TV review: Off-beat and funny moments and other nice touches in Hidden Assets crime drama
Angeline Ball as Emer Berry and Wouter Hendrickx as Christian De Jong in Hidden Assets
There's a scene in the first episode of (RTÉ One Sundays and RTÉ Player) that wouldn’t be out of place in .
Angeline Ball’s character, CAB agent Emer Berry, and a colleague are waiting to talk to a suspect in a parked car, when your man starts to complain about his wife’s fear of mindfulness. It’s off-beat, it’s real, it’s funny and it brings the characters to life.
There is another scene where Emer Berry changes a flat tyre at Shannon Airport. I can see why they put it in there — look at Emer, she gets shit done.
But I’m still watching someone change a tyre in what’s supposed to be a fast-moving thriller. I’m just worried they’ll have her painting a wall in episode-two.
I will be watching episode-two though. Tyre-changes aside, the plot unfolds nicely, linking a Criminal Assets Bureau raid on a house in Shannon to a dead body in a swish apartment in Antwerp, followed by a suicide bomber at a fashion show. (I tried to come up with a politically correct joke about a suicide bomber at a fashion show, but there isn’t one.)
Emer Berry discovers the link to the apartment and flies over, only to get arrested for breaking and entering by the Belgian cops. Enter Belgian cop, Christian de Jong.
He’s so busy fighting crime, he doesn’t have time for a haircut. Himself and Emer are clearly going to team up and fight the bad guys.
I like the dynamic between them — he’s raffish and European, with unpredictable hair, while Emer is like his vaguely flirty Mammy with a glint in her eye.
It’s not a million miles from the dynamic between the Irish one and André in the 'Bit of Butter on The Spuds' ad. This is the way that Irish women treat continental lads, and there is nothing we can do about it.
There are some nice touches that lift this above standard crime drama fare. The drug-dealer’s partner had a punky haircut and a kid in her arms, rather than the lip-job Stellas that you get from central casting in other RTÉ crime dramas (and yes, , I’m looking at you.)
Another strand in the story features an Irish woman who runs a services company at the Antwerp docks. Everyone speaks English to her at work, because she’s the boss presumably and Irish people can’t be bothered learning Flemish, it’s fierce hard on the ear.
She has a worried look on her face and not just because they could all be bitching about her at work and she wouldn’t have a clue what they’re saying.
The writers stopped short of making her wear a t-shirt reading 'I’m the Baddy', but it’s clear that’s what they want us to think. Which means she’s probably not that bad after all. But that’s how these shows work.
is somewhere between solid and very good. They have the potential to make it better. Here’s hoping.
