The First Two Minutes Of This Netflix Thriller Is A Jaw-Dropper—But The Ending To Episode 1 Is 100% ‘Chef’s Kiss’

The crime thriller genre gets pretty predictable when you know what tropes to look for, and Dept. Q has its fair share. Prickly cop with a difficult home life who uses cockiness and sarcasm as a coping mechanism? Check. Bureau politics and systemic incompetence our hero must bend [read: break] the rules to rebel against? Also check. Eccentric line-up of suspects who don’t trust the police, are wary of testifying, and all appear [read: are] guilty of something?

Check. Check. Check.

It all seems like a formula designed to deliver maximum pleasure and mental stimulation, until the writers turn everything on its head, a mere two minutes into the first episode.

Our anti-hero, detective Carl Morck, casually strolls into a crime scene with colleague James Hardy while the two are off the clock (because they just can’t resist a good case), and he begins lecturing a junior officer, who is waiting for back-up, on investigation protocol, when all of a sudden, a masked gun-man appears in the hallway and guns all three men down.

The screenwriters brilliantly weaponize our own familiarity with the genre, knowing we’ll take the “safety” of a crime scene for granted, and transport the scene to last place we expect it to go. By the time police arrive, the culprit is always long gone, the violence complete, the crime committed, and everything truly terrifying already exists in the past tense.

We expect the officers to inspect the scene, take care not to disturb any evidence, maybe dust for prints, or examine a lifeless body, but Dept. Q flips the script and has these officers become victims of a brand new crime instead.

We’re not even to the meat of the plot yet, this first scene is just the catalyst for the all the events that follow, and a genius way to ensure you don’t doze off during the exposition loaded with all of those bits of background information you need to understand what comes next, including a cast of the most well-developed and lovable characters I have encountered in years. Did I mention this is all set in Edinburgh? You haven’t heard Scottish accents this good since Outlander.

The Ripples of Trauma

Carl Morck

Carl was already a piece of work before he got shot (no offense), and the PTSD just kind of exacerbates all of the other issues he’s been dealing with, including a superiority complex, his outsider status as a Londoner in Scotland, and a messy divorce that left him with sole custody of his teenaged step-son. On top of all that, Carl must now contend with the survivor’s guilt he feels after the junior officer was killed, and his friend, James Hardy, was paralyzed.

The bureau sends him to mandatory counseling, and banishes him to an abandoned basement office to investigate cold cases, in order to receive a hefty government budget that is getting siphoned off to other departments. His character parallels House and The X-Files, not to mention Matthew Goode’s familiar face is a favorite from Imagine Me & You, Downtown Abbey, The Crown, and more, making Carl the perfect TV protagonist.

Dr. Rachel Irving

Every traumatized cop needs a therapist, amiright? Enter Dr. Rachel Irving, who is covering for the bureau’s regular psychologist and gets off to a rocky start with Carl, who can’t be bothered to open up about his life, or his feelings. The two get into it more than once, in verbal jousts that feel romantically charged, and definitely cross professional boundaries, so be warned, this is not a realistic clinical relationship, but it does make for good TV.

Dr. Irving is an amazing foil for Carl, and her concern for his well-being highlights how far he may be slipping after the incident, but also how much he grows over the span of the series. She uncovers the human being underneath the badge, and even though it’s not appropriate, he does the same with her in return. The acting between these two gets you hyped up every time they’re on screen together.

A Rag-Tag Team

Even thought TV loves a lone-wolf, Carl can’t possibly solve these cold cases alone. The team of misfits he recruits, or is forced to take on, isn’t what he was originally looking for, but all three overcome their own personal struggles to become an extremely tight-knit team who call “Dept. Q” home and manage to solve crimes that have lain dormant for years.

James Hardy

Confined to a hospital bed after the shooting, James becomes suicidal as a result of his paralysis. Carl doesn’t know any other way to cheer up his friend and partner, other than getting him to start looking through the details of his cold case. A laptop and flirting with all of his nurses work wonders for his disposition, and he becomes the virtual eyes and ears of the cold case team. He attends physical therapy in secret to not upset Carl, and his transformation over the course of the series is one of, if not the most, emotional and uplifting.

Rose Dickson

Rose is a protegée of sorts for James, and she has had her own struggles with depression that led to a suicide attempt after the patrol car she was in hit a couple of pedestrians. Dept. Q is her chance to escape administrative work following her medical leave of absence, and the team helps her gradually rebuild her confidence by getting back in the field. As the only female member of the team, she uses a warm and innocent demeanor to get information out of witnesses and suspects who clam up for her male counterparts.

Akram Salim

Akram is hands down the best character in the whole series. A Syrian refugee who bribes Rose with sweets to try and move from the IT department into a more investigative line of work, he is outwardly polite, professionally eager, and impeccably well-kept, but has a dark and mysterious past. He uses violence (when necessary) to extract information from suspects who don’t cooperate when he asks nicely. His character definitely serves as a social commentary on the immigrant experience in the U.K., and his journey toward earning the respect, trust, and recognition he deserves is the most satisfying triumph of an underdog you’ll see in 2025.

The Cold Case

Throughout the first episode we see glimpses of a female prosecutor who is being harassed electronically by an anonymous perpetrator who continuously contacts her by text and e-mail—thank you Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. But it isn’t until the very end of the episode, when Akram chooses the first cold case folder for Carl to review, that we see her face on the photo paper-clipped to the front. The case we thought was unfolded before our lives in real time actually took place four years ago, and she’s been missing ever since!

Merritt Lingard

Merritt Lingard is the best detective twist since Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. When we realize not only has she been missing, but is, as Akram suspected, still alive in captivity, our minds are completely blown. Streaming series usually reserve plot twists like this for a big finale, but to deliver this masterstroke at the end of the first episode, while we’re still in shock from that opening scene, is a foolproof plan to get us to stream Episode 2.

Trapped in a mysterious hyperbaric chamber, tortured by faceless kidnappers who insist she figure out their identities, and by association, the reason she “deserves” her punishment, Merritt’s storyline is a genre cross-over that brings Dept. Q into the realm of horror, and further innovates the crime thriller with dramatic irony. We know, in part, what happened to her, but the team doesn’t, so the true mystery becomes not “what” but “why” this happened to her.

Claire Marsh

If I haven’t convinced you to drop everything you’re doing and turn this show on already, maybe I can bribe you with a good Harry Potter tie-in. Shirley Henderson, immediately recognizable for her role as Moaning Myrtle, delivers an amazing performance as Claire Marsh, Merritt’s housekeeper and caretaker for her brother William, who is disabled after an attack left him with severe brain damage. She is one of the most interesting characters the team encounters as they work to unravel Merritt’s case, and her facial expressions and quirky style absolutely *scream* “mystery”.

Whether you’re a true crime junkie, a cop-drama fan, an anglophile, or love horror stories with well-written backstories or appreciate thorough character development, this series doesn’t just have something for you, it is everything you could possibly be looking for.