Peacock’s latest series peels back the layers of a world where technology intended for good falls into the hands of those intended to exploit it for bad.
The Copenhagen Test, starring Simu Liu, is an espionage thriller that follows Liu as Chinese-American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale learns that his brain has been hacked, and that those who carried out the task have access to everything he sees and hears.
Shaping the story around real-world technological anxieties
“This started when my wife’s laptop was hacked by ransomware hackers, and they were demanding Bitcoin to unlock everything,” creator and executive producer Thomas Brandon told Blavity’s Shadow and Act.
“As I was dealing with that, I started pushing myself; the job of science fiction writer is to see what’s coming next,” he continued. “There’s this great quote, which, I’m gonna butcher it, but it’s ‘The job of the science fiction writer is not to envision the future, but the future traffic jam.’ So, it’s not about the technology, right? It’s about how the technology ultimately is misused by humans, and what it actually reveals about what it’s like to be and feel human. So I started thinking about what’s the next thing I would be worried about if it’s not this, if it’s not my phone or my laptop, it’s like, oh, my eyes and ears. That’s the most personal, intimate consequence it could possibly come from, technology invading your life.”
Inspired by his affinity for old-school Cold War spy novels, Brandon began creating the character, portrayed by Liu, around whom The Copenhagen Test centers.
Built on dual realities, with Alexander in the real world and Parker (Sinclair Daniel) behind the monitors, the creative approach to keeping the two interconnected yet distinct was intentional.
“When Thomas first created the show, and we started talking about it, even just the two of us, and then when we opened it up to the writers, he would use tonal comps like The Martian, like Apollo 13, because those are movies that he really loved in the idea that there’s a control room, and then there’s the operative that is out in the world, and the idea of having to solve problems that they’re going through,” said co-showrunner Jennifer Yale.
She added, “But also the communication, and what happens if that communication drops, and have you prepared the operative enough to be able to get through a situation and seeing what they can do, and especially with this where you can’t, you know, for Alexander, he can’t use his eyes and ears in the same way that most people could. We had to figure out ways, like Morse Code, to be able to have the communication get to him. Then, in episode two, where they’re in the bookstore, and he gets communicated to run, it was fun for us to play with this idea of they’re in the control room, and he doesn’t run, and then what do you do? And then to learn that is what Parker’s job was to figure out what he is actually going to do and predict if he does this. You know, this is the plan. But if he does this, which is most likely what I think he will do, because I’ve studied him, now, what is the contingency plan? And so that was fun, always making sure that both worlds were built on each other.”
How technology tethers a thin line between good and bad
For Daniel, what Parker discovers about surveillance is that it is “inherently morally ambiguous.”
Her character is entitled to the experiences of Liu’s Alexander, which, at first glance, seemed exciting, like uncharted territory in the scope of what technology can do. Still, she finds it a bit creepy.
In all, it puts her moral compass to the test, which, according to Daniel, poses the following question: “Should I be witnessing all that I’m witnessing, especially without somebody’s consent?”
“It’s tough, and I think that’s one of the takeaways, is that it’s just tough, in what you’re entitled to in somebody else, ” said Daniel. “As far as the approach went, I always felt like Parker had a very strong sense of care for Alexander, and even when she’s suspicious of him, she still cares about him and his well-being because now she feels like she knows him so intimately. And when you actually know anybody that intimately, it’s hard to just completely write them off as anything other than human.”
“So even when he makes mistakes or goes against the mission or whatever happens in the show, she struggles with that because she cares about him and she wants to support him,” she continued. “But also this other thing, and I think being able to hold two truths at the same time is what I was interested in doing. Where, you know, [there’s] a healthy amount of suspicion and a healthy amount of care at the same time.”
The Copenhagen Test Season 1 is now streaming on Peacock.