Yes, it will have you up well into the night – Dept. Q is the new Netflix show on the block that has aced it in all departments (pun intended), from performances to main character vibes, storytelling, subtle messaging and sharp dialogues that pull you in to the narrative with each successive episode. Read on to find out what we have to say about the crime drama that’s got it all right! Spoiler Alert!
Detective Carl Morck and his crew are pursuing a cold case – one that went dead almost 4 years ago. As Merritt Lingard’s disappearance off a ferry a few years ago, leaving her brother (who had suffered a beating when younger, that left him with speech disabilities), William behind, could not be traced to any known clues of where she could possibly be; alive or dead, kidnapped or merely on the run, or escaping her present life. Detective Carl Morck set out on a hunt that took his team down circuitous possibilities. But it wasn’t just the chase, it was also the crew incharge of unearthing this mystery that pushed the story into bumper content category – with Akram from Syria and his commitment to pulling out his prayer mat at work and performing his daily prayers yet remaining wholly rational, wholly expressionless, to DC Rose Dickson who endeared viewers with her courage to overcome her inner fears and trauma, and determination to follow a lead, and James Hardy who added in the clever bits with a tinge of humour – the cast, and there’s more, packed in riveting performances, clearly sketched out characters that spoke volumes to the viewer. Carl Morck might be the winner here, but there were clearly no losers in this grand yet understated grand opera of performances.
Dept. Q itself, the show, along with its cast, just did its work, making a beeline for the goalpost – uncovering the mystery behind Merritt Lingard’s disappearance, one clue at a time.
The Whodunnit was bound up in multiple messages too, but none that seemed overtly evident. For one, the emotional and physical trauma that members of the police force have to live through was highlighted in multiple characters, each with his or her challenges. Hardy wished an end to his life after being near-paralyzed waist down, Carl Morck was revisited by guilt for endangering his partner’s life as well as the trauma of the initial shooting, DC Rose’s car chase that involved a fatal accident played on her sensibilities, her driving and possibly her OCD – but this crew, with all its idiosyncrasies, laboured on, much like all of us when we have a task to perform and we don’t let life come in the way of more or less anything – even a stint in the hospital, a dodged or hit bullet and a visit to the therapist can’t deter them from their final goal.
If we were to break down Matthew Goode’s performance as Carl Morck, one has to say, it hit all the high notes. Not just that, but his character itself, dripping with charming sarcasm, self deprecating humour, yet clearly more human than what is evident on the surface – his personal life story revealed and his connection with his step-son, a journey that endeared and jerked a tear or two, without being anything close to weepy or emotional, unraveled before us a raw energy, an injured, brave soul who kept on going, despite being relegated to a dark dungeon-like basement to work out the case.
When most thriller stories thrive on the suspense, Dept. Q added a stellar human dimension to its lead, Carl, by allowing him to walk through his personal interactions with Jasper, his stepson, Rachel Irving, his therapist and James Hardy, his partner. Each of these relationships revealed a side of Carl that was deeply human, raw and caring. It was almost as if in explaing to Jasper, that there were two parts residing in him – the police officer and this person he sees here, Carl was telling us, the audience, the same. His sharp word play with Rachel during his sessions was crisp, engaging and also hugely revelationary about his trauma and the monsters he battles within. All this made our hero deeply human and the connection grew with each passing episode.
But it wasn’t just Matthew who shone, it was brave-heart DC Rose performed endearingly by Leah Byrne, who sifted through the intimidating and judging exterior of Carl, Merritt performed with razor-sharp precision by Chloe Pirrie, in her inspiring grit and obstinacy not to lose, Jamie Hardy essayed charmingly by Jamie Sives, in taking another shot at life and Akram played by Alexej Menvelov- the sweetest surprise of all, Akram with his wife’s home-cooked meals, regular prayer timings, mysterious past, and dare-devil interrogation tactics, a part of him reminded us of the Columbo days – and those are just some of the reasons that made this bunch of mismatched, yet dedicated investigators so interesting to follow.
Dept. Q also threw us an intriguing crime thriller – navigating William’s attack, the retelling of which opened up so many more revelations, him fitting the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle with his detailed sketches – there were bits and pieces thrown into the clues so that the viewer was as much a part of the Carl Morck resistance team off the screen as this crew was in it – where were Sam Haig’s car keys, why was he double-crossing Merritt, who killed him, was he in love with her, who’s the biggest suspect, is it William’s caretaker, or Merritt’s dad or maybe even Stephen Burns, no, Graham Finch! The possibilities were many and each one pointed to a possible motive. And that’s how you wrap a crime thriller, keeping audiences guessing for most of the story if not all.
If you figured it out, you’re a potential D.I. yourself, but the manner in which the final few episodes unraveled was in itself enough to keep audiences invested.
Dept. Q also stands out for giving us a Muslim character who was not over or underplayed. Akram Salim played deftly by Alexej Menvelov rolled out the prayer mat just as unassumingly as he took on the investigation, scaling fences with a Tom Cruise-like confidence, performing an interrgoation with just the right degree of smooth wind-pipe crushing, (not killing) skills – one slips under the skin of the character to comprehend how amusing yet poignant were the undercurrents; from mentioning his wife and daughters in passing to making himself practically indispensable to Carl – Akram was a man of many talents and an underplayed sense of humour, plus the Muslim character essayed a type that few actors and storytellers have managed to nail so precisely on modern OTT platforms.
To pass off Dept. Q merely as a crime, mystery thriller is perhaps omitting the messaging that came along with it. When Ailsa Jennings’ parenting skills came under the radar, one was left horrified yet reminded of horror stories that came close. Her sheltering her boys, and the upbringing she put them through revealed reasons for the psychotic mind she had raised – it takes one to raise one possibly. But it was in Lyle Jennings character, the behaviour that he essayed, the twisted motivations that drove him, that reminded us of how dangerous, how beyond help or any sort of redemption are the minds of some who inhabit this world. And while the story did not point directly to the insidious parenting that lay behind the deathly mind of a killer, one stood back in sheer horror, mentally mapping out all the psycho cases in news headlines or eerily, one might have heard of, drawing sinister parallels to Lyle Jennings’ character and background. The stories we hear are not all fiction or a figment of the storyteller’s imagination and hence, to be taken seriously.
In this respect, Adolescence’s Jamie Miller could be added as a precursor to Lyle Jennings – because Dept. Q did not just dream up a psychotic killer, it fitted in all the missing pieces like a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces falling into place just at the right time.
On a final note, what really makes the show a winner is the fleshing out of the main character in scripting, performance and an original ‘look and feel’ we cannot match with any other main character onscreen yet, he comes off as wholly wholesome in all his complex yet simple layers – Carl Morck superbly played by Matthew Goode is the prime takeaway from Dept. Q and is reason enough for the creators to give us a season 2. That, coupled with the rest of the team and right hand man Akram make it an unmissable weekend watch!
Credits
Dept. Q is a Netflix series created by Scott Frank and Chandni Lakhani. The cast includes Matthew Goode, Chloe Pirrie, Jamie Sives, Mark Bonnar, Alexej Manvelov, Leah Byrne, Kelly Macdonald, Kate Dickie.
