Review of 'Dept. Q'

I've always been a big fan of Nordic Noir. That might seem a bit unusual for a bigger lifelong fan of science fiction, as well as an author of science fiction novels and stories. But the two genres are close cousins -- if detective mysteries are whodunnits, science fiction can be aptly read and seen as whatdunnits -- and some authors combined the two genres, as Isaac Asimov astutely did with his robot detective novels, which introduced and explicated the famous "three laws of robotics" in a series of murder mysteries. (I took a crack at blending science fiction and forensic detection as well, with my Phil D'Amato stories and novels.)

But Nordic Noir -- which can be geographically identified as stories that take place in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland -- has a special zing, a platter of gruesome crimes, investigated by slightly cracked but brilliant detectives who also manage to have a wicked sense of humor. Dept Q., which takes place in Scotland, has all of these characteristics in gleaming pitch black spades.

The TV series, which debuted on Netflix at the end of May, is based on a series of novels by the Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. My wife and I binged the nine episodes over several evenings concluding last night. (Is watching nine episodes over several nights rather than in one sitting aptly termed "binging"? You tell me. I will say thank you Netflix for putting all the episodes up at once, which permits binging, whatever exactly that means.)

The transplantation to Scotland works great -- it is, after all, in the northern part of the British Isles, and many of the characters have Nordic names (I assume they're derived from the original novels). The cold case team that investigates the disappearance of Merritt Lingard, a Crown Prosecutor (at a level equivalent to an Assistant District Attorney here in the United States) is, as per Nordic Noir protocols, a group not of three misfits, but of deeply wounded, yey highly talented people. DCI Carl Morck was nearly killed in a previous case that left one of his partners (James Hardy) so badly hurt he's unable to walk, and killed a patrol officer. Akram Salim is a Syrian immigrant with a calm logic and demeanor worthy of Sherlock Holmes and a harrowing past (he's become one of my favorite characters now in any television series). And DC Rose Dickson is on desk duty at the beginning of the series, traumatized because she accidentally killed an elderly couple with her car. That would be far more than enough to make any character deeply wounded.

And yet to make matters even worse for our characters, but better (of course) for this Nordic Noir drama, they're actually embroiled in one way or another in at least three gut wrenching cases: the disappearance of the crown prosecutor, the shooting that hit Morck (he's physically healed but psychologically struggling), and the case that Lingard tried and lost before she disappeared (in which a man who probably killed his wife was found not guilty). And indeed there are all kinds of other gruesome murders that come to light as the story proceeds, propelled by a bevy of gunfire, tempestuous family relationships, various kinds of romance, dreams, and a hyperbaric chamber.

The great story is served by memorable acting, with Matthew Goode as Morck, Alexej Manvelov as Salim, Leah Byrne as Dickson, Jamie Sives as Hardy, and Chloe Pirrie as Lingard. And hats off to Scott Frank and Elisa Amoruso for inspired directing. I give Dept. Q my highest recommendation and can't wait to see more.