Choosing the series (with ChatGPT)

My wife and I like watching a good series every now and then, but finding one we both like can sometimes be a challenge. We both like detectives; the so-called whodunnits. However, my wife doesn't like excessive violence that much. The Netflix algorithm does also recommend us series based on our viewing history, but the problem is that we also watch series on other platforms, so its recommendations are often a mismatch.

As I'm frequently using ChatGPT, I thought I'd ask it for a serie to watch as well. I entered a prompt with several series we had enjoyed and added some extra stuff. ChatGPT came up with several suggestions. It also explained why each series might be a good one for us, based on what we had already watched. One of the recommendations was: Dept. Q. It was good find, but it missed one thing we asked for; Dept. Q does contains some scenes that are quite violent. There is also plenty of swearing and foul language, but that is something we can handle.

Detective Carl Morck

The story takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The main character is Carl Morck, played by Matthew Goode. Carl is good at his job, but his colleagues find him an arrogant man. During a police investigation, Carl and his colleague are shot. A young police officer is killed and Hardy is paralysed. Carl gets a bullet through his neck, but survives and returns to work after a period of rehabilitation.

When he gets back at the station, he is put in charge of a newly created department dedicated to solving cold cases; Dept Q. At first, Carl is the department, but soon het gets two colleagues. Although he is not particularly pleased about either of them, they later form a real team.

Akram Salim is a Syrian man with a mysterious past. He was in the IT department, but unexpectedly sometimes shows he has quite a few fighting techniques.

Rose Dickson is a young red-haired police officer who struggles with het panic attacks. She is looking for a chance to prove herself. She first annoys Carl, but he later takes up the role of being her mentor together with officer Hardy. Because they are so different, their interactions are often very humorous.

The Merritt Lingard file

The looks into the case of Merritt Lingard; a successful lawyer who disappeared four years earlier. She vanished in broad daylight during a ferry trip and her body was never found.

Merritt had a successful career, but she had made a lot of enemies. That gives a lot of possible suspects, all with different motives.

When the team digs into Merritt's past, they discover more secrets about her life. The scenes change between the past and the current time. Slowly during the 9-episode series you get the idea of what happened. But is it what it looks like?

Our verdict

Dept. Q was surely an entertaining series. With nine episodes of approximately 50 minutes long, it was a good length for us. The story is sometimes a little far-fetched, and there were are a few scenes with more violence than my wife liked. We did like the mystery and the humor of the characters .

I would rate it a 4 out of 5.

Thanks for reading! Have you watched Dept. Q as well? Or do you have another good Netflix series you can recommend? Let me know in the comments. We haven't found a new one yet.

But we can always ask chatgpt again 😉

Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.