The Copenhagen Test
What’s it rated? TV-MA
When? 2025
Where’s it showing? Peacock
Created by Thomas Brandon (Legacies), this sci-fi spy thriller follows former U.S. Special Forces soldier turned analyst Alexander Hale (Simu Liu), who works for clandestine organization The Orphanage that oversees the rest of the intelligence community. He’s in a budding relationship with hot bartender Michelle (Melissa Barrera), but he’s grown tired of his office work, so he puts in for a field position and gets it. What he doesn’t know is that his brain’s been hacked by a nanite technology that transmits everything he sees and hears.
A fantastic premise with a lot of potential, this might have been great as a two-hour movie, but in between the effective action sequences, the series can feel plodding. Too many characters, too many storylines, and this potentially taut little thriller is a sprawling behemoth that moves back and forth in time, including to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
Eventually, Hale discovers the hack and informs his superiors, who decide to use the knowledge to draw out the hacker, but in the spy world, Hale doesn’t know who to trust. He’s a pawn, and the way to control his outcome is to stop following orders. (eight 47- to 56-min. episodes).
—Glen Starkey
This article appears in March 5 – March 12, 2026.