What to stream this week: Netflix thriller Dept. Q and five more to add to your list

This week’s picks include a thriller that matches Mare of Easttown, a golf comedy for fans of Ted Lasso, a stand-up special and a pulpy drama starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks.

Dept. Q ★★★★½ (Netflix)

You could make a list of the building blocks in this Edinburgh-set crime thriller and they’d be readily familiar to fans of the genre. Tick off a gifted but arrogant detective, their disaffected child, a new partner who carries a heavy burden, and a case that offers few clues. But without fail this enthralling drama, which becomes an unstoppable procedural driven by resuscitation and redemption, transcends the recognisable. Every element is finely honed, making Dept. Q the best law enforcement mystery since Mare of Easttown.

Matthew Goode (right) has scored his best role yet in Scottish crime thriller Dept. Q

It’s a triumph of craft, capably assembled. That begins with creator Scott Frank, who co-wrote and lead-directed this adaptation of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s series of Danish crime novels. Frank, whose previous Netflix series include The Queen’s Gambit and Godless, moves the story to Scotland, but his protagonist is unyielding. Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) is a demanding police detective, dismissive of those who can’t dissect a crime scene. His colleagues are in a race to tell Morck to eff off, with many achieving personal bests.

Returning to work after a failed routine operation hospitalised his partner, Hardy (Jamie Sives), Morck is a fuse waiting to be lit, so his boss, Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie), sends him to the basement as the head – and sole member – of a new cold case squad. Here’s another tick: Morck has mandated sessions with psychologist Dr Rachel Irving (Kelly Macdonald). But they’re both revealing and bleakly funny – Morck is never a misanthrope for the sake of it, and Frank keeps finding new foils for him. The dialogue bristles with subtext and swipes.

Goode’s an exceptional actor who’s never had a defining role. Until now. He gives Morck’s struggles with self-loathing and selflessness a roiling depth. In a show where confinement – physically and emotionally – is a recurring theme, Morck’s trajectory is never simply upwards.

Kelly Macdonald plays psychologist Dr Rachel Irving.

His doubts about himself are reflected in a hard-charging prosecutor with a complex past, Merrit Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), but Morck’s professional drive is equally a magnet for outsiders. The first is his assistant, Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov), a Syrian refugee with a complicated CV.

It helps immeasurably that the case they settle on is a genuine puzzle, and the story unfolds it patiently with false starts and authentic legwork. Nothing comes easily on Dept. Q, and that makes each step a small triumph.

There’s a hint of Slow Horses in the maladjusted and misfits finding purpose in the basement, but the idiomatic sarcasm is more of a defence mechanism in Edinburgh.

It’s a show about the fine line between someone staying afloat or sinking without trace. The margins always matter in this gripping tale.

Stick ★★★ (Apple TV+)

Your appetite for this feel-good sports comedy hinges on two factors. Firstly, do you enjoy star Owen Wilson’s patented goofball vibe? Secondly, how much do you miss Ted Lasso? If the answer for at least one element is “quite a bit” or more, then you should enjoy this redemptive golf journey about a washed-up former pro, Pryce Cahill (Wilson), who finds salvation in coaching an unconvinced teenage phenomenon, Santi Wheeler (Peter Dager).

Owen Wilson in Stick.

Creator Jason Keller leans heavily into Wilson’s screen persona of the lovable rogue with a good heart and some Wes Anderson whimsy. “That went better than I expected,” Pryce will earnestly exclaim after something went badly. With irascible former caddie Mitts (Marc Maron) and Santi’s wary mother, Elena (Mariana Trevino), on board, they hit the road for qualifying tournaments with the goal of winning the US Amateur Open.

The core target audience is sports dads who want to express their emotions. Everyone in the touring party has unresolved emotional issues, with father-and-son trauma approached from multiple perspectives.

Behind Pryce’s antics and Santi’s big-hitting game are a succession of bittersweet lessons and sweet commitments. The golf course narrative provides an effective metaphor: risky shots, looming bunkers and knowing when to play for a par. It’s optimistic, but looking beyond just Pryce and Santi’s stories helps. Stick went better than I expected.

Comedian Mike Birbiglia.

Mike Birbiglia: The Good Life ★★★½ (Netflix)

This prominent American comic’s recent Netflix specials have been more akin to long-form monologues, one-man performance pieces with a carefully crafted tone and precise language. The Good Life is a looser, eminently enjoyable return to classic stand-up, as Birbiglia riffs on his existential middle-ground as a fractious son, a perplexed husband and a bemused father. None of this serves as radical subject matter, but Birbiglia is such an accomplished artisan that he makes familiar topics hum with quick wit and judicious timing. His bit on complimenting his nine-year-old daughter’s ballet recital is inspired.

Anne Hathaway in She Came to Me.

She Came to Me ★★★ (Paramount+)

Rebecca Miller’s filmmaking career has often felt like it was trying to unstitch the seams of classic cinema genres, particularly the romantic-comedy. She Came to Me, her first scripted feature since 2015’s terrific Maggie’s Plan, veers between the soulful and the farcical.

It begins with a blocked opera composer (Peter Dinklage), unwittingly caught between his psychiatrist wife (Anne Hathaway) and a wildly eccentric tugboat captain (Marisa Tomei), but soon expands to include various offspring caught up in their own love lives. The film is alternately darker and sillier than most romcoms, and not always reconciled.

Jessica Biel in The Better Sister.

The Better Sister ★★½ (Amazon Prime Video)

This murder drama framed around familial conflict is all over the place, and initially at least that’s not a problem. When high-powered magazine editor Chloe Taylor (Jessica Biel) discovers her lawyer husband (Corey Stoll) has been murdered in their home, the familiar suspects stack up and Chloe’s estranged older sister, reformed addict Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), returns to serve as a chaotic support structure. There are tart insults and gasp-seeking revelations, but increasingly there’s also a wayward sense of tone and head-scratching use of flashbacks. This mystery gets messy in the wrong ways.

David Sconce is unrepentant in the documentary The Mortician. 

The Mortician ★★★ (Max)

Ashes to ashes takes on a whole new meaning in this three-part HBO documentary about David Sconce, a California funeral home proprietor who turned a reputable family business into a criminal enterprise that left the families of the deceased angry and traumatised. Sconce, who was initially jailed for his crimes in 1989 and then again in 2013 for violating probation conditions, is an unrepentant voice. He offers no apologies and advocates for treating the dead as a business opportunity that allows for practices such as mass cremations to save costs. It’s a thorough, sometimes dispiriting, documentary.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.