Borgen: Decency in the Middle

“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?