Critic Reviews

“Broken people healing themselves by providing closure for crime victims” can be an especially effective subgenre if the writing, directing, and casting align — and in Dept. Q, everything gels beautifully.

Undeniably a great detective series and is just as sharp and engrossing as “Slow Horses.

Dept. Q is very well done. Goode, more often seen as a buttoned-up toff (in Downton Abbey and The Crown), plays wonderfully well against type as an unbuttoned scruff. His team of misfits are well cast and well-used.

Dept Q may sound generic, being made by Netflix — or specifically Left Bank, who made royalty sexy with The Crown — but it’s slicker, more expensively done, more visually arresting than your average (even as its stretched over a couple of episodes too many).

It is all fantastically well, and rigorously, done. The pacing has a leisurely confidence that some may find a touch slow, but allows for a character-first approach, creating a richness that amply rewards initial patience.

Dept. Q makes the mystery’s web of lies feel like a window into a larger, well-built world. That quality, coupled with some thoroughly lived-in performances, helps the show stand out in a crowded field.

The beauty is that even with all the excess, Dept Q never feels complicated. It’s confident in its simplicity, assuredly propelling you towards a heart-thumping finale. Watching it is rarely hard work.

Dept. Q, which Frank co-created with Chandni Lakhani, boasts a terrific lead performance from Goode, introduces a memorable ensemble cast and even unfurls a compelling mystery, albeit one that probably could have been told with a little more efficiency.

“Dept. Q” is deeply intense and complex. Its twists and turns don’t always pay off, but overall, the series is a riveting watch.

Carl, played by Matthew Goode, is not an easy man to like, let alone love. Yet the show built around him — Dept. Q, a new Netflix series adapted from the Danish noir novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen — turns out to be startlingly likable, and also sad, and funny, and scary, and thrilling.