# Dept. Q (2025)

> A brash, brilliant Edinburgh detective is given his own cold case department and a team of misfits to reopen forgotten crimes.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/161456

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 10
- Episode runtime: 54 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Scott Frank, Chandni Lakhani
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Matthew Goode, Chloe Pirrie, Jamie Sives, Alexej Manvelov, Leah Byrne, Kelly Macdonald, Aaron McVeigh, Shirley Henderson
- TMDB rating: 8.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27995114/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: grim, understated, dark, wry, tense

## What critics say

Audiences broadly praise the cast and the dark, character-driven cold case mysteries, while noting it follows the Danish source closely.

## Synopsis

Dept. Q (2025-present) is a British-American crime drama series created by Scott Frank and Chandni Lakhani for Netflix, adapted from the Danish novel The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen. Matthew Goode plays DCI Carl Morck, a brash but brilliant detective who is handed a newly formed department in Edinburgh and assembles an unlikely team of misfits. Chloe Pirrie plays Merritt Lingard, a member of the unit whose personal history is entangled with the cases, while Jamie Sives plays DCI James Hardy and Alexej Manvelov plays Akram Salim, both helping shape the squad's clashing personalities. Its engine is the grinding work of reopening forgotten files, interviewing witnesses, and chasing leads through a city of rain-slick streets and old institutions, with each season built around a long-buried case that gradually reveals darker connections. The show runs as a serialized mystery with a steady, understated pace and a grim, unsettling atmosphere softened by sly humour and character friction. Fans of The Killing, Broadchurch and Line of Duty will find resonance in its moody procedural texture and flawed, wounded investigators. The series is an ongoing Netflix production with a strong ensemble cast of veteran UK actors and a darkly atmospheric, character-driven approach.

## Shows like Dept. Q

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- [DNA (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/78914)
- [The Loch (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/62856)
- [The Truth Will Out (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/69947)
- [Karen Pirie (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/121068)
- [No Offence (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55662)
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- [The Crow Girl (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/164135)

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