Peacock's Best Spy Thriller Takes Less Than 7 Hours to Binge

Giovana Gelhoren is a High-Trending Topics Writer at Collider, covering the most-talked-about stars, movies, and TV shows. Before joining Collider, she was a Digital News Writer at People Magazine and served as Associate Editor at SheKnows, where she honed her expertise in celebrity coverage and entertainment journalism.

A proud Latina from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Giovana graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Journalism and International Studies. She has interviewed countless celebrities, including Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry, Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Brenda Song, and is known for her encyclopedic knowledge of film, TV, and pop culture.

Over the years, a few Peacock TV shows have managed to break the mold and achieve major streaming success. Among them are Poker Face and Day of the Jackal, which each earned a handful of Emmy nominations and drew in millions of fans. But while these two shows might be the most well-known titles on the platform, one action series from Peacock is another must-watch, but never got the attention or recognition it deserved.

The show in question here is The Copenhagen Test, an eight-episode series first released on December 27, 2025. Starring Simu Liu, the series is a mind-bending action series that hooks viewers from the very beginning and takes audiences on an intense ride into one man’s fight for freedom, and the risks evolving technology can pose for the future of humanity.

What Is ‘The Copenhagen Test’ About?

The Copenhagen Test follows Liu as Alexander Hale, a first-generation Chinese-American who’s working as an intelligence analyst for a mysterious covert intelligence agency called the Orphanage. The series kicks off when he discovers someone has injected him with cutting-edge nanotechnology that lets them see and hear everything he does. In other words, he suddenly becomes a walking, talking bug for a clandestine spy agency he hasn’t identified yet. After finding out, Alexander goes into fieldwork, both as a way to prove that he’s innocent to the organization he’s working for, and to find out who “hacked” his body.

Four powers, and four completely different kinds of person behind them.
Here is what you would wake up with, what it would cost you, and why the MCU keeps handing it to
somebody exactly like you.

You get the power that is really about taking the hit so that
nobody else has to. Strength in the MCU always lands on people who were already carrying too
much, which is exactly why it suits you.

• Your instinct is to put yourself between the problem and the people, and you do it
  before anybody has thought to ask.
• Bruce Banner is the most interesting version of this because his story was never about
  lifting things, it was about control.
• The catch with strength is that people stop checking whether you are alright, since you
  have made a habit of looking like you always are.
• You would be the one everybody calls at two in the morning, and you would answer every
  single time.

You get the power that never switches off. Spider-sense is a gift
and a nervous system on permanent alert, and the people who get it in these films are always
the ones who were already worrying about everybody.

• You read a situation faster than you can explain it, and you are usually right in a way
  you cannot show your working for.
• Peter Parker is the template because he takes on more than he can hold and then
  apologises for not holding it well enough.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived in July 2026 and put him back to being local, broke
  and permanently on call.
• The cost here is real, since a power that warns you about everything also means you are
  never quite off duty.

You get the quietest power in the building, and quietly the most
useful. Invisibility comes with force fields for a reason, because the people who prefer not
to be seen are usually the ones holding a shield around everybody else.

• You notice everything, largely because you spend more time observing a room than
  performing in it.
• Sue Storm is the strongest member of her team and the least interested in anybody saying
  so, which is very much your energy.
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps finally gave the family a proper MCU home in 2025 and
  made her the centre of it.
• Your risk is that being unseen becomes a habit rather than a choice, and the people who
  love you would like a look in.

You get the biggest and least comfortable power on the list, the
one that runs directly on feeling. Chaos magic is not really a superpower in the MCU so much
as an emotional state with consequences attached.

• You feel things at a volume other people do not, and you have spent years managing that
  rather than being managed by it.
• Wanda is the best written character Marvel has, precisely because her power and her
  grief turned out to be the same thing.
• WandaVision remains the high point of Marvel television, and it works because the
  spectacle is only ever a symptom.
• The warning attached to this one is simple. A power that answers to how you feel is only
  ever as steady as you are.

As it turned out, the mental “hack” all started when Alexander was administered “The Copenhagen Test” in the field, where he had to choose to evacuate an American woman named Michelle (Melissa Barrera) or a non-American child from a dangerous area. The operative, Michelle, is later assigned to be his handler/girlfriend in hopes of getting to the truth. Throughout its eight-episode run, The Copenhagen Test has viewers questioning everything and everyone around Alexander, and it all comes to a head in the explosive season finale.

‘The Copenhagen Test’ Deserved a Second Chance

• Image via Peacock

• Image via Peacock

• Image via Peacock

• Image via Peacock

• Image via Peacock

• Image via Peacock

• Image via Peacock

• Image via Peacock

• Image via Peacock

• Image via Peacock

From the premise alone, it’s safe to say The Copenhagen Test brought something new to streaming. While action series aren’t exactly scarce, with shows like Reacher and The Night Agent, this Peacock title doesn’t have action for action’s sake, and instead delivers its high-octane moments in the context of technology, and a company’s power to not only manipulate and take over someone’s body, but to have them question everything, and everyone around them. After its release, The Copenhagen Test was well-received, with an estimated 1.1 billion minutes watched during the week of December 26 to January 1, according to Luminate data cited by Variety. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series also scored high, reaching a solid score of 72% from critics, and an even higher 79% on the audience-driven Popcornmeter. Among the highlights for the viewers was the series’ ability to weave unpredictable twists and turns into the story, while still developing its two main characters. “Excellent character work and a tight story,” reads one review. “Simu Liu and Barrera lead an excellent cast.”

Despite the show’s seemingly impressive success, The Copenhagen Test was canceled by Peacock after one season, making the series a gripping miniseries that never got to live up to its full potential. While the news was certainly a disappointment, the series remains an easy and engaging watch for Peacock viewers, one that would take less than seven hours to watch all the way through.

The Copenhagen Test

The Copenhagen Test follows intelligence analyst Alexander Hale, whose brain is hacked, allowing access to his sensory experiences. With adversaries from a shadowy agency and unknown hackers, Hale navigates this future setting, striving to identify those responsible while proving his loyalty amidst the digital espionage.