Hidden Assets - Season 2
Hidden Assets has an exciting follow-up to the first season, but the sloppy finish is disappointing. Although I wasn't really convinced by the first season of Hidden Assets, I still tried the second season. The first season had a satisfying ending and I was surprised that the second season was a direct sequel to the first. I doubt whether this was originally the intention, because two important protagonists are no longer on board. DS Emer Berry, the leader of Ireland's CAB (Criminal Assets Bureau) team, has been promoted and replaced by Claire Wallace (Nora Jane Noone, The Ipcress File). The first episode opens with the murder of Trestford CEO Richard Melnick. His place is taken by Frances Swann (Karine Vanasse, Revenge). Most of the other actors from the previous season reprise their roles.
The story starts a year after the events of the first season. Both the Irish CAB and the Belgian CTU (Anti-Terror Cell) are victims of a cyber attack at the same time. In both cases, data from their joint research has mainly been deleted. More against their will, the two police teams must work together again to track down the perpetrators and their motives. The cooperation is difficult because the Irish colleagues do not agree with the way in which the Belgian colleagues handled matters in the previous season. The distrust between both teams is therefore great.
Even more than in the first season, most of the actions take place in Belgium, and the Irish team even temporarily moves to Brussels halfway through the season.
What is really disturbing, however, is the carelessness. Some examples. During a raid, which supposedly takes place in Liège, an aerial image of the port of Antwerp is first shown. The police wear vests with the word "Politie" on them. In Liège, the police are French-speaking and should therefore say Police. Another scene that supposedly takes place in Charleroi is filmed in the famous pedestrian tunnel under the Scheldt. In the very first scene, Committee P (the internal Belgian police) interrogates an Irish police officer about a shooting, in which he was not present, and asks him how his colleague would have assessed the case. So it is not the witness himself who is interrogated, but a colleague... I can only suspect that budget limitations are the cause of this sloppiness, but why not keep the script a bit simpler?
The overall story is better put together this time and the ending contains a number of very unexpected plot twists. I think the story is now complete. It is a pity that there are many sloppy things, which will probably not be noticed outside Belgium, but which keep me at a score of 6.
The story starts a year after the events of the first season. Both the Irish CAB and the Belgian CTU (Anti-Terror Cell) are victims of a cyber attack at the same time. In both cases, data from their joint research has mainly been deleted. More against their will, the two police teams must work together again to track down the perpetrators and their motives. The cooperation is difficult because the Irish colleagues do not agree with the way in which the Belgian colleagues handled matters in the previous season. The distrust between both teams is therefore great.
Even more than in the first season, most of the actions take place in Belgium, and the Irish team even temporarily moves to Brussels halfway through the season.
Hidden Assets was a modest success in the Anglo-Saxon countries, the series was even nominated for a number of awards. The performances of the English-speaking actresses are decent. It is even more noticeable that the Belgian actors act rather stiffly. Wouter Hendrickx and Gilles De Schryver are absolutely not bad actors. I can only guess that they were given little space to fill in their role and that they rattled off their lines without much empathy. Occasionally Dutch is spoken, but communication is mainly in English. As a result, Flemish actors in a Flemish setting sometimes speak English to each other, which seems illogical.More against their will, the two police teams must work together again to track down the perpetrators and their motives.
What is really disturbing, however, is the carelessness. Some examples. During a raid, which supposedly takes place in Liège, an aerial image of the port of Antwerp is first shown. The police wear vests with the word "Politie" on them. In Liège, the police are French-speaking and should therefore say Police. Another scene that supposedly takes place in Charleroi is filmed in the famous pedestrian tunnel under the Scheldt. In the very first scene, Committee P (the internal Belgian police) interrogates an Irish police officer about a shooting, in which he was not present, and asks him how his colleague would have assessed the case. So it is not the witness himself who is interrogated, but a colleague... I can only suspect that budget limitations are the cause of this sloppiness, but why not keep the script a bit simpler?
The overall story is better put together this time and the ending contains a number of very unexpected plot twists. I think the story is now complete. It is a pity that there are many sloppy things, which will probably not be noticed outside Belgium, but which keep me at a score of 6.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
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