29-05-2025
Dept Q review — Matthew Goode's excellent new detective is no shrinking thistle
It'd be a fair question, as you settle down to watch the 10,000th new crime mystery, to ask why you're putting up with yet another troubled, authority-defying, personal-life-in-a-mess, dedicated, brilliant [yes we get it, ed] investigator. Carl Morck, of Dept Q — a new series that feels as if Netflix's tanks are trundling over ITV's front lawn — is all these things. There is nothing new about him at all. So why does this show slip down as enjoyably as a peaty single malt? (Look, it's a very Scottish series, OK?)
Partly because, as played by Matthew Goode (further distancing himself from polite-posho roles), DCI Morck does one thing brilliantly, and it's something integral to why we endlessly watch these detective shows in the first place. He rattles cages fearlessly. You know, when the copper turns up at some fishy individual's door to ask impertinent questions that crack open secrets, and lies in a casual joust of denials, half-accusations and putdowns.
