Van der Valk (TV Series) Blood in Amsterdam (2022) User Reviews

At times it felt like trying to get blood out of a diamond.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 14 August 2022]

An employee of Cuypers diamonds is dismembered, his body left purposely to be found.

After last week's bore fest, my expectations for this one were low, it was better than last week, a much more interesting storyline, but I still don't feel they it's firing on all cylinders. Considering the gruesome, macabre story, it just didn't land somehow, imagine a chopped up body being found on a show like Line of Duty or Silent Witness, it would be all guns blazing, here it was treated like a lost cat.

Some good bits here, I liked Joe's character development, and I thought Marc Warren have his most assured performance to date, I'm still not fully sold on him, but this was definitely better.

Thomas Cammaert was pretty good as Cornelius, I've seen him a few times, he has a real presence, and it's nice to see an actual Dutchman on the show.

The plot was a bit more Midsomer Murders than Van Der Valk I thought, but overall it was watchable, 6/10.

Not Even The Title Makes Sense

[AJ_Blanc · 7/10 · 7 October 2022]

I am enjoying this show for the most part, but I still question naming it Van der Valk since it's nothing like the original... aside from the setting.

I've been watching this season/series out of order apparently; this was the latest episode released where I watch it. While Blood in Amsterdam was well done and kept my interest throughout the ep, the 'big reveal' at the end fell a little flat for me because a) it was a bit predictable and b) made no logical sense. What sets the investigation going is dismembered body parts delivered to three members of the same family. The problem with this is there was no reason to do either one of those things.

SPOILERS: Despite all the mystery behind the mother's death, it turns out she had faked her death to live with the family shrink on property in the Caribbean she had sold and bought in another name. They wanted to disappear together but accidently killed an employee who found them out. Rather than dump the body in one of Amsterdam's many waterways, or leave it in the abandoned building where it happened, they cut it up with a machine used on diamonds and sent it to her three children. Why? She already recorded her will; just disappear like intended! All they ended up doing was to bring undue attention onto what they wanted to conceal.

It would've been less interesting, but someone in or close to the family bumping her off to take over the diamond business would've made more sense. What we got was too convoluted to the point of insanity, and it completely took me out of the story.

Note: I am aware the title of this episode is meant to have a double meaning in the deaths and family bloodline, but the dismembered body was perfectly cleaned of blood and the family connection didn't really matter to the plot since a successor had already been chosen.

Interesting but confusing

[wjspears · 7/10 · 2 January 2023]

Many years ago I read pretty much all of the Inspector Van der Valk mysteries. Their style was very much in the vein of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret, by which I mean that character was more important than mystery.

This episode felt very much like the style of the books. The "whys" of the mystery are more or less bonkers--as several reviewers have pointed out--but I found the suspects very intriguing to watch.

Several reviewers in this episode and previous ones have compared this show to Midsomer Murders. I don't see much similarity in the past episodes. But this episode, does have the "feel" of a Midsomer Murder mystery. There are three dead bodies, two of them definitely murder, one death is suspect. The fate of one other character is unclear, but likely alive. (The first murder, in particular, would fit right in with Midsomer Murders).

The Cuyper family, with their billions, are at the center of this mystery. As F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me".

The character of the Cuyper family, their "hangers-on", and their enemies make this an enjoyable episode for me--not the mystery of who did the killing and why. (That said, I would have given this episode a higher rating if the mystery itself made more sense).

Also, characterwise, the detective team is growing in maturity and depth--especially the character of Job, which is nice to see. Also nice is that there is no superior over the team and Van der Valk who is being stupid and oppressive to the work of the team--a particularly annoying feature of too many police procedurals.

Series 2, Episode 2 is a fun ride

[kathycole-62379 · 10/10 · 10 October 2022]

Think of this as a dramady with incredible scenery - and that includes Marc Warren as both he and Amsterdam are equally hot on screen. When this show comes on, I am just transported with suspended belief and just enjoy the ride. You know all the main characters will survive and so even the suspenseful parts can be watched with peace. I can't wait for Series / Season 3. In this episode I was as captivated as ever and enjoyed the plot and the story. Each episode is a police procedural but more importantly it's a development (hopefully) of the relationship of the four characters (5 if you count VDV's boss). In that way think of it like NCIS; don't watch it for the crime, but instead watch it for the serial story about the main characters.

Blood in Amsterdam

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 18 August 2022]

The second episode again has Van der Valk in a bar and someone making eyes at him. This time the lady is interested in colleague Lucienne.

The story has a gruesome beginning. A corpse being sliced and body parts being found in the property of one of Amsterdam's richest families. The Cuypers who are in the diamond business.

The family are spoilt, know that money can buy anything but not a new heart. The matriarch of the family recently died after a heart transplant went wrong.

Van der Valk discovers that the corpse was linked to the Cuypers diamond business. He was also in a relationship with several members of the family.

There are more murders, some questions regarding the recent death of the mother and a unique diamond being stolen.

Certainly the story had an interesting set up. Unfortunately it was totally daft and made no sense. The fault lies with the writer.

There is a scene where someone in Van der Valk's team points to a map and figures out. Well the dead man could had gone in these other alternative directions. (Like the audience do not have Google maps on their smartphones!)

Then they go to a warehouse where for some random reason they find a person of interest who was hanging around.

Staggers from dull to turgid

[atmacg-59147 · 2/10 · 16 August 2022]

There is so much wrong with this series.

1 Each episode is too long & feels twice as long as it actually is.

2 Marc Warren is absolutely awful. I don't dislike him as an actor particularly but he's extremely badly miscast in this.

3 The mix of accents is infuriating. Make it in Dutch & subtitle it or use British actors. Having the police speaking English accented English while virtually everyone else is speaking foreign accented English is just tedious.

4 The story lines are so busy trying to be clever but they just end up boring.

5 The best thing about it is the dog.

6 Amsterdam is a nice place, an hour & a half spent on a televised slow barge journey round the canals would be an hour & a half far better spent.

Blood in Amsterdam

[studioAT · 2/10 · 15 August 2022]

They can hype it up as much as they like in interviews, there's no chemistry between the two leads, and that combined with a slow pace (the adverts don't help) saps any fun out of an episode that has a twist we've seen before a million times.

But it pulls in decent viewer numbers, it ticks enough boxes - I've no doubt this will run on ITV for years.

A nail...in the coffin

[Baltambre · 2/10 · 16 August 2022]

She left a tiny bit of her nail on the body? Which is found, very conveniently, as one of the perpetrator accomplice is just stepping out on a balcony to witness it. Oh and yes, the nail was found in situ, ON the body, which was in a crate, which, no doubt, was moved around when delivered, so the nail must have been stuck into this part of the skin, even though the guy was wearing clothes. And that leads to finding who did it. When exactly did this bit of nail come off her finger? And how can it be encrusted in the torso when it wasn't the part hit with the brick? Not to mention that she would probably immediately notice missing a part of her nail...

And then, there is this other character who recognises the body to belong to one of her many "flings" by a conveniently situated birthmark on his groin?

And this woman and her lover couldn't find another way to distract attention from them but to deliver the say body, divided into three pieces to her own 3 children?

I mean, really! What utter utter tosh! It's not a story, it's a giant grass snake that you are trying to make us swallow Too bad really because I like the actors, the city, the moods, the interactions. Not a good excuse for such a flawed plot.

2 stars only for the actors and location.

Minus something for the "writer"