Gripping Netflix thriller is the best police mystery since Mare of Easttown

The Age

4 days ago

Dept. Q ★★★★½
You could make a list of the building blocks in this Edinburgh-set crime thriller and they'd be readily familiar to fans of the genre. Tick off a gifted but arrogant detective, their disaffected child, a new partner who carries a heavy burden, and a case that offers few clues. But without fail this enthralling drama, which becomes an unstoppable procedural driven by resuscitation and redemption, transcends the recognisable. Every element is finely honed, making Dept. Q the best law enforcement mystery since Mare of Easttown.
It's a triumph of craft, capably assembled. That begins with creator Scott Frank, who co-wrote and lead-directed this adaptation of Jussi Adler-Olsen's series of Danish crime novels. Frank, whose previous Netflix series include The Queen's Gambit and Godless, moves the story to Scotland, but his protagonist is unyielding. Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) is a demanding police detective, dismissive of those who can't dissect a crime scene. His colleagues are in a race to tell Morck to eff off, with many achieving personal bests.
Returning to work after a failed routine operation hospitalised his partner, Hardy (Jamie Sives), Morck is a fuse waiting to be lit, so his boss, Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie), sends him to the basement as the head – and sole member – of a new cold case squad. Here's another tick: Morck has mandated sessions with psychologist Dr Rachel Irving (Kelly Macdonald). But they're both revealing and bleakly funny – Morck is never a misanthrope for the sake of it, and Frank keeps finding new foils for him. The dialogue bristles with subtext and swipes.
Goode's an exceptional actor who's never had a defining role. Until now. He gives Morck's struggles with self-loathing and selflessness a roiling depth. In a show where confinement – physically and emotionally – is a recurring theme, Morck's trajectory is never simply upwards. His doubts about himself are reflected in a hard-charging prosecutor with a complex past, Merrit Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), but Morck's professional drive is equally a magnet for outsiders. The first is his assistant, Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov), a Syrian refugee with a complicated CV.
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It helps immeasurably that the case they settle on is a genuine puzzle, and the story unfolds it patiently with false starts and authentic legwork. Nothing comes easily on Dept. Q, and that makes each step a small triumph. There's a hint of Slow Horses in the maladjusted and misfits finding purpose in the basement, but the idiomatic sarcasm is more of a defence mechanism in Edinburgh. It's a show about the fine line between someone staying afloat or sinking without trace. The margins always matter in this gripping tale.