How to Watch Dept. Q Online in 4K

If you want to watch Dept. Q, the 2025 Netflix crime thriller starring Matthew Goode as a brilliant and unconventional Edinburgh detective, this is the complete guide. You will find everything here: what the show is, who made it, what it is based on, the full cast, where to stream it, and how to watch it in 4K with InfinityTV.

What is Dept. Q?

Dept. Q is a British crime thriller television series that premiered on Netflix on 29 May 2025. It was created by Scott Frank and Chandni Lakhani, and it is adapted from the Department Q novel series by Danish crime writer Jussi Adler-Olsen. The show is set in Edinburgh and follows a brash but brilliant detective who is placed in charge of a new police department tasked with reopening and solving the city's most stubborn cold cases.

The series was renewed for a second season in August 2025, confirming Netflix's confidence in the show after its first-season performance.

Who created Dept. Q?

The series was co-created by Scott Frank and Chandni Lakhani. Scott Frank is best known as the creator of Netflix's The Queen's Gambit (2020), the limited series that broke Netflix viewership records at the time of its release and swept the Emmy Awards. His involvement in Dept. Q was a significant draw for the project.

The source material is the Department Q series of crime novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen, a Danish author whose books have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and have previously been adapted into a series of Danish films. This Netflix adaptation is the first English-language version of the material.

Who stars in Dept. Q?

The main cast for Dept. Q includes:

• Matthew Goode as the lead detective — the brash, brilliant, and unconventional head of the cold case department. Goode is known for his work in The Good Wife, Downton Abbey, The Crown, and Watchmen.
• Alexej Manvelov as Akram, a key member of the department
• Jamie Sives as Hardy
• Chloe Pirrie in a supporting role

The ensemble is built around Goode's central performance, which drives the show's investigation-of-the-week structure within a broader serialised narrative about the department itself.

What is the Edinburgh cold case setup?

Dept. Q is set in the Edinburgh police service. The show's central concept is the creation of a new department — Department Q — specifically designated to re-examine cold cases: crimes that went unsolved, investigations that stalled, and victims whose cases were closed without resolution.

The detective placed in charge of this department is formidable but difficult — a character who alienates colleagues and superiors in equal measure, but whose investigative instincts are exceptional. The dynamic between his methods and the cases he takes on drives each episode forward, while the relationships within the department develop across the season.

Is Dept. Q based on books?

Yes. Dept. Q is adapted from the Department Q novel series by Jussi Adler-Olsen. The novels — which include The Keeper of Lost Causes, The Absent One, A Conspiracy of Faith, and others — follow a similar detective and department in the Danish police, based in Copenhagen. The Netflix adaptation transposes the concept to Edinburgh and creates an English-language version of the characters and world, while drawing on the tone and structure Adler-Olsen established.

The source novels have been previously adapted in Denmark as a successful series of films, making this a second life for the material on a global streaming stage.

Why is Edinburgh a compelling setting?

Edinburgh's combination of historic architecture, dense urban geography, and Scotland's distinct legal and cultural character gives Dept. Q a specific sense of place that distinguishes it from generic British procedurals. Cold case investigations in this environment draw on decades of community history, institutional memory, and the kind of buried secrets that accumulate in a city with a long, layered past.

The visual texture of Edinburgh — its Old Town closes, its Georgian terraces, its waterfront — also makes for distinctive crime drama photography that rewards high-resolution viewing.

How to watch Dept. Q in 4K — step by step

1. Open Netflix. Dept. Q is a Netflix Original production, available globally on Netflix where the platform operates.
2. Check your subscription tier. Netflix offers 4K streaming on its Premium plan and Standard with ads plan on certain devices. Make sure your plan includes Ultra HD to access 4K.
3. Test your connection speed. Netflix requires a minimum of 25 Mbps for stable 4K streaming. Run a speed check before you start.
4. Choose a 4K-compatible device. Smart TVs, Apple TV 4K, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, Chromecast with Google TV, and select game consoles all support 4K Netflix streaming.
5. Enable HDR on your TV. If your screen supports HDR10 or Dolby Vision, enable it in your display settings for the best picture quality on crime drama cinematography.
6. Stream through InfinityTV. InfinityTV lets you access your Netflix content alongside InfinityTV's own library of 150,000+ Movies & Series and 22,000+ live TV channels worldwide — all in a single app, removing the need to switch between multiple services.
7. Watch episodes in order. While each episode of Dept. Q centres on a specific cold case, the character arcs and department dynamics develop across the season. Starting from episode one gives you the full picture.

What makes Dept. Q worth watching?

The combination of Scott Frank's track record (The Queen's Gambit), a compelling lead performance from Matthew Goode, and strong source material in Jussi Adler-Olsen's novels gives Dept. Q a firm foundation. The Edinburgh setting differentiates it visually and tonally from London-set procedurals. And the cold case format allows the show to tell self-contained stories within each episode while sustaining longer-form character development — a balance that tends to work well for viewers who want both procedural satisfaction and series-long investment.

What to watch alongside Dept. Q

If Dept. Q has you looking for more high-quality crime drama, these series share its character-driven investigative approach:

• Task (HBO) — the 2025 HBO crime drama starring Mark Ruffalo, created by Brad Ingelsby (Mare of Easttown). Seven episodes in season one.
• Zero Day (Netflix) — the 2025 Netflix political thriller starring Robert De Niro. Six episodes, all available on Netflix.
• Dope Thief (Apple TV+) — Philadelphia crime drama with Brian Tyree Henry, eight episodes.

For a broader roundup of the best series available now, see our guide to top series to watch in 2025 and our best IPTV for Firestick guide if you want to optimise your streaming setup.

How does Matthew Goode make the lead role work?

Matthew Goode is an actor whose strength lies in playing intelligence and difficulty simultaneously — characters who are clearly formidable but who create friction by being themselves. His credits demonstrate a consistent range across genres: the calculating antagonist in Watchmen (HBO), the chess master Benny Watts in The Queen's Gambit, the romantic lead in A Single Man and Stoker, and supporting work in Downton Abbey and The Crown. For Dept. Q, that combination of intellectual authority and social abrasiveness is exactly what the role requires. Carl Mørck — the source-novel character on whom the lead is based — is defined in Adler-Olsen's books by his talent and his refusal to manage the impression he makes on colleagues and superiors. Goode's ability to project capability without warmth is a precise fit.

What does the cold case format allow that conventional procedurals do not?

The cold case structure is worth thinking about as a storytelling format. In a conventional procedural, the investigation begins with a fresh crime — the case is new, evidence is immediate, witnesses remember things, the world around the crime scene is still in the shape the crime made it. Cold cases operate differently. The crime happened years or decades ago. Witnesses have moved, died, or changed their minds about what they saw. Evidence has degraded or been mislaid. The institutional memory of the original investigation may have been lost or deliberately suppressed. Investigating a cold case means reading the archaeology of a previous investigation — finding where it went wrong, why it stopped, and what someone may have wanted to remain buried. That second layer — the investigation of the original investigation — gives the format a structural richness that conventional procedurals cannot access. Dept. Q uses this fully.

Is Dept. Q suitable for all viewers?

Dept. Q carries a TV-MA rating on Netflix. It deals with serious crimes — the cold cases at the centre of each investigation include violence, and the show does not shy away from the weight of what those crimes meant for the people affected by them. It is mature crime drama intended for adult viewers, in the same general territory as Happy Valley, Broadchurch, or True Detective. It is not gratuitous, but it is serious.

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Frequently asked questions

Where can I watch Dept. Q? Dept. Q is available on Netflix, where it premiered on 29 May 2025. You can access it through your Netflix subscription on any Netflix-compatible device, or through InfinityTV, which gives you Netflix content alongside 22,000+ live channels and 150,000+ Movies & Series in one place.

How many seasons does Dept. Q have? Dept. Q launched with one season in May 2025. Netflix renewed the series for a second season in August 2025.

Is Dept. Q based on a book? Yes. The series is adapted from the Department Q novel series by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, whose books have sold tens of millions of copies internationally.

Who plays the lead in Dept. Q? Matthew Goode plays the lead detective heading the cold case department. Goode is known for The Queen's Gambit (where he plays Benny Watts), The Good Wife, Downton Abbey, and The Crown.

What is the Department Q cold case setup? Department Q is a fictional police unit in Edinburgh tasked specifically with reopening unsolved cold cases — crimes that were investigated and closed without resolution. The head of the department, played by Matthew Goode, is brilliant but unconventional, creating friction with his superiors while solving cases that other detectives left behind.

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