Crime Time for GoQuest

Paula McHarg, head of Europe and North America at GoQuest Media, tells TV Drama about the company’s crime series slate.

GoQuest Media has been steadily building its crime drama slate over the last few years, developing a particular niche in rolling out titles from markets like Russia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. Earlier this year, a deal with Serbian telecommunications and cable TV operator Telekom Srbija brought Civil Servant to the GoQuest portfolio. “The series is unique in that it’s the first of its kind to take an intimate look at the Serbian Secret Service (BIA),” says Paula McHarg, head of Europe and North America at GoQuest Media. “Unlike those typical spy thrillers that portray MI6, CIA and the Mossad, our hero Lazar is more of a Jack Bauer than a James Bond.”

McHarg also points to a strong response from the market for RATS, from Czech TV and Heaven’s Gate, about a drug dealer who becomes involved with the Czech-Vietnamese mafia while also serving as a police informant. “We describe RATS as a crime thriller, but only in the sense that a character dies in the beginning and the killer is revealed by the end,” McHarg notes. “In a much broader sense, it’s a story about two families—each represented by a different part of the European drug business. On one side, there’s a female police detective, fresh off maternity leave, trying to prove herself by recruiting a young and reckless dealer who may be somehow involved in the death of her partner. From the other perspective, David, the dealer/informer, has used his family—both his literal and chosen families—to haplessly try and stay afloat inside a dark criminal underworld. It’s a fresh take on the crime genre with a new, unexpected twist.”

Hybrid storytelling in the crime space has become more popular amid the pandemic, McHarg observes. “Hybrid stories that promote co-viewing seem to be hitting a strong note with audiences around the world. Whereas in the past, straight, tough crime stories were an enduring pastime, audiences during the pandemic have taken to dramedies, crime-inspired family dramas, thrilling love stories and various other types of hybrids.”

McHarg is also seeing a greater opportunity for cross-border co-productions in crime dramas, “but, as always, there must be a true and real connection between the locations,” she says. “In RATS, drugs are being trafficked across international borders from Poland into the Czech Republic. Since Poland is such an important part of the story, we worked with the Polish production company MD4 to make sure that everything looked and felt as it really would during international drug trafficking.”