When Emer Berry is partnered with Christian De Jong to investigate a complicated crime ring with ties to terrorism in Hidden Assets, it is a partnership that will appeal to fans of The Bridge – both and versions – where a prosecutor and police officer must solve a case despite their egos and conflicting ideas on process.
Trying to track the people and the evidence before a terrorist attack takes place harks to while following the money to do so and the links between street crime right through to major organised crime recalls .
The series cleverly begins with a standard raid on an Irish drug dealer’s home, revealing deeds to an Antwerp apartment and a bag of diamonds stashed in the pet lemur’s cage. The Antwerp apartment turns out to be both the site of a grisly murder, but also the hideout of a suicide bomber who resided there the night before an attack.
While Berry (Angeline Ball) and De Jong (Belgian actor Wouter Hendrickx) do not individually resemble The Bridge’s oddball partners Saga Norén and Martin Rohde, their relationship dynamic is akin. There’s a constant bristling tension inherent in the unspoken question: can they put aside their egos and negotiate a compromise between their conflicting procedural approaches to navigate a complex trail of politics and organised crime, which has deadly consequences if they end up squabbling?
Angeline Ball and Wouter Hendrickx as Emer Berry and Christian De Jong in ‘Hidden Assets’. Source: Guillaume Van Laethem/AcornTV
Like The Bridge, Follow The Money and Furia, Hidden Assets is filmed across various nations. It’s a reminder that crime knows no borders, but the complicated politics, police procedures and legal ramifications of multinational crimes add a dramatic layer to the storyline. The production was filmed between Ireland and Belgium, with Canadian co-production too. Like Follow The Money and Furia, and also , immigration, socio-economic division and the consequences fuelling national, cultural and ethnic divisions are layered into the plot.
The criminal investigators are not divided from the hoi polloi as far as existing in a moral grey zone. De Jong discovers his colleague has obtained a confession from a Muslim man who knew the bombers through bashing him violently, reflecting the many news headlines about police corruption, questionable interview techniques and the racial profiling that still makes daily life dangerous for men who fall foul of the middle-class, white male safety zone.
Simone Kirby as wealthy businesswoman Bibi Melnick in ‘Hidden Assets’. Source: Guillaume Van Laethem/AcornTV
Money laundering, greed and fear drive the motives of the characters in Hidden Assets. Those who have enough want more, and those who have nothing are willing to risk their lives to get access to money, acceptance and opportunity.
Like the best Nordic noir, it’s a series that doesn’t patronise viewers. It assumes a level of attentiveness, awareness and political awareness while not needlessly complicating the story.
The biggest drawcard, in my opinion, is Angeline Ball. The Irish actress has starred in a raft of top-quality films and TV, not least The Commitments, Shameless, EastEnders and Mr Selfridge. She’s a singer and a stage actor, too. She’s unafraid of bringing bold, nuanced, interesting women to stage and screen. As she told , “I just think [DS Emer Berry is] brilliantly written for a woman. She’s not a kind of an afterthought or sideline. She’s leading her team and that’s what I really liked, that she’s a strong, independent woman.”
Ball as DS Emer Berry. Source: Bernard Walsh/AcornTV
Between the cigarette-loving asthmatic DS Berry and the grizzled, wolfish Detective De Jong, dirty diamonds and dodgy drug dealers, there’s more than enough ingredients to make this drama your next binge watch.
Hidden Assets screens weekly on SBS, starting 9.25pm Wednesday 2 February. Episodes will be available at SBS On Demand after they air. Start with episode 1:
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