The Copenhagen Test review: Simu Liu channels his inner James Bond, just more vulnerable and betrayed

ALSO READ: 35 years of Godfather III: A movie so burdened by its predecessors, it forgot what it stood for

The series opens with Hale trying to secure a job in the Upstairs department of the Orphanage, the section which deals with field assignments, filled with people who actually face the fire, rather than write about it in an expense report. From the answers in his interview, you realise that Hale has a chip on his shoulder. See, Hale is a first-generation immigrant, and Chinese too. He reveals that his parents have worked extremely hard so that their son fits into this new country, not as an outsider, but as an American. They even change the family name to sound more like their neighbours and colleagues, and Alexander just wants to prove that he is an asset to his country.

The Army seems like the perfect place to do so, but this is where he faces his first loyalty test, something that becomes the root of all his problems. During an operation, Hale is ordered to get some hostages out, but he can only choose one. He is also told to prioritise Americans, but Hale comes across a scared kid in the forest and decides to save him instead of the American woman who is begging him to take her. Now a veteran, Hale is still haunted by that decision, but he doesn’t know that all of this was just a test, aptly called the Copenhagen Test.

That isn’t all, though. Hale soon discovers that his brain has been hacked, and some kind of surveillance technology has been embedded into it. This allows the hacker to see what Hale sees and hears, making him the perfect little cog in The Orphanage’s system. Hale’s predicament of being hacked works perfectly with his inherent sense of patriotism, because the fact that he has been spying on his country shatters his soul. Nothing else would have made quite the same impact; threats or extortion wouldn’t have worked because his love for his country is greater than anything else.

To render a patriotic man useless to his own country makes for a brilliant storyline, one that makes you understand what identity and autonomy truly mean. After finding a way to fool his hacker, Hale goes on an incredibly painful journey, both mentally and physically. The Orphanage builds a fake world around him in order to feed the hacker the wrong information. But every now and then, they have to give out real data, which puts Hale in an even worse ethical situation. He witnesses his country being attacked and his men being slaughtered without being able to do anything about it, and the series makes you feel his helplessness.

As Hale peels off the layers of this diabolical plan, he starts discovering the true depths of the lies that have been fed to him. Everything from his ex-wife to his oldest friend, his purpose and his identity are under the gun, because Hale isn’t the man he thought he was — he is just a player in this game, and just like the wooden men attached to a foosball table, he has no control over how the game gets played.

ALSO READ: John Lennon was a great musician, a bad bandmate, and an even worse husband, and we still celebrate him for it

Also, Sinclair Daniel (Parker) and Brian d’Arcy James (Peter Moira) deliver an exquisite performance. The mentor-mentee relationship between the two portrays their flaws and strengths in the most honest way. Their insecurities and fears come to light at the worst possible time for the characters but at the most optimal time for the viewers. The game of cloak and daggers that they play with Hale, knowing that at any point this could all blow up in their face and get them thrown off their jobs or, worse, get them thrown in jail — is all very well paced.

Nothing is revealed to you before time, and even though some of you might see a lot of things coming, you are never disappointed when it does come to light. It’s like knowing your destination perfectly but still being glad about the road you took there. Simu Liu seems well on his way to establishing himself as a serious and dramatic actor who has the ability to make the odd joke here and there and still make it feel natural. It isn’t perfect, and the cinematography of the series could have been more outside of the box, but it sticks to its purpose. It doesn’t try too hard and stays within the bounds of the narrative, and that is probably the best decision the creators could ever make.