Most things in this world have their good points and their not-so-good points, and this is certainly true of โThe Copenhagen Test,โ a science-fiction spy story about a man whose brain has been hacked. Without his knowing it, everything he sees and hears is uploaded to an unknown party, in an unknown place, as if he were a living pair of smart glasses. Created by Thomas Brandon and premiering Saturday on Peacock, its conceit is dramatically clever, if, of course, impossible. What do you watch when you learn that what youโre watching is being watched?
In a preamble, we meet our hero, Andrew Hale (Simu Liu, โShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ringsโ), a first-generation Chinese American Green Beret, rescuing hostages in Belarus. A voice in his headset instructs him that there is enough room for one on a departing helicopter and that he must prioritize an American citizen. Instead he picks a foreign child. This, we will learn, is the less-preferred choice.
Three years later, Hale is working for the Orphanage, a shadowy American intelligence agency that spies on all the less-shadowy American intelligence agencies โ watching the watchers. (So much watching!) Its proud boast is that, since its inception in the Bush I administration, it has never been compromised. (Until someone started looking through Haleโs eyes, that is.) There is a secret entrance to their giant complex, accessed by locking eyes with a statue in a library โ itโs thematically appropriate, but also very โGet Smart!โ That is a compliment, obviously.
The lower floor is where the analysts toil; entry to the upper floor, where the action is, is by the sort of fancy key that might have been used to open an executive washroom in 1895. (The decor is better there, too, with something of the air of an 1895 executive washroom.) Hale, who has been been listening to and translating Korean and Chinese chatter, dreams of moving upstairs, which will come with the discovery that his head is not entirely his own.
Meanwhile, he has been suffering migraines, seizures and panic attacks. Ex-fiancรฉe Rachel (Hannah Cruz), a doctor, has been giving him pills under the table. Other characters of continuing interest include Michelle (Melissa Barrera), a bartender who will spy on Hale from the vantage point of a girlfriend, sort of; Parker (Sinclair Daniel), a newly promoted โpredictive analystโ with a gift for reading people and situations; Victor (Saul Rubinek), an ex-spook who runs a high-end restaurant and has known Hale forever; Cobb (Mark OโBrien), a rivalrous colleague whose Ivy League persona has been drawn in contrast to Haleโs; and Cobbโs uncle, Schiff (Adam Godley), who also has spy knowledge. Peter Moira (Brian dโArcy James) runs the shop, and St. George (Kathleen Chalfant) floats above Moira.
As parties unknown look through Haleโs eyes, the Orphanage is watching Hale with the usual access to the worldโs security cameras. (That bit of movie spycraft always strikes me as far-fetched; however, a conversation in the privacy of my kitchen will somehow translate into ads on my social feeds, so, who knows?) โThe Copenhagen Testโ isnโt selling a surveillance state metaphor, in any case; this is just one of those โWho Can You Trust?โ stories, one that keeps flipping characters to keep the show going, somewhat past the point of profitability.
Like most eight-hour dramas, itโs too long โ โSlow Horses,โ the best of this breed, sticks to six โ and over the course of the show, things grow muddied with MacGuffins and subplots. While itโs easy enough to enjoy whatโs happening in the moment, it can be easy to lose the plot and harder to tell just whoโs on what side, or even how many sides there are. (It doesnโt help that nearly everyone is ready to kill Hale.) I canโt go into details without crossing the dreaded spoiler line, but even accepting the impossible tech, much of โThe Copenhagen Testโ makes little practical sense, including the eponymous test. (Why โCopenhagen?โ Det ved jeg ikke. Danish for โI donโt know.โ) I spent so much time untwisting knots and keeping threads straight that, though I continued to root in a detached way for Hale, I ceased to care entirely about the fate of the Orphanage and the supposedly free world.
The show is well cast. While the characters on paper are pretty much types, each actor projects the essence of the part, adding enough extra personality to suggest a real person. (And theyโre all nice to look at.) When not keeling over from pain, or engaged in a shootout or hand-to-hand combat, Liu is an even-keeled, quiet sort of protagonist โ rather in the Keanu Reeves vein โ and as a Chinese Canadian actor, still a novelty among American television action heroes. He does have a kind of chemistry with Barrera, who has screen chemistry all on her own, though itโs somewhat limited by the demands of the plot.
The ending, including a diminished-chord twist, is pretty pat, if happier than one might imagine given the ruckus thatโs gone before. Neat bows are tied โ though at least one has been left loose in hopes, according to my own predictive analysis, of a second season. And though releasing a series in the last week of the year doesnโt exactly betoken confidence, I can predict with some confidence that there might be one.