TV series
2025 · 1 season · 8 ep · Action & Adventure · Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
TMDB 6.5/10 (100 votes)
When an analyst discovers his eyes and ears have been hacked, he's drawn into a controlled world designed by his agency to draw out their enemies.
Created by Thomas Brandon
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The Copenhagen Test is an American science fiction spy thriller television series created by Thomas Brandon for Peacock. It stars Simu Liu and Melissa Barrera, with Liu and James Wan also serving as executive producers. The series premiered on December 27, 2025. In April 2026, the series was canceled after one season.
In the near future, an intelligence agent's brain is hacked, allowing the hackers access to everything he sees and hears. He must prove his allegiance and uncover the perpetrators.
Simu Liu as Alexander Hale, a Chinese-American military veteran and intelligence agent at the Orphanage
Melissa Barrera as Michelle Cyr, a French-Canadian field agent at the Orphanage
Sinclair Daniel as Samantha Parker, an intelligence analyst at the Orphanage
Brian d'Arcy James as Peter Moira, the Director of Operations at the Orphanage
Mark O'Brien as Edmund Cobb, an Orphanage analyst
Kathleen Chalfant as Patricia St. George, the Orphanage's mysterious Director
Adina Porter as Marlowe, the Director of Intelligence at the Orphanage
Sara Amini as Ellie, an Orphanage analyst working under Parker
Marnie McPhail as Frances, an Orphanage analyst
Hannah Cruz as Dr. Rachel Kasperian, Alexander's ex-fiancée
Saul Rubinek as Victor Simonek, Alexander's mentor and uncle figure
Adam Godley as Frederick Schiff, Cobb's mentor
Anthony Jhade as Remy, an Orphanage field agent
Oscar Hsu as Preston Hale, Alexander's father
Lauren Tom as Helen Hale, Alexander's mother
The espionage techno-thriller series was picked up by Peacock in February 2024. Thomas Brandon serves as creator, writer and executive producer for the series alongside co-showrunner and executive producer Jennifer Yale. James Wan, Michael Clear and Rob Hackett are executive producers for Atomic Monster, with Simu Liu also an executive producer. Mark Winemaker and Jet Wilkinson serves as executive producer, with Wilkinson directing the first two episodes.
The cast is led by Simu Liu and Melissa Barrera and includes Sinclair Daniel, Brian d'Arcy James, Mark O'Brien and Kathleen Chalfant as series regulars. In October 2024, the title of the series was initially revealed as Copenhagen. In November, Sara Amini joined the cast in a major recurring role as Ellie. Saul Rubinek was revealed as part of the cast the next month.
On April 15, 2026, Peacock canceled the series after one season.
Principal photography began on October 21, 2024, in Toronto, and wrapped on March 11, 2025.
The Copenhagen Test premiered on December 27, 2025, on Peacock, with all eight episodes released at once. It premiered in the UK on Channel 4 in April, 2026.
According to Variety, The Copenhagen Test scored 1.1 billion streams in the weeks between December 27, 2025 and January 1, 2026, making it the third most viewed show in America at the time, surpassing Netflix's Emily in Paris, HBO Max's The Pitt, and Amazon Prime's Fallout. It fell behind only Stranger Things and Landman in streaming viewership. The Copenhagen Test also reached the number one spot on Peacock's top ten TV show list, and was deemed a "Streaming Success" mere days after its release. The Copenhagen Test debuted at slot number 10 on the Nielsen Top Ten and drawing in the highest concentration of Black viewers (20%) and the highest concentration of Asian viewers (12%) across all top 10 titles.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 71% based on 24 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "After a slow start, The Copenhagen Test solidly sprints into thrilling spy-fare territory with engaging performances from Simu Liu and Melissa Barrera." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave it a score of 61 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Ron Seoul-Oh of Pop Culture News gave the show a 3/5, saying, "Through seven and a half of the eight-episode first season, The Copenhagen Test is fast, exciting and intriguing. The binge drop on Peacock will be welcomed by viewers eager to click through to the next episode after each previous one ends. The finale however is where the pacing falters."
Joel Keller of Decider praised the show for "[feeling] mostly like a solid conspiracy drama with a little bit of sci fi mixed in." He also praised the performances, with Liu and Barrera singled out for their chemistry, and named Saul Rubinek the "sleeper star" of the show.
Rating the show 8/10, Jeff Ewing of Collider wrote, "The Copenhagen Test is an engaging, entertaining spy thriller with a sci-fi edge. Liu serves as a strong lead for the series, boasting strong action chops and great chemistry with Barrera. [...] The Copenhagen Test is a thrilling series that seeds just enough of a sci-fi element throughout for something truly fresh in the spy genre.
Saloni Gajjar of The A.V. Club rated the show a C+, complimenting the performances of main cast members such as Melissa Barrera, "who kicks ass as Michelle and seamlessly plays the layered woman well," and Sinclair Daniel, for a "breakout" performance. However, she criticized the show for including too many plot twists to maintain their shock value, writing "[...] for a show that wants to be a wild ride, it can get borderline boring at times."
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