'Hidden Assets' Brings a Fresh Angle to the Police Procedural

As someone who watches a lot of mysteries, the world of endless acronyms for the different bureaus can run together. From Line of Duty's AC-12 to The Capture's SO15 to the various CIDs in Midsomer Murders, Inspector Morse, and so forth, they can all start to run together. That's the first thing Acorn TV's new police procedural, Hidden Assets, has going for it, introducing the CAB, the Criminal Assets Bureau of Shannon, Ireland, bringing in a new division unfamiliar to most TV viewers, and creating a new angle to tackle the usual gangland terrorist narrative.

That's not surprising, considering that the writer for this series, Peter McKenna, is the same one who took the usual gangland narrative drama found on shows like Gangs of London on AMC+ and turned it into something far superior in Kin. That Ireland-set series put the family drama front and center, turning a simple story of revenge gone wrong into a David and Goliath style struggle brought on by one mother who rejects the insistence of the men of her family that her son's death is something she should just accept.

Hidden Assets begins with a murder in a bathtub, but not the arrival of a detective charged with investigating the homicide. The murderers were caught cleaning up the crime scene, and the unit has already been identified as belonging to drug dealer Darren Reid (Desmond Eastwood). Instead, the show's lead is DS Emer Berry (Angeline Ball), and she's there as part of the CAB crew whose job is to seize all proceeds, gains, or items purchased with monies from Reid's criminal activity. But their search brings up something no one was expecting: A bag of diamonds and the deed to an apartment in Antwerp. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber, who seemingly lives in that apartment, blows up a fashion show.