If you're finding that you have a Dept. Q-shaped whole in your life at the moment, then fear not — for there's plenty more where the Netflix adaptation came from (and no, a season two hasn't been confirmed yet).
Dept. Q, which is based on the Jussi Adler-Olsen novel series, tells the story of Detective Morck in the wake of his attack being assigned to lead a newly-assembled cold case unit. With a motley crew of unlikely peers, Detective Morck is tasked with his unit's first investigation: the mysterious disappearance of prosecutor Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie) several years earlier.
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In case you've already binged the nine-episode series though, there is, in actual fact, another adaptation. A few years after the Adler-Olsen's first book was originally published in 2007, a Scandinavian film adaption was made of the novel, meaning there's another way to get your Dept. Q fix.
What are the 'Department Q' books?
Adler-Olsen published his first Dept. Q novel in 2007, and in the intervening years, he has published 10 more novels in the same cannon.
The most recent novel in the series, Locked In, was published in 2021 and sees Detective Morck himself behind bars.
What are the 'Department Q' films?
Six years after the release of the first novel in the Department Q book series Mercy, a film adaptation was released in Denmark called The Keeper of Lost Causes. The film, which was released in 2013, stayed true to the plot of the book and Netflix series, starring Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Detective Morck, Fares Fares as Assad and Sonja Richter as Merritt Lingard.
The following year, another film adaptation was released in Scandinavia. The Absent One, based on Adler-Olsen's novel of the same name, and followed Carl and Assad investigating the murder of a pair of twins whose death was meant to have been solved 20 years prior.
Two years later, in 2016, another film adaptation was released. A Conspiracy of Faith explored the fall-out from what happens after an old message in a bottle turns up. And there was also a fourth film The Purity of Vengenace, too, which was released in 2018 and focused on what happened when the duo discovered three mummified bodies in an apartment.
Where can I watch the 'Department Q' TV series?
All of the Dept. Q film series are available to watch through ViaPlay on Prime Video. New users are eligible for a seven-day free trial of ViaPlay, which will then auto-renew for £4.99 a month if the subscription isn't cancelled.
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Naomi May is a seasoned culture journalist and editor with over ten years’ worth of experience in shaping stories and building digital communities. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard, where she worked across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Digital Editor at ELLE Magazine and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. Naomi is also the host of the ELLE Collective book club.
