'Dept. Q' review: A dazzling display of decidedly dark material

'This is the third garden shed they've used as a location. You'd think the Big N would be a bit more generous with the filming budget, nay?' Photos: Handout

When people go through life habitually inflicting verbal, mental, or emotional (and occasionally physical) blunt force trauma on others, it's tough to get a handle on them, let alone begin to like them.Ironically, while we quickly write off such types in our personal spheres without considering their "backstory" (and sometimes suffer that fate ourselves), fictional characters have an easier go of things in our estimation as readers or viewers.

This is very much the case with detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode, The Good Wife, Watchmen's Ozymandias and Abigail's absentee dad), the fractured soul who is front and centre of the new, bingeable noir mystery Dept. Q.