• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, December 26, 2025

A new spy thriller with a high-tech twist represents a new chapter in the annals of international espionage and covert operations.

Coming to Peacock on Saturday, “The Copenhagen Test” is about an American intelligence agent with experience in the field and behind a desk who learns that someone has electronically “hacked” into his brain to turn him into a living, breathing spying device without his knowledge.

It is a scenario that is so farfetched that it presents a challenge for the makers of a TV spy series to make it plausible and real.

And that they do. I watched only the first episode of this eight-part series and quickly became hooked.

This is a show about paranoia, suspicion, distrust and, above all, patriotism. At the center of the action is Alexander Hale (Simu Liu, photo above), a special ops soldier who faced a life-or-death decision in a rescue operation that opens the show.

He is eventually transferred to a research and analysis facility where he works everyday translating intercepted communications from North Korea for U.S. intelligence.

Watching “The Copenhagen Test” is an uncomfortable experience because Liu plays the Hale character -- a man whose life is caving in -- in such a way that we instantly root for him.

In Episode One, he feels singled out as a suspect in an internal search for a leak that is causing vital information to filter out to North Korea from the unit he works in.

As he comes to grips with his situation -- which has him facing another life-or-death decision as Episode One comes to a close -- he begins to trust nobody, not even his oldest friend in the intelligence community or his friends outside of it either.

The title of “The Copenhagen Test” refers to a psychological test Hale finds in an espionage textbook. 

The test figures into the plot of the show, but the TV Blog’s strict no-spoilers policy prevents me from revealing what that is.

In addition to Liu, other cast members in “The Copenhagen Test” include Saul Rubinek, Brian D’Arcy James and Kathleen Chalfont.

This show comes in the waning days of 2025, but emerges as one of the best shows the TV Blog has seen all year.

“The Copenhagen Test” starts streaming on Saturday, December 27, on Peacock.