Matthew Goode and Dept. Q: A Review

I accidentally stumbled onto a trailer for Dept. Q one day when I tuned into Netflix (of course, for something completely different), and it intrigued me. Subsequent research about the show which yielded the information that it was a British adaptation of a Nordic noir series of novels Afdeling Q (Department Q) by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen made me even more curious.

So, we binged the entire 9 episodes in less than a week….

While I haven’t had a lot of time to process the show more carefully, here are a few quick responses. Of course, my feelings on this and other topics may evolve as I sit on this for a bit. Anyway, here goes:

This is way better than (Matthew Goode in) Discovery of Witches

Ok, this first little observation has a back story. Last year, my husband and I tried watching a fantasy series based on All Souls Trilogy by an author named Deborah Harkness. Perhaps it was the 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating for the first season (87% overall) and 7.8 IMDb score that convinced me to give it a try. Or perhaps it was knowing that Matthew Goode was starring in it. Having first (only?) seen Matthew Goode in Woody Allen’s Match Point (2005), I reasoned that it couldn’t be too bad. Those turned out to be “famous last words.”

While I have nothing against fantasy as a genre, I do draw the line at really terrible acting. Goode himself was not the problem, but I kept on imaging the actor saying to himself during the filming of the Witches series: “I was in a Woody Allen film with Emily Mortimer and Scarlet Johansson, and now I’m starring in this….”

Language, language, language!

If you want a master-class on how to curse, you might tune into Dept. Q. To say that the cast peppers the “f-word” (and s-word and c-word…) liberally is to understate the matter. Matthew Goode’s character Carl Morck is perhaps the winner of the contest to see who can swear with most derision and contempt and anger and rage and humor and self-deprecation and sadness and surprise and shock and frustration and…. You get the idea. There’s a different intonation—and number of repetitions (why say it just once when you could say it seven times?)—for each different occasion.

Lest you think I’m being too harsh, let me also concede that Matthew Goode does actually convey those different emotions fairly effectively with his numerous and varied renditions.

Some nice supporting players in the Dept.

Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck’s new assistant Akram Salim is played by a Swedish actor named Alexej Manvelov, and his is a commanding and positive presence. While we quickly learn that this Syrian refugee is a mysterious character who can harness violence, the measured and understated—dare I say calming and soothing?—personality is a welcome counterpoint to Morck’s volatile explosions. I don’t know about others, but I felt a bit safer for everyone when Akram Salim was in a scene.

While Carl’s former partner spends most of the series in a hospital bed feeling justifiably sorry for himself and angry with the world of the living, Detective Inspector James Hardy (played by Jamie Sives) also enriches scenes he appears in. You get a warm glow when he starts to express interest in the case his partner is now working on, and you root for him to re-engage with the world.

“Nordic noir” darkness

I haven’t read too much Nordic noir myself aside from the obligatory Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series (yes, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc.), but I can definitely see Jussi Adler-Olsen’s noir pedigree with Dept. Q—even though they set it in Scotland with a British cast. There was a moment at the very end of the first episode when my husband and I looked at each other and both groaned. What sort of sickness is out there?!

There are times while reading or watching something when you wonder whether there are unhinged minds who are going to get perverse ideas from fictional—or, let’s face it, real—events. The same might go for parts of Dept. Q. Just sayin.’

Last third seems to get less interesting?

The first episode with its split story focus gave us a nice twist in the middle of it. By the end of that episode, we were hooked. Once we watched six episodes, I was raring to go and finish out the last three episodes in one go. Maybe I should have paced better?

Perhaps others will disagree, but I found the last third of the series not quite as strong as the first parts. It seemed to me that the tension built over the first sections let off a bit, and the resolution of the central case seemed a bit anti-climactic. And, of course, there are always those moments when you wonder why characters do stupid things. Don’t they know that we’re dealing with psychopathic killers?!

Overall, Dept. Q was an enjoyable and gripping watch. I’d give it a grade of A-.