Plot: DCI Carl Morck is a brilliant cop but a terrible colleague. His razor-sharp sarcasm has made him no friends in Edinburgh police. After a shooting that leaves a young pc dead, and his partner paralysed, he finds himself exiled to the basement and the sole member of Department Q; a newly formed cold case unit. The department is a PR stunt, there to distract the public from the failures of an under-resourced, failing police force that is glad to see the back of him. But more by accident than design, Carl starts to build a gang of waifs and strays who have everything to prove. So, when the stone-cold trail of a prominent civil servant who disappeared several years ago starts to heat up, Carl is back doing what he does best – rattling cages and refusing to take no for an answer.
Review: Scott Frank earned himself a golden ticket after the runaway success of 2020’s The Queen’s Gambit, his second Netflix series after the western, Godless. While taking a segue into the noir series Monsieur Spade, Frank is back on Netflix with the new procedural series Dept. Q. Based on the global bestselling Danish novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Dept. Q features Matthew Goode in the lead role of Carl Morck, a disgruntled detective tasked with heading a cold case squad investigating unsolved crimes throughout Scotland. Partnered with other outcasts in his precinct, Morck puts his brilliant deduction skills to the test. With a muted palette and intriguing core mystery, Dept. Q is one of the better crime series to debut this year, and another winning adaptation from Scott Frank.
A nine-episode adaptation of the first Department Q novel, The Keeper of Lost Causes, the series opens with a shocking crime that leaves Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) suffering from PTSD and a near-death experience. While the crime is being investigated by the Edinburgh police, led by supervisor Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie), the powers-that-be invoke a new team focused on cold case investigations. Moira designates Morck to lead the new department and banish him from negatively impacting the primary police officers. Morck, meant to work independently, enlists whipsmart analyst Rose (Leah Byrne) and former Syrian investigator Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov). Focusing on a case file uncovered by Akram, Morck leads a highly publicized investigation that reveals many twists, turns, and secrets. Couple that with Morck’s therapy sessions with Dr. Rachel Irving (Kelly Macdonald) and his former partner, Hardy (Jamie Sives), and Dept. Q is full of intriguing characters and subplots.
Along with Morck and his team investigating their case, Dept. Q focuses on prosecutor Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), who is intrinsically connected to the crime. Lingard cares for her disabled brother and is supported by caregiver Claire Marsh (Shirley Henderson). What happens in the first episode involving Lingard and a trial she is working on dovetails with Morck’s investigation and the investigation into who shot Morck and Hardy in the premiere’s opening. The three story arcs run parallel and deviate slightly from the source material. But, with the expansion of the story to cover nine hour-long chapters, we get much of the development excised from the ongoing Danish big-screen adaptations released every few years since 2013. By shifting the setting to Scotland, the English-speaking cast can localize elements of their characters that are unique to the novels and films while keeping the core tone and style of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s creations.
While Dept. Q is a very close adaptation of the source material; the English-language interpretation draws some parallels with the similar Swedish and American films based on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Audiences will recognize some of the department’s cast members, notably star Matthew Goode (Watchmen, The King’s Man), but most of the cast will still be unknown to American audiences. The appreciation for British crime series is significant in North America, and this adaptation will surely click with viewers. Dept. Q is very violent and brutal with a wicked streak of humor, thanks to Goode’s apathetic take on Carl Morck. Morck’s interactions with his colleagues, therapist, and friends vary wildly, but he is a fascinating character. A broken man with lots of baggage, Goode’s performance ranks alongside Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb in Apple TV+’s Slow Horses as another likable character who should be unlikeable in every way.
Scott Frank developed Dept. Q alongside writer Chandni Lakhani, with the pair scripting three episodes together. Scott Frank co-wrote the remaining episodes with Stephen Greenhorn and Colette Kane, along with one episode written solo. Scott Frank directed five chapters, including the first two episodes and the finale, with the remaining chapters helmed by Elisa Amoruso. After success with feature films including Out of Sight, Minority Report, The Wolverine, and Logan, Scott Frank has proven to be even stronger at crafting long-form stories on the small screen and Dept. Q is no exception. Yes, it follows many of the conventions of police procedural and detective series. Still, the character development and focused narrative drawing multiple plots together work cohesively, with virtually none of the episodes having any filler or unnecessary red herrings. The intensity of each chapter builds with the reveal of who did what and why, not being saved until the very last chapter, but peppered as early as the first episode, making the story even more engrossing.
Dept. Q works much better than I expected and is a solid under-the-radar surprise that could develop into a fan favorite if audiences check it out. With nine more novels already published, Scott Frank and Chandni Lakhani have a lot of potential runway to take existing material and give each book a faithful adaptation across a full season of storytelling. If Matthew Goode and this ensemble are up for it, Dept. Q could become a great franchise for Netflix with a solid creative team and cast. I sometimes get tired of the same formulaic approach to telling crime stories like this, but Frank and Lakhani imbue these characters with great layers and solid dialogue that keeps the series feeling new. I binged all nine episodes and never felt like the momentum let up along the way. I would love for Dept. Q to become a big hit and garner a much-deserved sophomore season sooner rather than later.
Dept. Q premieres on May 29th on Netflix.
Source:
JoBlo.com
