TV Show review
May 29, 2025 · TV-MA · Returning Series
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Dept. Q.
Woke representation / casting
Diverse actors appear in natural story roles (including a Syrian immigrant ex-cop as a capable misfit); nothing reads as audience-visible signaling, quotas, or mismatch with the Edinburgh police setting and premise. Reviews ignore it as a feature.
Woke political dialogue
Standard crime-procedural talk with personal trauma and guilt; zero modern activist, identity, or ideological speeches or framing.
Identity-driven story themes
Misfit team and individual backstories drive the plot; Akram’s hinted Syrian past adds mystery but stays secondary to skills and case-solving with no group-identity or representation emphasis.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Police bureaucracy, resource fights, and PR-driven cold-case unit get mild satirical treatment as inefficient and self-serving; classic genre institutional friction, not activist systemic critique of racism, patriarchy, or similar.
Review
Dept. Q is a Netflix crime drama series adapted from Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q novels and relocated to Edinburgh. It follows abrasive detective Carl Morck, who leads a small team of misfits in a basement cold-case unit after a traumatic shooting incident. The story focuses on guilt, trauma, flawed teamwork, and solving old mysteries in a gritty procedural style. No audience-visible identity politics, activist dialogue, or modern social-justice framing appear in the narrative, marketing, or reviews.
Woke character or canon changes
Setting shifted from Denmark to Scotland and minor profession adjustment for one character; practical English-language adaptation with no reported ideological canon rewrites or identity swaps.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No complaints found in reviews, social media, or news accusing the show of woke, DEI, or identity-politics messaging; reception treats it as straightforward thriller.
Creator track record context
Scott Frank maintains a low political profile across mainstream projects; other key writers and director show no activist, identity-driven, or social-justice patterns in careers or public statements.
Production
