Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Dept. Q.
Netflix’s latest mystery series, Dept. Q, has scored a difficult win: making its mark within a crowded genre market. Audiences will likely never tire of who-dun-its that twist-and-turn their way through a moody noir ambiance, but the proliferation of this style of murder mystery makes it trickier to hit the beats audiences expect while simultaneously taking the familiar form out for a new spin. Based on the bestselling Department Q novel series by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen and adapted to the small screen by showrunners Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit) and Chandni Lakhani, Dept. Q‘s eerily beautiful Scottish setting, cinematic production value, its refusal to let the abrasiveness of its troubled-yet-genius lead, Carl Morck (Matthew Goode), off the hook, and the thoroughly memorable characters surrounding him, culminate in a thoroughly engaging modern crime thriller. Even though I’ve avidly followed Goode’s career for 16 years (shout-out to my Watchmen movie girlies), I don’t need Netflix to renew the series for him alone. I need Season 2 because the show can’t introduce us to Dept. Q‘s secret weapon, Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov), just to immediately take him away.
There’s More to Akram Than First Meets the Eye in ‘Dept. Q’
Not quite an international man of mystery but undoubtedly enigmatic, Akram is the first recruit to join Morck’s basement-dwelling band of emotionally traumatized misfits. Unassuming, his journey from IT department civilian to DCI Morck’s “assistant” begins the best way such a tale can: with homemade baked goods (made from his wife’s secret recipe, no less). At first glance, one might assume that Morck’s caustic tongue would chase away someone as smartly dressed and unfailingly professional as Akram — someone who initially seems ready to please and eager to jump on any task, charmingly carrying around a pen and notebook like an old-fashioned detective. Alternatively, a more reserved persona might fade into the background compared to Morck, an arrogant and disastrously troubled man who wouldn’t recognize subtlety if it introduced itself to his face. It’s difficult not to love a rough-around-the-edges detective protagonist, no matter how nasty their jagged edges might be.
But who doesn’t have a soft spot for the polite-yet-deadly types, too? Unlike Morck, whose unaddressed trauma from a recent shooting mixed with his general demeanor means he sprays his emotions everywhere, Dept Q. slowly doles out Akram’s depth. That said, it barely takes two episodes to establish that this former “sort of” Syrian police officer is no pushover. He’s more than capable of keeping up with Morck and even leaping ahead of him in crucial areas. The pair becomes the noir version of a quasi-buddy comedy, with Akram’s default stoicism (very demure, very cutesy) contrasting with Morck’s volcanic rage. Unlike his superior, impoliteness isn’t within Akram’s arsenal as an investigator; he doesn’t need it, opting instead for civility and the occasional bout of dry wit. He isn’t invulnerable to Carl Morck-induced exasperation, but the tight lid he keeps on his temperament never cracks. Yet Akram doesn’t hesitate to bend the rules when it suits; of the two, Akram is actually the first one to peer through a stranger’s house, stroll across their lawn, and parkour over their fence as easily as a superhero. And, of course, he offers a hand-up to the stumbling, cursing Morck after the DCI tries and fails to imitate Akram’s smoothness. We love a considerate colleague.
Overall, Akram’s decency exists alongside his reticence about his past and the potential regret and moral ambiguity that evasiveness implies (not that he owes anyone his life story just to sate their curiosity). When Morck flees the press briefing at the end of Episode 2, Akram is the only person to follow the disoriented and terrified man out into the night-dark street and guide him through his panic attack with an expert’s familiarity. As for his investigative skills, his intuition catches angles his colleagues miss or dismiss. He assesses scenarios and knows when to unleash a little psychological manipulation, like letting Morck question a subject while Akram silently roams around the room, unsettling their target by peering at their personal belongings.
Akram’s Unflappable Calm and Investigative Expertise Pay Off in ‘Dept. Q’
He also knows when to deploy his precise, composed violence. The reserved man wearing a suit and tie doesn’t need weapons to give a knife-wielding assailant a damaged windpipe, or to overpower a taller, bulkier man. All it takes is a few swift, efficient moves, and the half-comedic, half-unsettling torture that follows the latter sequence is far too practiced and level-headed to be new territory. Akram’s unflappable self-control is just shy of frightening and miles beyond impressive — living fictional proof that you need to worry about the quiet ones more than the brutish chatterboxes, or, in this case, have the quiet ones on your side. Since Akram is our dangerous guy, it’s fine to applaud his combat skills from our couches.
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The series comes from ‘The Queen’s Gambit’s Scott Frank.
Akram is decent to decent people while also being a deliberate bulwark. When Morck dismisses the helping hand he doesn’t want as a worthless irritant, peevishly ordering Akram to mop the floor and fetch Morck’s every whim, Akram’s dignity survives the onslaught. He does not, however, gratefully accept crumbs simply because Morck bestowed them. He fixes Morck’s tie after the latter’s panic attack while calmly telling his superior, in no uncertain terms, not to interrupt his prayers as a practicing Muslim. He draws a line in the sand, and Morck, hearing an implacable warning’s edge, wordlessly agrees. In the finale, Akram calls out Morck’s self-centered disdain for exactly what it is. Without raising his voice, he challenges his superior as logically and honestly as if he were reading a case file.
That experienced insight proves invaluable. Akram advocates for Merritt Lingard‘s (Chloe Pirrie) survival from the beginning. What might be a naive hope in a different situation is, instead, the shrewd certainty of a man accustomed to locating missing people, filling in the blanks, and assembling a puzzle. If he hadn’t overridden Morck and presented Merritt’s case to Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie) for her approval, then Merritt would have remained left for dead.
‘Dept. Q’ Deserves a Season 2 Because Akram’s Character Is Too Good to Waste
A construction worker from Sweden before chasing his acting dreams in his 30s and early 40s, Manvelov’s previous non-Nordic roles include Chernobyl and a villainous stint in Jack Ryan‘s third season. Once your eyes are trained on him, it’s difficult to look away from his subtle, entertaining, and compelling performance. Akram steals almost every scene in a cast full of accomplished actors delivering phenomenal work across a range of emotions. Dept Q doesn’t shunt its secondary lead to the side, but should Netflix renew the series, we do need much more of him — not just answers about his conflicted, ambiguously defined time in Syria, but a window into his home as a widower and single father privately navigating his grief while raising two headstrong, pre-teen girls. On top of everything else, Akram is a girl dad — he’s proud of them despite their TikTok influencer aspirations, he’s fond of their Scottish accents, and he provides for them by pursuing a job better suited to his considerable skill set. And what did he accomplish during his first case? Saving the life of a nearly forgotten woman. To quote his introductory catchphrase, “I am Akram” — yes, you are, you kind, cool, deadly, and oddly comforting king. Akram deserves his flowers now and for many seasons to come.
