There’s no real conclusion to the story except a possible setup for a second season.
There’s a show that must be on your radar for binge-watching, no matter what. And it’s not what you would expect, either. It’s not a reality show nor a skop skiet and donner escapade.
Instead, The Asset is a Danish thriller and crime drama that has rocketed to the top of the viewing charts. It’s only been a few short days since its release.
The six-part limited series is dubbed, but like other Netflix hits, such as Money Heist and Squid Game, it has not stopped audiences from flocking to its stream in droves. And it’s easy to see why. This is a series that packs a punch. There are powerful performances, incredible nuance, and a plot that is told with gripping direction.
This psychological thriller introduces audiences to Tea. She’s a young police cadet whose checkered past and previous addiction challenges got her kicked out of training but recruited by a covert division of the Danish police force, almost like the FBI, but in Copenhagen.
Thus, despite her dreams of becoming a member of law enforcement through the traditional career path being shattered, Tea is thrown into the deep end of undercover investigative work.
The tension’s not from firing guns
Her past made her the perfect candidate to infiltrate a Danish drug empire. Under a new identity as Sara Linneman, she’s sent to befriend Ashley, the girlfriend of a crime boss, Miran. What was intended to be a carefully stage-managed sting operation quickly becomes something more.
It becomes personal, as Tea discovers that playing a role in the underworld means confronting the parts of herself – demons she thought she’d buried and preferred it that way – until it wasn’t.
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The moral dichotomy that Tea, aka Sara, is burdened with forms the basis of a narrative that solicits empathy and confusion from viewers. There’s a hard contrast between Miran’s gangster ruthlessness and his loving role as a father and a partner to Ashley.
He can kiss his daughter goodnight, be emotionally vulnerable and tender in one scene, only to bash a man’s skull to pulp in another. This, while Ashley’s gilded cage of glamour and cash was a physical and emotional prison because of Miran’s villainous enterprise.
Ashley’s fear, the control, and the façade of luxury get to Tea, and she begins to empathise with the woman she’s supposed to manipulate into revealing her lover’s operations.
The agents’ handlers are jaded, and clinical law enforcement veterans are as ruthlessly dangerous. They pressure Tea nonstop and test her moral compass several times because, in undercover work, ethics are negotiable, and collateral damage can be anyone or anything.
The pair of senior officers would also not hesitate to use Ashley’s young daughter as a means to manipulate the outcome they desire.
Undercover ethics are negotiable
Tea’s work turns out to be flawless and calculated despite her growing inner conflict. Her cover, as a jeweller, is executed flawlessly, and she manages to expose Miran and his crimes. But as success rolls out the red carpet on one side, so too does chaos and blood invite reality in.
There’s no real conclusion to the story except a possible setup for a second season. If there is none, the final thirty minutes in episode six feel like someone’s slashing the tyres of the plot. That’s because it’s quickly twisted and recalibrated.
Watch The Asset trailer
Sharing more will spoil the intense enjoyment of the show. It’s more than just a popcorn and snack binge, because at times it’s so engaging that even pausing for a pee break would be too much of a momentum interruptus.
The performances are impeccable. Clara Dessau as Tea leads a cast that’s able to emote and direct narrative without dialogue. Living Sara’s lie is scrumptiously snackable.
It’s physical drama, coupled with dialogue performances that leave viewers riveted at every turn. Maria Cordsen’s play of Ashley is mousey and bold at the same time. Actor Afshin Firouzi carves Miran’s Jekyll and Hyde villain splendidly.
A tender, loving criminal
There are not enough words in a Thesaurus to create hyperbole enough to describe the viewing pleasure of The Asset. It’s a five-out-of-five series and sparks curiosity about other Danish productions, much like Money Heist, a front-and-centre Spanish drama, and Squid Game, which added momentum to the world’s love of Korean culture.
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