The Deep Dive: Love Stories

It’s a tricky time of year, February. There’s the holiday hangover, for starters, and the still-short days offering up mere teaspoonfuls of sunlight. With all the layers of clothing required for even basic activities, winter seems to have overstayed its welcome.

Then there’s Valentine’s Day — enjoyable enough if your life resembles a romantic drama, but we don’t all have cinematic love lives. We can, however, live vicariously through on-screen stories, and this month we have a roundup of love-soaked distractions, enough to carry you all the way through to spring. So go ahead and lean into love.

With wintery affection,
Anna Fort, Senior Digital Producer

P.S. For the full printable primetime schedule, visit gbh.org/explore.

P.P.S. It’s Black History Month! Celebrate with GBH through a rich line-up of standout programs. So much to watch! February might be starting to feel a little too short...

February Viewing: Stories with Heart

Sisi: Austrian Empress — Season Four

Romance takes center stage as Sisi sweeps back into court for a brand new Season Four — and a rather subtly charged rapport with a Bavarian horseman that proves unsettling for both empires and husbands. Count on elegant turmoil and enough lingering glances to test the limits of royal protocol. Stream the full new season on Passport.

The Outlaws — Season Three

They may have finished their community service, but cleaning up their act is an ongoing project for our unlikely crew of outlaws. Season Three finds them, once again, in way over their heads, with a sprinkling of romance for good measure. Streaming now on Passport.

Hope Street — Season Four

We’re back on the Northern Irish coast, where an unexpected pregnancy, and the question of paternity, sparks small-town speculation: expect no shortage of unsolicited advice and the occasional heartache. Stream now, or watch Wednesdays beginning Feb. 4 at 8pm on GBH 44.

The Brokenwood Mysteries — Season Seven

Season Seven lands with six fresh cases — from a deadly antiques show to a bungled bank heist. Dr. Gina Kadinsky’s quiet crush on Mike still simmers and DC Daniel Chalmers joins the team. Stream Seasons Three through Seven.

All You Need Is Love

We’ve gathered a romantic-drama watchlist truly worth falling for — complete with the reasons to get involved.

• MASTERPIECE Sanditon: Because Charlotte Heywood falls into a sparkling seaside world of dashing suitors and addictive will‑they‑won’t‑they tension, it delivers a perfect romantic retreat. All three lush seasons stream February 14 for a month.
• MASTERPIECE Alice & Jack: Because it devotes fifteen years to an intense, magnetic, can’t‑stay-apart love story between two flawed people who keep finding their way back to each other, no matter how life pulls them apart.
• MASTERPIECE Poldark: Because this epic series centers on sweeping, star‑crossed entanglements, full of smoldering chemistry. The entire saga pulses with classic romantic‑drama tension.
• MASTERPIECE Victoria: Because a young Queen Victoria rises to power while falling deeply in love; it marries palace politics with romance at its most regal and compelling.
• Marie Antoinette: Because a young woman trying to win over her future king is peak palace‑romance drama, and this series brims with courtly intrigue and a distinctly flirtatious flair.
• MASTERPIECE Little Women: Because this classic adaptation captures the sweet ache of young love and the complex emotions that shape the March sisters’ hearts. 
• MASTERPIECE Tom Jones: Because the series is a big‑hearted romp of swoony chemistry and classic rom‑com vibes; it brings pure romantic‑drama delight.
• Wuthering Heights: Because this story delivers the fiery, all‑consuming love of Heathcliff and Cathy set against the wild English moors; it stands as one of the most dramatic romances ever told.
• Hotel Portofino: Because sun‑drenched Riviera glamour is mixed with forbidden flirtations and tangled hearts, delivering romance with a decadent 1920s twist.

Recipe of the Week

Hot Milk Sponge Cake from Milk Street’s My Family Recipe

Sweet, like a first crush, this soft, buttery, dreamy dessert is sweeping me right off my feet!

Drama on Deck

MASTERPIECE The Count of Monte Cristo

Sam Claflin steps into the boots of Edmond Dantès, the young sailor betrayed, imprisoned, and reborn as a master of revenge, with Jeremy Irons as the wise Abbé Faria guiding his transformation behind fortress walls. It’s an eight‑episode saga of buried fortunes, broken trusts, and hard‑won justice unfolding across sweeping European vistas. Stream all eight episodes March 1, or stay tuned for the broadcast premiere March 22 on GBH 2.

MASTERPIECE The Forsytes

Victorian respectability is turned on its head with tangled passions and high‑stakes heartache. That March 22 premiere will be here before you know it!

The Puzzle Lady

Downton Abbey’s Phyllis Logan, plays an eccentric faux–crossword celeb, who lands in the village of Bakerbury, where murders come with crossword clues and the local police reluctantly rely on her “expertise” — never mind that her niece is the real puzzle genius. Starting February 19, binge all six episodes with Passport, or catch it weekly beginning March 22 at 11pm on GBH 2.

Call the Midwife - Season Fifteen

It’s 1971 in Poplar. Women’s Lib is gathering pace, the NHS is shifting under everyone’s feet, and yet some things never change: the babies keep coming, and matters of the heart prove more trying than a breech birth. Stream the new season in Passport; it rolls out weekly, starting Feb. 20.

Rocco Schiavone - Season Six

We find our exiled Roman detective storming his way through Alpine investigations with his usual mix of sharp instincts and sharper language, the memory of his late wife following him like a shadow. Think crime, snow, and feelings that Rocco will never admit to. Beginning February 20, you can binge all eight episodes of Season Six.

Dive Into America 250

The Culture Show Podcast

On The Culture Show, in our recurring segment called “Countdown to 2026,” Jared Bowen sits down with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll to preview next July’s Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular celebrating America’s 250th birthday.

Off Topic

1. Discover “NOVA Remix,” the new podcast that turns decades of breakthrough science, from black holes to buried pyramids, into mind‑bending audio adventures. Listen to the trailer.
2. Watch Broadway and TV (Glee) actor Darren Criss uncover the extraordinary path his aunt took to build a new life in America.
3. Meet the disabled riders, including trailblazer Joanne Daniels‑Finegold, whose persistence has transformed MBTA accessibility.