The Masterpiece Fall Preview Promises An Autumn of Mysteries & Politics

It's been five years since Poldark rolled into Masterpiece in June of 2015. Since then, the show became a fall staple, anchoring the Masterpiece and PBS line-up for the last half-decade. But after five seasons, the show has said goodbye, leaving fans bereft this year. It's also left a bit of a hole in the schedule. Typically, there might have been a solid follow-up to come over from the BBC or ITV to take its place, but between the COVID-19 pandemic and everything else, no such luck.

That means the autumn of 2020 on PBS will look rather different than it has in quite some time. There's no eight-episode period drama anchor for the rest of the schedule to coalesce around. Instead, it will feel more like the PBS "Summer of Mysteries," where shorter police procedural shows roll back to back. Two of them are even mystery series! The other two are taking a page from the world's current state and giving fans some political theater to go with the real-life election in November.

The fall season will start with Van Der Valk, a reboot of the 1970s/1990s detective series, starring Marc Warren as the titular detective, airing over the final three weeks of September. It will then roll into a different mystery, Flesh & Blood, starring Imelda Staunton, filling the October block. Flesh & Blood looks to be less police procedural and more of an "unreliable narrator" style thriller. November will then turn to politics with a brand new Hugh Laurie-fronted series called Roadkill. While the presidential election happens here in the states, viewers tuning in to Masterpiece will watch U.K. figures will jostle for the power of Number 10 Downing Street.

Check out Masterpiece's first look at all three series: