“Kaspar, if I asked you to write a speech about capital
punishment, you’d say ‘For or against?’
“I wasn’t hired for my convictions.”
This is not the sort of thing I’ve been reviewing up till
now, to put it mildly. There are no aliens, monsters or vampires in it. But
it’s not all sci-fi and fantasy with me although, yes, I certainly swing that
way. I also enjoy classy dramas and stuff, I’m a bit of a politics junkie, and
I thought it would be fun, as I’m going to be doing short runs of short series
in between series of Buffy, to take a
look at Borgen. It helps that I’m
slightly deaf, always use subtitles when I can, and therefore have no issues
whatsoever with subtitled dramas in other languages. Also, I’ve recorded it,
it’s taking up space, and it has to be watched pretty urgently. It’ll be
interesting to see if this means a massive nosedive in pageviews, though. I’ve
never reviewed anything like this before and most people likely to be
interested have already seen it!
I’ve read so much orgasmic enthusiasm for this in the broadsheet
culture sections over the last couple of months, which led me to expect
something much more cerebral and, let’s say, challenging than the first episode
I’ve just watched. Instead, I’ve found a programme which, while intelligent and
full of lovely multi-layered subtext, is a damned exciting watch, a thriller,
except with political skulduggery except for guns and killing. It’s all so
beautifully shot, and acted, too.
It’s also, of course, full of the kind of metatextual fun
that I love so much, with a heavy focus on the media. There’s a great deal
It probably helps that Denmark’s
political system is pretty much analogous to Britain’s, of course, and we’ve
even become used to the concept of coalitions of late. It’s odd to see so much
coalition-related plotting before the
election, though. But, in spite of the differences, it all feels pleasantly
accessible. Oddly enough, if there’s a programme it reminds me of then it’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
This is only the first episode, though, setting up the
events that leave Birgitte Nyborg, leader of the centrist Moderate party, to
become prime minister, with her party having unexpectedly become the largest in
Parliament following a somewhat chaotic final televised debate.
Still, this episode is mostly set-up and establishing the
style and the characters. It’s difficult to draw many conclusions thus far. So
let’s have a look at the main characters.
Birgitte is charismatic (her final speech is magnificent if
not, of course, entirely typical), but also highly moral, as shown by her
refusal to blackmail Lars Hesselboe when Kaspar presents her with some juicy
incriminating info. This being the first episode, of course, I suspect that the
fact we’re being shown this points to all sorts of morally murky decisions that
she’s going to have to make as PM.
She’s also a woman who “has it all”- a loving husband and
two kids- and is therefore under enormous pressure, as career women often are,
usually doing far more than their fair share of the childcare and domestic
chores. This is another marker that’s been put down in the first episode, no
doubt to be developed. We can already see that work / life balance is a
potentially huge issue.
The most fascinating character is Kaspar. For one thing,
he’s uncannily similar to the loathsome Andy Coulson in both appearance and
(from what I’ve seen) mannerisms. He practises the dark arts of spin, er,
medicine, and is clearly addicted to politics for the power, the fun and the
skulduggery rather than the principles. I rather suspect that the opening quote
from Machiavelli is referring in large part to him. The fact that he gets fired
means I have no idea what he’s going to do next; he’s certainly in demand, not
least from Michael Laugesen, the Labour leader. But he’s far too prominent not
to be a regular character. I’m sure there are big plans for him. I wonder if
there’ll be any comebacks from his tampering with the scene of the Liberal spin
doctor’s death.
Lars Hesselboe, in spite of being a right-wing sort and
therefore not likely to endear himself to me, is presented as a fundamentally
decent chap whose “borrowing” of public funds to finance his wife’s enormous
purchases in Oxford Street is presented sympathetically- he’s simply
overwhelmed by events. Still, it’s confusing, and disturbing, to see a
conservative party calling itself the “Liberals” when the party I vote for is
currently in a coalition with the Evil Ones. Oh, and why are the Liberals in London talking to some “experts”
three days before the election? Do we Brits have some kind of Europe-wide
reputation in the dark arts of spin?
Michael Laugesen is a slimy little creep, the sort of
principle-free selfish twat, in charge of an ostensibly left-wing party, which
I find so very familiar, having been ruled for ten years by the similarly
odious Tony Blair. Laugesen has an interesting line about how Danish politics
is basically an oligarchy, delivered shortly after he quite literally pisses over
Parliament.
Finally, there’s Katrine, our identification character from
the media. Her life is already quite horribly complicated, and as far as she’s
concerned the morally dodgy and very clever Kaspar knows where the bodies are
buried. I suspect there will be complications.
So, the election is over… what happens next?
Just a quick note for any viewers - the parties featured in the highly excellent Borgen are fictitious, but based on the real Danish parties.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're doing a piece on this - I'll be adding my own comments along the way.
Thanks, much appreciated.:) I'm really loving it so far. The only real British political dramas (BBC 4's one-off biopics aside) are sitcoms like Yes Minister and The Thick of It, or exaggerated fun like House of Cards, which says a lot about British political cynicism, I think. It's so very refreshing to see a serious drama about how the game of politics is played these days. Already there are so many obvious parallels with recent British politics.
ReplyDeleteLooks as though this post is getting pageviews. That's a relief, as there are another nine to go!