{"id":14107,"date":"2026-02-15T16:27:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T16:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/14107\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T16:27:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T16:27:52","slug":"simu-liu-in-espionage-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/14107\/","title":{"rendered":"Simu Liu in Espionage Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe fifth episode of Peacock<\/a>\u2018s The Copenhagen Test<\/a> begins with an extended \u201cPreviously On\u2026\u201d sequence. After a brief flashback, the main character has his own series of memories related to things that happened previously on the show. Said main character next records a video in which he tells a then-unknown figure everything that happened previously on the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Copenhagen Test, created by Thomas Brandon and executive produced by James Wan, is a somewhat complicated show. But it isn\u2019t nearly as complicated as it thinks it is throughout a first half in which characters are constantly repeating the premise, monologuing expositional info to each other and sitting in blandly designed rooms bringing outside characters up-to-speed on the most basic of details.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Copenhagen Test\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tA two-hour pilot stretched to eight episodes, four of them skippable.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAirdate: Saturday, December 27 (Peacock)
Cast: Simu Liu, Melissa Barrera, Sinclair Daniel, Brian d\u2019Arcy James, Mark O\u2019Brien, Kathleen Chalfant, Saul Rubinek, Adam Godley
Creator: Thomas Brandon\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sci-fi espionage thriller is determined to be a smart show, while at the same time existing in a media landscape in which executives have decided that audiences are, at best, generally distracted and, at worst, kinda dumb. \u201cBe grateful for all the things you don\u2019t know,\u201d a character instructs one of our heroes. \u201cAmbiguity is a wonderful sleep aid, because once you know, there\u2019s no going back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUnfortunately, through its first four episodes, The Copenhagen Test is also a wonderful sleep aid \u2014 a whole lot of leaden dialogue and convoluted plotting, with very little intensity or momentum.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt does get better, mind you. The fifth episode, directed by Vincenzo Natali, features the series\u2019 first two semi-memorable set-pieces, while the seventh episode, directed by Nima Nourizadeh, features its first two semi-memorable fight sequences. The last two episodes give the first real indications that the show is capable of being smartly tricky with its structure and timeline, rather than just annoyingly evasive.<\/p>\n

\n\tThrow in a strong ensemble of character actors doing solid work and hinting at depths that ostensible leads Simu Liu<\/a> and Melissa Barrera<\/a> struggle to convey, and The Copenhagen Test in its second half becomes a show I could potentially follow.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo perhaps the triple recap at the top of episode five is the show\u2019s tacit blessing to skip over the first half of the series entirely? The place the show reaches after the eighth episode is probably where it should have been after, say, a two-part pilot. An eight-episode season that could be watched in four and probably should have been two?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat, friends, is iffy math.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat are the basics you need to know? Liu plays Alexander Hale, an analyst with an intelligence subagency known as \u201cThe Orphanage.\u201d It\u2019s a two-tier organization. Analysts work on the bottom floor; operatives work on the top floor, which is basically internal affairs for the CIA, FBI, NSA and whatnot.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlexander dreams of moving to the top floor. He interviews for a job upstairs. The job goes to his colleague Cobb (Mark O\u2019Brien). Sad.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to feeling unfulfilled, Alexander is getting headaches. They seem like migraines, but they\u2019re not. They\u2019re REALLY not. They\u2019re evidence of a unique problem: Alexander has been hacked. Somehow, an unknown entity has the ability to see what Alexander sees and hear what Alexander hears, which is especially bad if you work with potentially sensitive information.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven though audiences are never given any reason to suspect that Alexander might be anything other than a perplexed victim of this \u201chacking\u201d thing \u2014 which involves a secret government program and \u201cnanites\u201d \u2014 higher-ups at the Orphanage are less convinced. Consequently, they bring Alexander upstairs with one of two goals: Either they\u2019ll discover that Alexander turned rogue of his own volition or else they\u2019ll be able to uncover the mysterious forces who put nanites in his head without his permission.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are a lot of people involved in this process, starting with Michelle (Barrera), a bartender who isn\u2019t really a bartender. Her past with Alexander relates to the titular test, which the series forgets about entirely for hours at a time before a finale in which absolutely everything ties back to the lessons of that test in the most heavy-handed way.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s the way the writing in The Copenhagen Test goes: When there\u2019s a theme the show wants you to get, three consecutive scenes will make the identical point, which will then vanish entirely once you know to look for it. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s hard to do a show about ephemeral concepts like \u201cchoices\u201d and \u201cacts of conscience,\u201d but the creative team has very little faith in the audience\u2019s ability to get what they\u2019re going for. Honestly, given the initial execution, their approach is wrong-headed even if they\u2019re not wrong.<\/p>\n

\n\tBack to the machinations of the plot, though\u2026 There\u2019s the enigmatic founder of the Orphanage, known only as \u201cSt. George\u201d (Kathleen Chalfant<\/a>); the dour and dapper head of the Orphanage, Moira (Brian D\u2019Arcy James); young recruit Parker (Sinclair Daniel); a stern woman who IMDb tells me is named Marlowe (Adina Porter); Alexander\u2019s mentor-turned-restaurateur Victor (Saul Rubinek<\/a>); and a shadowy guy named Henry (Adam Godley<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n\tConfused yet? Really all you need to know about The Copenhagen Test is: Alexander Hale is an intelligence service analyst with no upward mobility until the day unknown adversaries hack his brain. Can he take down the bad guys before the good guys begin to think he\u2019s the bad guy and take him down? Think second-tier Philip K. Dick, only without the actual Dick to fall back on. Hmm\u2026 Phrasing. Sorry.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first four episodes are all unremarkable Spycraft 101. Think Showtime\u2019s The Agency<\/a> without the geopolitical specificity or punchy dialogue. It\u2019s very dull, the sort of thing that, were this not my job, I\u2019d probably stop watching. This extends to the style, or lack thereof, in the early episodes, which suffer from limp doubling of Toronto for Washington and Generic Intelligence Agency sets that had to have been purchased in bulk. A lot of the action takes place in the dark and loses nothing from the lack of visibility.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut even then, there are hints of the flesh that could embellish this emaciated skeleton. The character of Parker, in particular, has a backstory that I found both intriguing and amusing in a way that left me frequently wishing she and Daniel, so good in the underrated The Other Black Girl<\/a>, were more consistently at the story\u2019s center. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn what long ago became a prestige television trope, each episode begins with a pre-credits snippet of backstory. I rather reliably felt that those backstory details were better than the front story and too often failed to inform the main story in immediately evident ways.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou wait a long time, for example, for the show to get real value out of Alexander\u2019s parents being refugees from China and the tenuous sense of belonging that fuels his entire personality (because we learn nothing else about his upbringing at all). <\/p>\n

\n\tIn the end, there are moments that somewhat pay off on that information, but not in time to give Liu anything real to play, leading to a flat, if never \u201cbad\u201d performance. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs the primary love interest who can never actually be a love interest since the show is more invested in misdirection than relationships, Barrera gets to be a little more interesting, but not a lot, especially since Michelle\u2019s backstory hints at a torment that\u2019s rarely spotted in her placid exterior.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo many of the supporting players, thankfully, get more to do. Godley, one of those great scene-stealers who feels like he\u2019s great in everything and yet sufficiently featured only rarely \u2014 see Down Cemetery Road<\/a> for a recent example \u2014 keeps you guessing for the duration regarding whether Henry is hero, villain or hybrid. <\/p>\n

\n\tJames, a New York theater icon whose screen performances can tend toward the broad, has rarely been so subtle and quietly intriguing. Another acclaimed stage vet, Chalfant alternates between menace and maternal in unsettling ways. Porter is always a source of instant intensity, but I\u2019m not sure the season takes her character anywhere good, in contrast to Rubinek who, if you wait long enough here, eventually gets to do some fun stuff far beyond what he\u2019s normally offered.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the end of the eight-episode season, The Copenhagen Test has seemingly set up what, in broadcast TV terms, ought to be a versatile and resilient engine with a decently established team and the opportunity to use Alexander\u2019s predicament in various, almost procedural, ways. <\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, a broadcast series would have established the identical foundation in 44 minutes and what viewers lost in \u201cunfolding characterizations\u201d would be made up for in not needing to wade through four hours of bad TV in order to get to four episodes of sometimes entertaining TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fifth episode of Peacock\u2018s The Copenhagen Test begins with an extended \u201cPreviously On\u2026\u201d sequence. After a brief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10694,6533,108,6534,3836,3837,6536,3838,3839],"class_list":{"0":"post-14107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-copenhagen","8":"tag-adam-godley","9":"tag-brian-darcy-james","10":"tag-copenhagen","11":"tag-kathleen-chalfant","12":"tag-melissa-barrera","13":"tag-peacock","14":"tag-saul-rubinek","15":"tag-simu-liu","16":"tag-the-copenhagen-test"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}