Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hidden Assets’ On Acorn TV, Where Irish And Belgian Detectives Take On A Case Of International Terrorism

We’ve never heard of the police unit featured in the series Hidden Assets, but it sounds like an intriguing one to us. It’s called the Criminal Assets Bureau, which seizes cash and any other assets that a convict obtained via the proceeds of criminal activity. As this series shows, its investigations can lead to more than just seizing cars, jewelry and cash.

HIDDEN ASSETS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see water overflowing a tub onto the floor. The woman downstairs sees the leak and goes to the apartment above hers. As she knocks, we see the face of a dead woman in the tub, and two men cleaning  up the scene.

The Gist: In Shannon, Ireland, DS Emer Berry (Angeline Ball) is leading a crew from the Criminal Assets Bureau into the home of drug dealer Darren Reid (Desmond Eastwood). Their unit seizes any and all assets that have been purchased from the proceeds of criminal activity. In their search, they find something lining the bottom of a monkey cage: A bag of diamonds and the paperwork for an apartment in Antwerp, Belgium.

In Antwerp, a hooded man explodes a suicide bomb at a fashion show. Bibi Melnick (Simone Kirby), whose company supplies items for ships using the port, sees the report on the bombing; apparently the apartment where the woman was found was related to it. Bibi recognizes the sketch of the woman who was found as someone who worked for her. She’s reluctant to report it, but her husband James (Charlie Carrick) convinces her.

Despite being out of their jurisdiction, Berry decides to travel to Antwerp to look into the apartment and the diamonds. There, she’s caught by the local police’s Counter Terrorism Unit, led by Inspector Christian De Jong (Wouter Hendrickx); they’ve been stalking the apartment because the bomber used it to prepare for his mission and because the woman was found there. Once Berry identifies herself and informs them of the connection, De Jong wants to know more about Reid and why his name was on the deed for the apartment.

Berry, back in Shannon, lets Reid know that he’ll be questioned, with De Jong observing. But Reid doesn’t make it to the interrogation room; he’s shot dead by two men on a motorcycle right outside the police station.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Hidden Assets has the same feel as most continuing-storyline cop series we’ve gotten from the British Isles, from Line Of Duty to Luther and many more.

Our Take: The first episode of Hidden Assets, written by Peter McKenna and Morna Regan, just scratches the surface of how deep the conspiracy that Berry and De Jong investigates will be. But what we’ve seen so far is intriguing, mainly because of the setting and the players involved.

This series is definitely all about the case; while we see some minor insights into the characters — Berry gets ready for her raid on Reid’s house in the bathroom of a pizzeria — the snippets of character we’ll get will likely come out in how the cops interact with each other. For instance, Berry’s colleague Sean Pendergast (Aaron Monaghan) gives a monologue about how his wife doesn’t believe in mindfulness while he and Berry wait for Reid to return to his house. But that might just be meaningless patter during a stakeout than anything else. Still, there seem to be moments here and there where we’ll see some glimpses of character.

Usually, we want more than glimpses. But the mystery here is interesting enough that we don’t care about character as much as we might in another show. We especially like that Berry’s unit, whom De Jong jokes are “the accountants” of the police world, is one that we don’t usually see. But just because they don’t arrest people doesn’t mean that the assets they seize don’t lead to massive cases; their raid of Reid’s house has a connection to a major terrorist incident in Belgium, after all.

The Antwerp part of the mystery also gives us a glimpse into a part of Europe we don’t see a lot of here in the States; for instance, the primary language in Antwerp is Flemish, a variation of Dutch. And, according to Berry, it’s being portrayed as a center of the illegal trade of diamonds. So seeing how this case will span multiple countries is going to carry a lot of the drama.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: As Berry and her fellow Garda members shoot at the men who killed Reid, Berry looks in dismay as her best lead is dead and bleeding out in front of their office building.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to director Thaddeus O’Sullivan, who directed one of the more innovative-looking scenes of an explosion we’ve ever scene. We see the suicide bomb go off on the screen of an inattentive guard before the blast comes through the room and lays waste to the guard and his station.

Most Pilot-y Line: As Berry defends being in CAB — “We get the targets and their money” — De Jong reiterates what he thinks of what they do. “The accountant squad,” he says for a second time. Seems like an unneeded dig on his part, given how her investigation dovetails into his, no?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Hidden Assets is all about the conspiracy at the center of the first season, and we see signs from the first moments that it’ll be twisty and keep our interest, even if there isn’t a ton of character development.

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.