I heard the latest Netflix series sensation Dept. Q described as a cross between Slow Horses and House. Now, if you know anything about those two other beloved but decidedly un-traditional shows, one which ran from 2004 to 2012 and the other which is currently running on AppleTV+, they both are centered around one certifiably grumpy guy who also happens to be—of course—somewhat of a genius at what he does, despite how he makes everyone around him crazy. In House, the crazy-maker was played by the always-perfect
Hugh Laurie and in Slow Horses, he’s played by the great unwashed master Gary Oldman, so, to be considered in the same creative arena as them is quite high praise indeed, but certainly one that is deserved by Matthew Goode, who earns his misanthropic stripes in Dept. Q with just as much bitterness as Laurie and rueful resentment but thankfully more soap (and certainly fewer farts) than Oldman.
In Dept. Q, Goode plays Carl Morck, a police detective in Edinburgh, Scotland who’s had a run of bad luck, starting with his marriage falling apart—leaving him with reluctant custody of his angry teenage son—and most recently capped by getting shot during a routine investigation. Between the lingering PTSD from getting shot, the fact that the perpetrator was never caught and the fact that he is just generally pissed off at the world, Carl is having a hard time returning to work, so his boss, played by Kate Dickie, relegates him to the basement of the police headquarters, and gives him his own department, assigned to solving cold cases. She figures, how much damage can he do to cases that everyone’s forgotten all about.
But despite appearances, Carl is a really good detective. And when he is joined by another department castoff and a civilian who is just looking for a job, it turns out this ragtag group is pretty good at police work. So good, in fact, that there have been 10 novels written by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen on which this show is based, so who knows how many more seasons there may be after this one, if Netflix deems it worthy.
The show, which has 9 episodes in this first season, was co-created by Scott Frank, who also co-created The Queen’s Gambit, the Netflix sensation from 2020 that catapulted Anya Taylor-Joy to stardom. Dept. Q is not nearly as strong as that series, but it does hold your interest enough to be bingeable, especially if you love police dramas with a charismatic central character. Goode is the reason to watch, as are the two other members of his detective team, played by Leah Byrne and Alexej Manvelov, each a supporting character strong enough for their own show.
The police procedural elements of the series are great, as are the banter and character work between the main characters, but the show does get bogged down a bit by some torture-porn elements of the main crime they are trying to solve, as it just gets too gruesome after a while. But, thankfully, there is so much else that is Goode enough to overcome the bad in Dept. Q and I do recommend it, especially if you like grumpy, handsome, haunted guys solving crimes. How could you not?
Dept. Q (season 1) is currently playing on Netflix. There has been no word yet on whether there will be a second season.