Dept. Q
It opens with a bang. Three law enforcement officials shot in what seems to be a shock ambush on the scene of a grisly homicide. One is killed, one other left paralyzed. The third makes it out simple – shot within the face with no main bones or arteries hit.
DCI Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) survives the assault, however he’s left much more curmudgeonly than earlier than. The trauma sticks with him, regardless of how badly he needs to fake nothing’s unsuitable. His associate, James Hardy (Jaime Sives) is recovering within the hospital, and Morck returns to the Edinburgh police power with nothing to do aside from stew over the dearth of progress in his case and deride the work of his colleagues.
His boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Moira Jacobsen (Kate Dickie) is informed by her superiors that they want her to open a brand new chilly circumstances division as a way to deal with high-profile, feel-good circumstances that create good publicity for the division, and he or she sees this as a possibility to restrict Morck to the basement and presents him the job.
And so Division Q is fashioned, in a shabby basement that was as soon as, way back, a bathe and loo ground. Some spoilers observe, although clearly I received’t reveal main particulars of the thriller.
Dept Q
Dept. Q takes place in Edinburgh and the encompassing space, in addition to the fictional Scottish island of Mhòr (reached by way of ferry by the use of the very actual city of Oban). I simply spent two weeks in Scotland and whereas a lot of the present was not truly filmed in Edinburgh, I did discover some scenes that had been very clearly shot there, together with one exterior Greyfriars Bobby’s Bar, with its well-known Skye terrier statue out entrance. I ate lunch there sooner or later on my travels, and my resort was only a couple blocks away. I additionally spent a pair nights in Oban.
Suffice to say, I used to be instantly intrigued by Dept Q once I first realized it was popping out throughout my Scottish journey. The present relies on the Scandinavian noir books by creator Jussi Adler-Olsen, although the story has been moved from Denmark to Scotland and thus qualifies as “tartan noir”. It was tailored for the display by The Queen’s Gambit creator Scott Frank, who not solely wrote but additionally directed a lot of the episodes.
When Morck takes over the brand new division, he’s given nearly not one of the assets promised to the division and has to beg and scrape for any type of help. This comes within the type of Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov) a Syrian expatriate with a mysterious previous that concerned discovering individuals who didn’t need to be discovered. Akram is the polar reverse of Morck. The place Morck runs sizzling and is fast to anger, Akram is soft-spoken and courteous. He’s additionally fairly clearly probably the most harmful man in the complete collection.
Dept Q
They’re finally joined by DC Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne) who’s bored with being confined to a desk after a private meltdown two years prior and begs Morck for a spot on the chilly circumstances staff.
Morck is given dozens of information to select from, but it surely’s Akram who chooses the case: A younger prosecutor went lacking 4 years earlier and was by no means discovered. No physique was ever found and the case went chilly. As a prosecutor, the girl – Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie) – had loads of enemies, and the suspect checklist leads Morck and his colleagues down a twisty, turny investigation that results in proof of corruption, conspiracy and arranged crime.
Interspersed all through the nine-episode collection (which is three episodes longer than I anticipated from a thriller popping out of the UK) are varied flashbacks to Lingard’s previous, although these are far much less frequent than in different chilly circumstances collection like Unforgotten or Black Snow, which is an efficient factor. Each these reveals get too slowed down in previous storylines. A lot of the present takes place within the trendy timeline because the detectives observe down leads, interview potential witnesses and suspects, and take care of private challenges.
Dept Q
The place the present struggles most is juggling a few of these storylines. There’s a “mandated police remedy” subplot that feels weirdly misplaced. Kelly Macdonald performs Dr. Rachel Irving and as a lot as I like Macdonald, Irving and Morck’s chemistry feels off. I’m additionally a bit bored with the “reluctant cop goes to remedy” trope. There’s additionally Morck’s relationship along with his stepson which takes up a bit an excessive amount of screentime, although no less than additionally results in Morck’s most humanizing moments and a few real character development.
The 9 episode run might be too lengthy, and Dept. Q might have benefited from tightening up the pacing and bringing us some closure a bit of earlier on. I genuinely loved the complete factor – I watched it multi function sitting! – however I’d largely discovered the thriller a lot earlier (it’s not an enormous secret since we see Lingard in captivity and there are many clues as to who her captors are) and one of many massive twists on the finish would have labored higher if it had all come a bit of sooner.
Nonetheless, regardless of feeling a bit of bloated in comparison with tighter UK collection like Sluggish Horses or Blissful Valley, this was nonetheless an extremely entertaining thriller with a beautiful forged. Matthew Goode is phenomenal because the acerbic DCI Morck, however so is each different actor on the collection. The dour, gray temper of the present is lightened by loads of moments of humor. And whereas there’s not a ton of motion, this solely makes the bursts of violence that rather more surprising and intense.
Dept Q
In the event you’re a fan of chilly circumstances mysteries like Unforgotten, Scottish mysteries like Shetland or crime reveals generally, please do your self a favor and take a look at Dept Q on Netflix as quickly as potential. I not often watch a complete present in a single sitting (and granted, I solely got down to watch six episodes and was stunned by the additional three) however the mere proven fact that I did ought to inform you how a lot I loved this one – both that, or how drained and lazy I felt as I recovered from jetlag from my very own journey by way of Scotland.
Hopefully this can be a smash hit and extra of Adler-Olsen’s books are tailored for Netflix. Actually the season ends with a watch to the long run, and I for one would love to hitch Morck and Akram and Rose and Hardy and all the remainder on one other case. Solely perhaps subsequent time we might get a number of the Scottish highlands as effectively.
Have you ever watched Dept Q but? What did you assume? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Additionally you should definitely subscribe to my YouTube channel and observe me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for extra critiques and commentary on leisure and tradition.
