Matthew Goode Embraces the Darkness

Viewers who are searching Netflix for some light summer viewing should be warned that the new series Dept. Q is not it. A viscerally brutal opening scene sets the dark tone for the detective drama, which stars the English actor Matthew Goode as Chief Inspector Carl Morck, who returns to the force shortly after an assassination attempt only to be shunted by his commander into leading the eponymous new section reviewing seemingly hopeless cold cases. As he assembles a crew of otherwise underappreciated coworkers, he finds himself drawn to the case of the missing prosecutor Merritt Lingard, who disappeared four years ago and is presumed dead. Since its release last month, the show has maintained its position within the streaming service’s global top ten, a testament to its rare ability to keep its audience engrossed over the course of over eight hours of content not meant for casual viewing. “We live in a time now where certain writers are actually told, ‘You need to simplify this,’ or whatever, because people are going to be watching this when they’re on their phone. And Scott’s like, ‘Fuck that,’” says Goode about the show’s creator, Scott Frank. “He’s not dumbing anything down.”

Based on a series of Danish novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen, the Dept. Q series transposes the setting from Copenhagen to Edinburgh and adds another layer of distinction by making Carl an Englishman among Scots. Suffering from PTSD after his shooting, he is forced to attend counseling, which he regularly mocks, and is difficult both with his coworkers and the teenage stepson he is watching over after a divorce. Those who are familiar with Goode from his early roles in romantic comedies or his Emmy-nominated turn as Princess Margaret’s husband the Earl of Snowdon on The Crown will be surprised by his performance as the cantankerous and brooding Carl, and the actor says he was initially surprised and delighted when he first learned that Frank had written the role for him. “When I first started reading the character, I loved it immediately. It really jumped off the page, two of the best opening scripts to a television series I’ve ever read,” he recalls. “He’s such an arsehole, my character, that when someone says, ‘I only had you in mind for it,’ you’re like, ‘Oh cheers, Scott, thanks very much.’”

Frank, an acclaimed writer and director known for his work on Get Shorty, Minority Report, Logan, and more recently The Queen’s Gambit, has a propensity for casting against type, and his work with Goode has pushed the 47-year-old actor in unexpected and fruitful new directions since the two first collaborated on the 2007 film The Lookout. “Luckily we managed to pull it off in this case, but you need that, you need people to champion you,” Goode says. “He’s done that on a couple of occasions now with me and I’m sure he will do it many more times in his career and surprise people. He really, as he puts it, sees people as opposed to their work. Long may that continue.”

Despite its bleak premise, Dept. Q is suffused by what Goode describes as a very British “gallows humor,” particularly in the banter between Carl and his former partner James, who was paralyzed in the shooting, and in his oversight and reluctant mentorship of Akram, a Syrian policeman forced to leave his home country, and Rose, who is working to earn the trust of her colleagues after a mental breakdown caused by the stress of the job. “I’m particularly fond of him. But he’s pretty irascible, and if you think about it, why should he be so nicey-nice to colleagues if they’re not getting things right where there’s people’s lives on the line?” offers Goode. “I think also life has not necessarily been that great to Morck. He’s suffering from a pretty horrific divorce and he has a very interesting home life. He’s a very good detective—a terrible colleague but he’s very good at his job. You’ll grow to love him, is what I’ll say.”

After fifteen years investigating murders and his own shooting, it’s understandable that Carl has a grim perspective on the world, and the show has been lauded for the honesty of its depiction of various responses to PTSD and trauma. While he proves difficult during his mandated therapy sessions, Carl spends this first season facing his issues directly, and Goode says he did substantial research to understand the consequences. “He’s suffering from a lot of physical and mental trauma and PTSD, so there’s an awful lot of stuff to research and get your head around,” Goode explains. “I’ve had friends who worked on the murder squad before and I’ve had friends who’ve served in Iraq and who’ve suffered from PTSD. I’ve known them for years. I didn’t want to be parasitic and suddenly grill them at length. I phoned a couple of people that I know and love and we had mild conversations so I didn’t trigger them too much. You do all that homework, the areas that you don’t have a knowledge of, then Scott and I had the joy of [asking], ‘Well, what would his past have been, because the book doesn’t make sense anymore?’ We got to really talk at length about what that might have been, and we actually put some of it into the first season and Scott’s taken it out because I think he likes the idea of Morck maintaining a bit more mystery.”

During the months spent commuting between his family in London and the show’s set in Edinburgh, Goode says he noticed himself having more difficulty than usual letting go of Carl during his weekends at home. “I was very lonely on this job because it was all-encompassing. That was no problem and I had total focus on it, but after a few months started to go past, I did find that I was just exhausted. I’d get home, but I would be quite tetchy and short-tempered, and I wasn’t really present for my family. I put too much pressure on myself to try to do it all,” he recalls. “When I was up in Edinburgh, I was very, very insular, but I think it worked for the character. I wasn’t too bad, but it always takes a couple of weeks to sort of detox from any character you do because sometimes you have a hangover of accent, sometimes a hangover of just attitude, and mostly a hangover of exhaustion after long-form television.”

Learning to balance both parts of his life will come in handy if, as hoped and expected, the series is renewed by Netflix. While there has not yet been an official announcement, Frank has already spoken of plans for the next season, and the show has been submitted for Emmy consideration, a sign of faith from the streamer after its success with both critics and audiences. “It was hard work, but it was so much fun creating these characters. When you’re central to the story like I am, I feel like if it doesn’t go for a second season, then in some ways I’ve let down all the other actors that have also really enjoyed that first opportunity,” Goode adds. “It’s way above my pay grade, but fingers crossed that it gets to go because there’s an awful lot more to reveal about these characters and stories.”

After his decades in the industry, Goode is well aware of his good fortune in finding himself leading a project that has had such resonance. “We’re all gamblers, really. We’re all sinking our money into the motion picture industry, but as we all know, by the end of the year, there’ve been maybe two or three fascinating films. It’s tough, but there’s a lot of hope, I think, for the future, despite the fact we seem to be balancing on a razor’s edge all the time,” he says. Although there are overwhelming difficulties both within the industry and in the larger culture, he still has hope that the art form has a bright future. “I believe that we are at a time when storytelling is absolutely crucial and could be something that helps harmonize the political outlook of the world at the moment,” he adds. “It’s important. We need to still be, as a planet, effectively doing what we did when we were in medieval times sitting around a fireplace and being guided by didactic stories that’ll help us through this uncomfortable period of time.”

As he awaits news of the show’s fate and his next project, Goode is both optimistic and clear-sighted about what comes next. “If you don’t look forward,” he says, “then you’re just going to trip over your own vain shadow.”

Dept. Q is now streaming on Netflix.