(TV SERIES) The Copenhagen Test Season 1 - A Unique & Interesting Blend of Spy Story with Sci-fi Element

Few days ago, I found out that the first 4 episodes of this series were made available on HBO Max. I was delighted as I read some articles praising the series but I thought I had to wait for some time till all episodes were released. On New Year's eve though, I rechecked HBO Max and realized that the full season was already out. So I immediately began to watch on that day and finished it last night. Without further ado, here's more on the series.

Brief Story Line

Alexander Hale (Simu Liu - Jackpot!, Barbie etc) was working as an analyst for a spy organization called Orphanage that oversaw all intelligence agencies in the US. He had aspired to become a field agent but never got the chance till one day he was appointed to lead a special project by Director Peter Moira (Brian d'Arcy James - West Side Story, 13 Reasons Why TV series etc). Alexander's life seemed to be going for the better as he also befriended bartender Michelle (Melissa Barrera - Abigail, In the Heights etc), although his colleague Henry Cobb (Mark O'brien - Ready or Not, Anon etc) suspected Alexander as a mole.

Later Alexander realized that his brain was hacked and the Orphanage actually suspected him and tried to find out the culprits. They assigned Samantha Parker (Sinclair Daniel - The Other Black Girl TV series etc) to  analyze Alexander behavior and oversee a team to kill Alexander if he had flipped.

So what would happen to Alexander? You could find out in this series.

End of Brief Story Line

When I watched the first episode of the series, I felt it had an interesting opening scene. As the story progressed, I found it to be quite intriguing with an ending that excite me. But once I got to the second episode, that's where I really got hooked cause of the way the story was told. It has an intelligent way of showing what happened in the background similar to the model of a heist movie. And these kind of scenes were shown several times in subsequent episodes which made me liked this series more.

Now the things that were talked most by people about the series was the sci-fi element which to my opinion was not too far fetched and definitely the part that made this one stood out from the standard spy genre. The wonderful thing is, despite adding some sci-fi to the premise, it never deviated from the main genre which is espionage. The series always had the mission objectives, use of assets, agent flipping and of course the action that made the spy genre could stand the test of time. 

The cast here particularly Simu Liu did great job. I felt he really suited his character and I like the way he was written. It's either the writer Thomas Brandon (creator of The Legacies TV series) already had Simu Liu in his mind from the beginning or Liu was able to capture Brandon's idea perfectly. Other characters that I liked were Director Moira and Parker, although I felt Melissa to be a bit too generic. I think Thomas Brandon should be applauded for his creativity in creating the series. He was also credited as Executive Producer along with few others including Simu Liu himself and the well known James Wan (creator of Saw, Conjuring and director of plenty successful movies). 

In addition to the names above, there was one more main cast of Kathleen Chalfant (The Guardian TV series etc) as St. George, ultimate boss of the Orphanage. There were also some support characters such as senior agent Marlowe (Adina Porter - Smoke mini series etc), Alexander's old family friend Victor (Saul Rubinek - Warehouse 13 TV series etc), Henry's uncle Schiff (Adam Godley - The Umbrella Academy TV series etc), Alexander's ex-fiancee Rachel (Hannah Cruz) and several others. The first season consisted of only 8 episodes with not too long duration. At first I thought that it would be a limited series cause it felt the things would be resolved in a season. Apparently I was mistaken as the finale though seemed to clear the biggest issue, there were things that could be explored further. So let's just hope it would get renewed and we could see more to the story with a complete conclusion.

Overall this was indeed an intereting series. It was a unique but nice blend of sci-fi with espionage and had enough amount of drama that never felt too much. The action was pretty well executed and Simu Liu was able to show that he could still be a leading man. Critics seemd to be quite fond with the series even though it was not as very highly regarded as I thought it would be. Audience, especially Peacock subscribers seemed to be impressed as well with it making to the top list and also getting in the Top 10 for HBO Max (the streaming service outside US where we could see the series). So if you are fan of spy story combined with sci-fi, then I think you would be entertained with this series like I was. But if you prefer old fashioned kind of spy with cool gadgets, then this might not be too enjoyable. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars