A-list actor ‘desperate’ for second season of ‘exceptional’ Netflix crime drama that viewers love
Netflix viewers have fallen in love with Dept Q, a new crime thriller with Matthew Goode and based on a series of books by Jussi Adler-Olsen.
Season one starred Matthew (Downton Abbey, Call The Midwife) as Carl Morck, a Scottish detective who is recovering after an attack left his partner paralyzed and another police officer dead. Upon his return to work, Carl is assigned to a cold case; investigating the disappearance of a human rights lawyer with the help of his team, his ‘assistant’ Akram (Alexej Manvelov) and an officer who has struggled with personal troubles, Rose (Leah Byrne).
© Justin Downing/NetflixFans have called the show ‘exceptional’, yet although it remains unclear if there will be a second season, Matthew has admitted he is “desperate” for a second season, because he wants to spend time with the cast again.
“This is such a wonderful company of actors,” he told Deadline.
He continued: “I’d wanted to work with Shirley Henderson for years. And Kelly Mcdonald, and then this fairly relatively new actress, Leah Byrne, who is a revelation in this show.”
Matthew went on to praise Leah for being able to turn the difficult issues her character faces “and make them hilarious,” adding: “I love them all. That’s why we’re desperate to do a second season.”
He also shared that he has already considered where viewers would find Carl if a second season were to happen, admitting that he is at the “right age” now where he is keen to work on one project for a period of time.
“I’d like to have a character that I can come back to that has great, exciting, dark, hopefully funny stuff happening within the story, but also, ‘How’s this man going to change? Is he going to change? What will be something that will change him?’ Even if it’s by minutia, there will be certain changes. Even if it’s just my hair color or the girth of my beard,” he said.
© Justin Downing/NetflixIn season one, two mysteries unfold simultaneously as Carl’s colleagues struggle to investigate an attack that left Carl injured, his partner paralyzed and a young officer dead.
At the same time Carl and his new department are tasked with a high profile cold case, as they reopen an investigation into the missing Merritt Weaver, who had gone missing years earlier and was presumed dead.
© Justin Downing/NetflixThe first run of nine episodes ended with Merritt’s case being solved but the investigation into the attack on the police at a dead end.
Scott Frank, the creator of the show, has also said that he would “love to do more with this [series] and the next book in the series is even more interesting and relevant”.
The Netflix adaptation followed the plot of the first book in Jussi Adler-Olsen’s series, The Keeper of Lost Causes.
