This is a new series from the UK starring Matthew Goode as Detective Carl Morck. It came out on Netflix yesterday.
DCI Carl Morck is a brilliant cop but a terrible colleague. His razor-sharp sarcasm has made him no friends in Edinburgh police. After a shooting that leaves a young pc dead, and his partner paralysed, he finds himself exiled to the basement and the sole member of Department Q; a newly formed cold case unit. The department is a PR stunt, there to distract the public from the failures of an under-resourced, failing police force that is glad to see the back of him. But more by accident than design, Carl starts to build a gang of waifs and strays who have everything to prove. So, when the stone-cold trail of a prominent civil servant who disappeared several years ago starts to heat up, Carl is back doing what he does best – rattling cages and refusing to take no for an answer.
Several books from the series of Danish crime novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen have been made into movies, but this is the first time the stories have been adapted in English.
The previous Danish adaptations consist of six movies:
- Department Q: Keeper of Lost Causes (2013)
- Department Q: The Absent One (2014)
- Department Q: A Conspiracy of Faith (2016)
- Department Q: The Purity of Revenge (2018)
- The Marco Effect (2021)
- Boundless (2024)
Author Jussi Adler-Olsen was unhappy with the results and the casting in the first four films, feeling that the films and characters departed from his novels too much and that his suggestions were being ignored. A new production team took over and all the major roles were re-cast for the next two films. There are four more books which have not yet been adapted into feature films.
Holy crap! A show about some asshole who is otherwise really good at his job? Shocking premise!
On the surface, the series of books sounds a lot like the Bosch series.
Yeah I read a review that compared it to Slow Horses. The similarities included “credits open with jangly electric guitar over an animated profile of the main character.”
That said, I chain-smoked the whole thing last weekend, it was a notch above just OK. They might have gotten the nine eps down to six or seven. Kelly McDonald could have been nakeder. But I’ll be there if they come with Season 2.