. Many words sound like German and some English and French are in there. But without the closed captioning, I’d have had no clue.
The English version actually copied some of the Belgian scripts with a few changes. The Belgian one is 39 episodes and far better than the English copy. And I have not visited Belgium for at least 10 years, so I enjoyed vicarious visiting.