SERIES REVIEW – The Copenhagen Test piles on betrayals, reversals, and surveillance paranoia with enough force to grab your attention early. The problem is that the show becomes so addicted to catching the viewer off guard that it gradually hollows out its own logic. There is a much stronger espionage thriller buried in here somewhere, along with a couple of very good performances and one genuinely strong central idea. We watched The Copenhagen Test on SkyShowtime in Hungary.

Beneath all the relentless reversals, The Copenhagen Test hides a striking amount of squandered promise. Created by Thomas Brandon, a writer from Legacies, the series follows an intelligence operative whose brain has been infiltrated by nanites. That breach lets an unseen adversary hear every word Alexander Hale, played by Simu Liu, says and witness everything he sees, whether he is studying sensitive mission material, speaking with his parents, or repeatedly sharing meals with his spymaster-turned-chef mentor, played by Saul Rubinek.

Once he discovers what has been done to him, his superiors immediately decide this liability could become a tactical asset. If they play their cards right, they might be able to lure the people behind the intrusion into the open. But what happens if the hackers anticipate the trap and recruit Alexander as a double agent instead? And once he starts turning that game back on everyone else, the show sinks into a spiral of twist addiction that does real damage to its own internal logic.

A thriller that keeps sawing off its own branch

More than anything, the series strains to become a nerve-shredding thriller, so each episode keeps revising what came before to hammer home the same idea: Alexander cannot trust anyone around him, not his co-workers, not his former fiancée, and not even the woman now entering his life. That approach works at first, especially in a long but engrossing premiere that launches the action with real snap. The problem is that the surprise factor steadily wears thin. By the closing stretch, viewers have essentially been conditioned to take nothing at face value. Did you think Alexander and his loved ones were free of tangled history, or that the people beside him might not have personal stakes in the mission? The show is eager to correct you. On paper, The Copenhagen Test contains the ingredients of a sturdy espionage drama. In practice, those elements never cohere, and for a series desperate to feel like a roller-coaster, it can become strangely dull.

The leads do more than the script does

At least that cannot be blamed on Liu or Melissa Barrera. The two leads settle into the material quickly, even though Liu has been handed a hero who is written in fairly flat lines. Alexander is honorable, dutiful, and almost absurdly spotless. He loves his country, wants to serve it at any cost, refuses to let harm come to his parents, and struggles to disobey commands. As a capable operative stuck doing basement work at the Orphanage, he longs for a promotion that would move him to one of the prized upper floors. When that chance finally arrives, it comes only because his compromised mind has become useful as a weapon.

Even so, Liu gives Alexander more texture than the scripts consistently provide. Barrera, meanwhile, is terrific as fellow covert agent Michelle, who also serves as Alexander’s romantic counterpart. As their connection grows, the series knots itself into increasingly elaborate questions about what she really wants. Is Michelle trustworthy, is she merely carrying out orders, or is she hiding yet another layer of secrets? Barrera slips between the role’s shifting masks with impressive ease.

Big conspiracies, thin people

Once The Copenhagen Test starts widening its focus to the surrounding players, including Alexander’s supervisors played by Brian d’Arcy James, Adina Porter, and Kathreen Chalfant, the show noticeably begins to sag. There is a tossed-off mention that two of them are married, but the writing does almost nothing to build actual chemistry or friction beyond that fact. James and Porter mostly keep the same impassive register whether their characters are fighting or congratulating each other. Chalfant’s St. George at least gets a few sly reveals that genuinely nudge the plot forward. The other standout supporting presence is Sinclair Daniel as Parker, an Orphanage employee. Parker’s job is to observe Alexander, map out his behavior, anticipate his decisions, and decide whether he can be trusted. It is a restricted part, but Daniel gives it welcome depth, especially once Parker starts playing a slightly bigger role in major choices.

Aside from a handful of strong performances, The Copenhagen Test gives its characters almost no room to exist as people. That is frustrating, because in the rare scenes where it slows down – whether Alexander is connecting with his immigrant parents or talking with Michelle and his co-workers about the beliefs that drive him – the series hints at a worthwhile idea about serving a country that may not fully stand behind you. Those moments are buried beneath an endless cascade of twists that never helps define who most of these people actually are. At a moment when television already offers far sharper spy series, including Slow Horses and The Agency, The Copenhagen Test swings big and misses more often than it lands.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-