Copyright decider
Espionage dramas that show people going undercover tend to feed on the overall tension of the operation: Will the asset be able to bring the organization down from the inside or will he/she be found out? But it does seem that shows like this have to avoid getting weighed down by cliches and predictability. It’s hard to avoid, as we see in a new Danish drama on Netflix. THE ASSET: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? Opening Shot: As a plane is about to take off, we see a male passenger squirming in his seat. The Gist: The passenger is in distress, and he informs a flight attendant that he has cocaine in his stomach; he’s obviously smuggling it and whatever he swallowed that contained the coke has ruptured. He dies before anyone can even attend to him. The passenger is actually an agent for the Danish spy agency PET, and he’s been undercover in the drug gang led by a man named Miran (Afshin Firouzi). After the autopsy, it turns out that the agent was made, as the packets he swallowed were perforated and didn’t contain cocaine; in other words, he was murdered. Folke (Nicolas Bro), the PET director, needs a new asset to infiltrate Miran’s organization, and he decides the best place to look is at the police academy. Folks goes to the academy and asks the director there for files on his best female recruits. The file for Tea Lind (Clara Dessau) catches his eye, and the director says she’s mentally astute and her tough background has made her very independent. The next day Tea gets pulled aside by the academy director and is told her security clearance has been pulled due to some unreported item in her background, which surprises Tea. She angrily goes to see her mother when she gets a call that she fell down. Their interaction shows just how tough Tea’s background was. Folke intercepts Tea as she hands in her locker key at the academy. He’s mysterious about who he is but she agrees to meet him at a restaurant, and he gives her a test in observation and how she can connect to strangers, which she passes with flying colors. He wants Tea to go undercover as a jeweler and befriend Miran’s girlfriend Ashley (Maria Cordsen). Her background will be part of her cover persona, but the information about her cover identity is still extensive. As she observes Ashley, she notices how much she wants to be a good mother to her young daughter Sofia (Lara Ly Melic Skovgaard), and uses that angle to make her way in. But first, she gives the persona a test drive on a blind date, and ends up meeting her handler, Yasin (Soheil Bavi). What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The plot of The Asset is somewhat reminiscent of the first season of Lioness. Our Take: The Asset feels like it’s going to play out in a predictable way, perhaps too predictable for a spy show like this. Tea infiltrating Miran’s organization via his girlfriend has the potential to be interesting, but we get the feeling that she’ll quickly gain Ashley’s trust, and then find out how controlling and abusive Miran is. Then Tea’s aim will be just as much about getting Ashley and her daughter out of Miran’s clutches as it is about bringing Miran’s drug ring down. We know Miran’s ruthless, as we see when he sends his right-hand-man Niko (Dan Boie Kratfeldt) to beat an associate of Miran’s younger brother Bambi (Arian Kashef) senseless. They were the ones who planted the compromised drug packets on the agent, and Miran is pissed that the agent’s death made headlines. But there’s a weakness there, as he can’t hurt Bambi, no matter how many times his little brother messes up, and we bet that will be exploited by Tea at some point. What we wish is that we find out more about both Tea and Ashley along the way. We know enough about both to believe how Tea’s going to angle her way into Ashley’s life, and her observational and interpersonal skills make us think that she’ll be able to do it in a way that’s believable, even as she does it in a way that might make Folke regret recruiting her. But we get the feeling that any twists as Tea and Ashley build their fake friendship will just be side trips to an already-determined destination. Sex and Skin: None in the first episode. Parting Shot: During her debrief with Folke and Yasin, Yasin finds out that Ashley booked an appointment with Tea’s jewelry dealer for the next day, proving that Tea’s more honest initial approach worked.Sleeper Star: We like Nicolas Bro as Folke, because it isn’t Scandi Noir without a burly, bearded, middle-aged guy playing a cop or spy, right? Most Pilot-y Line: Why does the drug gang need to be comprised of what we assume to be Muslim characters? It feels like anyone with brown skin in this show is a criminal, which is ridiculous. Our Call: STREAM IT. The Asset barely skates by on an appealing lead performance by Clara Dessau and a spy premise that has some interesting possibilities. But the narrative feels mostly predictable and is mired in stereotypes that we thought were left behind five years ago. Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
