Dept. Q - Goode so good

[Peachy2005]

Hot tip! Dept. Q on Netflix (since yesterday). It grabbed me by the throat in the first 5 minutes and never let go. I was 5 episodes in before I could bear to pause (at 1am). Now I need to try to make the remaining episodes last a bit longer 🙃

It’s a dark cold-case police drama set in Edinburgh. Apologies if there is already a thread about it but I couldn’t find one. Matthew Goode is excellent and so is everyone else in it. Can’t recommend it enough!

'I still want to be Kristin Scott Thomas when I grow up'

Oh god she's just DIVINE. I would tune in to watch her putting the bins out 😁

I like Slow Horses but I think it's over hyped. It's fun and the action crackles along, Gary Oldman is great but his character is revolting and very contrived. It's good but I don't get all the adulation

I think the character is an interesting one. On the face of it, he's totally objectionable and I suspect I couldn't ever work with someone like this in real life. But the people who really know him recognise that, although he won't ever praise a colleague, the fact that he continues working with them and trusts them is basically his way of saying they're bloody good at their jobs. When he shows a more human, vulnerable side, it's so subtly done and that is particularly appealing. Goode must have loved doing a part that's such a contrast from his usual.

What was the significance of Carl's old car and terrible parking? It featured in every episode. I can see why his bad parking was a metaphor for his arrogance but the 40 year old Sierra? 🤔

I know this is an old thread, but we've just finished it. My conclusion was watchable but not gripping.

Spent a lot of it trying to work out which characters the various actors played in Shetland as there were so many.

A few other strange similarities with Shetland, men being left bringing up children who were not their own, detectives/prosecutors having misspent youth but ending up working in law.

Most unbelievable for me was that Merritt couldn't recognise Lyle when he was pretending to be Sam.

New series has been commissioned.

I hope somebody bothers to read the book first this time......
i don't think I have ever seen such a travesty of an adaptation.

Oh wow! 🎉 (About Season 2!)

Have just finished bingeing Annika (iPlayer) which was surprisingly better than I’d anticipated. Very average murders but the main characters’ home lives and back stories were mildly compelling and absorbing. But I don’t think it was a stretch for any of the actors.

Varada Sethu was indescribably beautiful in it - and not required to do anything beyond saying her lines and looking fierce in leather.

Probably a good thing that has not been re-commissioned; the cliffhanger ending was slightly clever but dreadfully contrived.

But I’m only mentioning it here because of another ethically questionable therapist / client interaction. 😂

I've only just read the book, "Mercy", on which the show's based and I'm glad I didn't read it before watching. The show is great imo, but, as you say, very different in many ways from the book. I enjoyed both the book and the show though.

Has Annika not been re-commissioned? That's kind of a pity.

It is a bit light and cosy, and very slightly rubbish in that BBC way, but I've enjoyed it; some of the dialogue/humour is surprisingly bitter and off-kilter, and I like the address-to-camera style.