Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: Dept. Q

Dept. Q: Matthew Goode Goes Cop in Scott Frank's New Netflix Series

Matthew Goode plays an angsty cop in Dept. Q, Scott Frank's new Netflix mystery series that's set to premiere on May 25th.

Published Tue, 22 Apr 2025 11:07:05 -0500

by Adi Tantimedh

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It's Matthew Goode's turn to play an angsty cop in Dept. Q, an adaptation of the novels of the same name by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. The series revolves around Carl Morck, a former top-rated detective in Edinburgh assigned to a new cold case whilst wracked with guilt for an attack that left his partner paralyzed and another cop dead. Morck isn't particularly easy to get along with. It's not his fault — well, maybe it's his fault a little. Morck is a notorious figure in his adopted home of Edinburgh, Scotland, an English detective who gets under the skin of everyone around him. Dept. Q is adapted by writer/director Scott Frank, who was behind both Netflix hits The Queen's Gambit and Godless.

But, of course, there's more to Carl Morck than meets the eye. "There's a kind part to him that's there," Frank teased. You just might have to scratch the surface more than a little to get to that kind of part, especially as Morck recovers from a tragic on-duty shooting that leaves him scarred, a young police constable dead, and his partner paralyzed. Upon returning to work, he's put in charge of a brand-new police unit: the Department Q of the show's title, tasked with investigating cold cases as part of a PR effort for the Scottish police force. Only one problem with Dept. Q: it's a squad full of oddballs.

Kelly Macdonald in "Dept. Q", photo credit: Netflix

Showrunner Scott Frank on Dept. Q

"When we join the story, a 16-year-old case up in Aberdeen has been solved," Goode says. "The optics of that look really good, because right now they're lacking finance and crime figures are going up. So Kate Dickie's character — the boss of the police force — her higher-ups say, 'Let's form a cold case unit.' " Of course, Carl's promotion to the forefront of Department Q isn't necessarily a compliment. "She puts Carl in charge because she can keep an eye on him in the basement," Goode laughs.

Frank has been living with Adler-Olsen's books in mind for more than two decades. "There was just something about it," says the writer/director. "The title, this notion of something called Department Q, stayed with me. And so I met with the author while I was shooting A Walk Among the Tombstones in New York, and I'd actually had the books for a couple of years by then."

The cast of Dept. Q features Matthew Goode as Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck, Chloe Pirrie as Merritt Lingard, Jamie Sives as Detective Chief Inspector James Hardy, Mark Bonnar as Stephen Burns, Alexej Manvelov (Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Chernobyl) as Akram Salim, Leah Byrne as Detective Constable Rose Dickson, Kate Dickie as Detective Chief Superintendent Moira Jacobson, Shirley Henderson as Claire Marsh, Kelly Macdonald as Dr. Rachel Irving, and Tom Bulpett as William Lingard. Scott Frank wrote all nine episodes and directed six.