The Asset (Legenden) tells a dark story about a woman who wanted to be a police officer but gets pushed into an undercover role with the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET).

The Asset is as much a character study as it is a crime drama. The first scene is a man on an airplane being poisoned by a leaking bag of cocaine he swallowed. We learn he is an “asset” working undercover for the PET. He was meant to help find the evidence to convict a drug dealer named Miran (Afshin Firouzi).

Folke (Nicholas Bro) has the job of finding a new asset to replace the dead fellow from the airplane. He visits the police academy and looks at all the new recruits.

Tea (Clara Dessau) is in the police academy, performing well. Unexpectedly she is informed that she will be expelled from the program. Just as unexpectedly Folke approaches Tea about working undercover. He promises her if she does a good job he will try to get her back in the police department. That was when I decided Folke was a ruthless jerk who would manipulate anyone without remorse. He did nothing to make me like him any better as the story went on.

Folke wants Tea to befriend Ashley (Maria Cordsen), Miran’s wife. Tea would get a new identity as a jeweler named Sara and find a way to get into Ashley’s confidence to learn more about Miran and find the evidence to arrest.

Tea was really good at being undercover. She was smart and could think on her feet. She did befriend Ashley, but there was a hitch. She liked Ashley. She liked Ashley’s eight year old daughter. She didn’t want Ashley to get caught up in Miran’s crimes and have to leave her daughter behind to go to jail.

Tea broke some rules. She didn’t like the way Folke did things (neither did I) and tried to protect Ashley. It was an interesting twist on the undercover cop drama we usually see.

Clara Dessau played Tea as naturally guarded and not overly demonstrative. She’d had a rough childhood and had big guardrails. When pretending to be Sara, she had to be more friendly and open, but she made it work.

Afshin Firouzi as Miran was a criminal, yes, but he did his best to protect his family. I actually thought he was a better man than Folke. It’s a new twist to like the “bad guy” better than the “good guy” when the point of the story is to put the bad guy in jail.

The season ends with some unfinished storylines, but I don’t think The Asset is meant to have a second season.

This six part series is streaming on Netflix. It’s not the best crime drama of the year (see Task), but it’s a decent watch with intriguing characters.