The Copenhagen Test is the latest import to make the transmission to primetime UK telly, given all the budget cuts.
In a long-ago Call Of Duty-style Belarus mission out in the field, Alexander Hale (Simu Liu – In Your Dreams) is told there’s only room on the chopper for one hostage, and to prioritise Americans… so, chooses a local young boy, instead… in fact, I could tell this was how that scene would play out, before it was even completed, in numerous segments.
We learn in the modern day, The Orphanage is a ‘watcher’ for the US Intelligence Community, effectively an ‘Internal Affairs’ for all American clandestine agencies. It has never been compromised, we’re told.
Three years on, he’s busted down to an analyst, but misses out on field work. Yet, since The Copenhagen Test is all about conspiracy theory nonsense, where he believes his brain has been hacked (as if), then this just feels like a drawn-out and dull version of Total Recall, with side helpings of the old comic cartoon, The Numbskulls, since the governmenet can see out of a subject’s own eyes.
On the plus side, they can remove it and he’s out of intelligence, or they can keep the hack open, and he’ll see and here only what they want him to, whilst using him to take some bad guys down. Yeah, I’d be out of that, but obviously, he’s in because without that, there’d be no show.
Baddies make their presence obvious, by having a big fight right in front of protagonists Hale and Michelle (Melissa Barrera – Abigail), but… it’s all just so drawn out. I’m sure you could do all this in half the time, and make it a damn sight more interesting. In fact, it reminds me of Amazon Prime’s Citadel, which broke the bank at $300m, and for which they lost their shirt, and presumably, someone lost their job for commissioning it.
NOTE: I saw the US broadcast of this.
The Copenhagen Test begins tomorrow night on Channel 4 at 9pm, with two episodes apiece each Weds and Thursday, for two weeks. Once broadcast, all episodes will be on All 4.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Cert: 
Running time: 45 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: April 8th 2026
Channel: Channel 4
Format: 2.39:1
Series Directors: Vincenzo Natali, Nima Nourizadeh, Kevin Tancharoen, Jet Wilkinson
Producers: Tayah Geist, Keith Raskin
Writers: Adam Benic, Thomas Brandon, Marilyn Fu, Monica Buccini, Jamie Chan, Hannah Rosner, Jennifer Yale
Creator: Thomas Brandon
Music: Nathan Micay
Cast:
Alexander Hale: Simu Liu
Michelle: Melissa Barrera
Samantha Parker: Sinclair Daniel
Peter Moira: Brian d’Arcy James
Edmund Cobb: Mark O’Brien
St. George: Kathleen Chalfant
Ellie: Sara Amini
Victor Simonek: Saul Rubinek
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.