Hidden Assets

After watching an abysmal BBC offering I thought it was risky going straight into this. A very pleasant surprise. High class drama, very convincing story line and well-acted throughout.

The plot kept me guessing, and I loved the camera-work and the acting.

Nice to see a drama that didn't get over-stretched. Perhaps another series? I'd be happy to see more of Emer and Christian.

What a pleasure to watch a well written, well acted, suspenseful, bingeworthy series.

This is head and shoulders above some of the rubbish that is currently masquerading as entertainment.

Wouldn't mind a follow up from the same team.

In the opening scenes a woman is murdered in a flat in Antwerp; shortly afterwards a suicide bomber attacks an event there killing fourteen people, local police link the bomber to the flat. Meanwhile in Co. Clare, Ireland, the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) of the Garda raid the house of a suspected drug dealer intending to seize anything bought with illegal funds. They discover a number of uncut diamonds and the deeds to the flat in Antwerp. CAB officer Emer Berry heads to Antwerp and is soon working with Belgian policeman Christian De Jong. They work to establish links between the events in Ireland and Belgian; a sense of urgency is given when they establish that the bomber only used half of his explosives; presumably somebody else intends to use the other half.

I really enjoyed this six part series. It started well with the two apparently separate incidents in Ireland and Belgium before quickly linking them. While it is obvious there is a link it is considerably less obvious just what the link is. It is clear that whoever is behind the crimes is very professional and very dangerous. The characters are an interesting bunch; Emer and Christian are good leads and there are plenty of suspicious characters who may or may not be criminally involved. It was a relief that we only see the police getting on with their jobs; too many series find it necessary to give them troubled back stories and family lives. The cast is good; notably Angeline Ball and Wouter Hendrickx as Emer and Christian. Overall a solid drama which I'd recommend to fans of the genre.

Set in Ireland and Belgium, there's a lot to enjoy in crime drama 'Hidden Assets', whose dense and juicy plot proceeds at a lively pace throughout. Notably, the Irish police force features a four-strong chain of command, all of them female; also one of the leading suspects is also a woman. But there are also some trashier elements: a fair amount of expository dialogue; a data expert who fits the cliches of the idiot-savant in her ability to see patterns that no-one else can; a lead character of inappropriate cockiness who, in the first episode, travels to Belgium, breaks into a flat without authorisation, and suffers no penalty; and a final shoot-out with several ludicrous aspects. It's still good fun, but not quite serious drama.

All the cast are believable in their roles. The production values are quite high with only a few oddly staged indoor scenes looking washed out. The story is quite complex and although I enjoyed it, we had to keep pausing to work on what was going on.

This is much better than a lot of the cop shows around. There is also a degree of humour that brings the characters to life.