Dept. Q

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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 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).

Dept. Q spends a lot of its first episode in misdirection mode, but by the end it has set up an intriguing case that’s being followed by an interesting-to-watch group of cops.

Dept. Q expands beyond typical crime fare in much the same way The Queen’s Gambit transcended its ostensible subjects: chess, midcentury fashion, female empowerment. The first season does lack the latter show’s depth. But what it accomplishes should be enough to make it very popular.

(It doesn’t hook you in like that stylish 2020 miniseries [The Queen’s Gambit], nor make you want to bask in its environment like that handsome, South-of-France-set neo-noir from last year [Monsieur Spade].) But it does have the bones for a longer run than those shows—and a crew with strong enough buddy-cop dynamics to warrant another case.

The story is pulpy in ways that are sometimes unexpectedly dull, but I appreciate that one ongoing theme concerns the idea that police work is often corrupt. .... That basement office where Dept. Q is headquartered may be dank, but it’s atmospheric and cozy in its own way. Ultimately, the combination of Carl, Akram, Rose and Hardy makes for a compelling crime-solving foursome.

Dept. Q will likely grip fans of whodunit fare well enough, but with some crucial tweaks, it's not hard to imagine it becoming a better show if further seasons are to follow.

For now, we have to work with what we've got, and at this point in time Dept Q feels like a work in progress - not unlike its protagonist, it's a mess with real promise beneath it all, a diamond waiting to be cut and polished.

It is, in short, a lazy assembly of tropes that have worked better elsewhere. And yet, despite all that, I found myself gripped. This first series unfurls over the course of nine hour-long episodes, giving it plenty of time to grow on you.

Goode’s performance, while proficient, feels a little dull. He’s fine, but “Dept. Q” might have been more interesting with someone genuinely scruffier in the role.

The more authentic the rest of Dept. Q comes to feel, the more ludicrous and rudimentary the central “mystery” appears.

Dept. Q has that stronger, network-style hook right off the bat, but its sense of gritty prestige never overpowers the feeling that this is a page-turner sometimes turning its pages at half speed. It’s not quite up to Frank’s usual level.

I’m not familiar enough with the source material or the film adaptation to say for sure where this story has been padded, but it simply hasn’t been done so in an interesting enough manner to justify nine hours of television.