In 2025, crime shows still reign as streaming king, meaning barely a week goes by without a new series dropping on to one of the many platforms that viewers now have to choose from, writes streaming columnist NICK OVERALL.

It’s becoming more and more difficult for a moody noir drama to truly stand out from the crowd. Enter Department Q on Netflix, the streaming giant’s newest series about cold-case cracking cops.

This one is set in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in so doing immediately offers a fresh setting compared to the many others out there.

The show follows Detective Carl Morck (played by Downtown Abbey star Matthew Goode), a gloomy chief inspector left traumatised by a shooting four years prior.

He’s assigned to lead the titular Department Q, a new team designed to investigate Scotland’s unsolved criminal mysteries.

Morck eventually builds his own team of police who each have their own broken pasts. Their stories become illuminated as they work to bring light to the cases they’re assigned.

The show comes from Scott Frank, the same creator as another of Netflix’s hit series The Queen’s Gambit, and he sure knows how to keep the pace moving along.

For those fatigued with the modern crime drama that’s become a dime-a-dozen, Department Q might be the new show you’re looking for.

IT’S been two years since the award-sweeping series Succession wrapped up and creator Jesse Armstrong’s new project has just hit screens on Max.

He’s made his film directorial debut with Mountainhead, a new satire poking fun at ultra rich tech bros and the rapidly evolving dangers of AI.

We’re dropped into a luxurious ski lodge in Utah, where four multi millionaires have retreated in the wake of a societal collapse brought about by their own dystopian entrepreneurship.

Steve Carrell plays Randall, the creator of an artificial intelligence program that is able to create hyper-realistic photos and videos.

That software runs amok when it’s released into the untamed wilds of a global social media platform.

Throw in a biotech mogul obsessed with the idea of extending the human lifespan and big-wig military contractors and it’s a recipe for tech-fuelled disaster.

While Mountainhead tried to keep its satire light-hearted, the arrogance and cynicism on display here is just so thick it’s hard to stomach.

Sure, Succession’s cast of characters certainly weren’t saints but those rare glimpses of humanity audiences got helped hook them for the next episode.

In Mountainhead, Armstrong has spared his characters nothing, fully resigning them to insufferable narcissists. Maybe it’s needed to deliver the comedic punch the film is so clearly hoping to pack but it left me feeling kind of drained.

Mountainhead is at its best when this dysfunctional quartet are slinging off snappy quips at one another that Armstrong is so good at writing, but those who struggle spending time with some truly despicable characters could find themselves more irritated than amused here.

IT looks like Apple TV Plus wants to keep the ball rolling on sports comedies after the success of its hit show Ted Lasso.

The feel-good series about a seemingly inept but well meaning soccer coach played by Jason Sudekis who leads his team to unexpected victories has been called by many a modern classic.

Now Apple has just debuted Stick, a show very similar in tone starring Owen Wilson as its leading man

It’s not soccer this time around that’s in the spotlight, but rather the far less universal game of golf.

Wilson plays Pryce Cahill, a down-and-out former pro who lost his path to stardom after a major breakdown on live TV. Now something of a sad Gilmore, he turns his talent to another young prodigy with all the chance of becoming the legend that Cahill never could.

The first season features 10 half-hour episodes, the perfect length for a comedy of this style. Not too long to get boring, not too short to leave its characters undeveloped. There’s some charming, feel-good laughs here that make Stick some easy viewing. It doesn’t hit the heights of Ted Lasso, but with a few more seasons there’s a good chance it could get closer to the pin.