The Bridge: Episode One

"Does he know… she's a bit odd?"

"If not, he'll soon find out."

Here we are then. Another Scandinavian TV drama and, on the evidence of this episode, a bloody good one. From the first shot of some driving gloves to the final revelation which leaves us wanting more it had me gripped. There is, I think, a slight comprehension problem for those of us from third countries in that we don't immediately know who's meant to be Swedish and who's meant to be Danish until we're told by the dialogue. I still don't know whether Stefan and Veronika are Danish or Swedish. It doesn't matter at this stage, though.

But let's start by talking about Saga Norén, shall we? Martin Rohde is the co-star, of course, and I suspect he'll turn out to be equally interesting, but Saga makes quite the first impression, to put it mildly. As so many previews have said, she seems to have Asperger's, but this isn't "diagnosed" by the script, and I'm not surprised. Whatever the merits of labelling people in this way, it isn't intrinsically very writer-friendly. Characterisation becomes a little more reductive and less interesting. Nevertheless, that's obviously how we're supposed to see her, initially with a fair bit of dry humour. She's deliciously yet innocently rude to everyone, and has loads of priceless scenes. She refuses to let an ambulance over the bridge, even though it's transporting a heart for transplant. She doesn't exactly show herself as a "people person" when rather brutally informing Kerstin Ekwall's husband of her death. She's calmly matter-of-fact, hilarious, and bizarrely wise in my favourite scene, as she calmly explains to Daniel Ferbé about how he's going to die. But the most revealing scene is where it has to be explained to her that, as she has to spend probably a long time working with Martin, it probably wouldn't be particularly clever to report him for letting the ambulance through!

She's a tall, blonde ice maiden, a very Swedish stereotype. She's cold, lacking in empathy, and a stickler for rules to the point of absurdity. Does this make her a Danish stereotype of a Swede? If so, does this make Martin the Swedish stereotype of a typical Dane? He smokes, which in TV these days is always symbolic: this clearly shows us that he's much looser and more relaxed. He's fathered five children with three different women. His basic social skills are present and correct. Interestingly, he's just had a vasectomy, which means he's symbolically emasculated. I'm not sure what to make of this.

It'll be fascinating to watch this interplay of the two countries, and their mutual stereotypes, over the course of the series. But it's interesting that these two languages are more-or-less mutually intelligible, albeit with a bit of enunciating and hand-waving. As they say, a language is a dialect with an army.

But there are other themes, too; the theme of how rigidly we should stick to rules is seen also in the determination of Charlotte, a wealthy and powerful woman, to bend the rules and secure a heart transplant for her dying husband, an event which ultimately fails because of factors she cannot influence. Also interesting and, at this point, puzzling, are Veronika and her Good Samaritan, Stefan, who seeks to save her from her abusive drug addict husband for reasons which are not yet clear. I suspect, given the contents of the CD in Daniel Ferbe's car, that we're supposed to think he's the murderer. But then it's probably too soon to think of him as the red herring.

Another theme is whether or not to have children. An earlier scene in which Martin and Saga discuss this is echoed by a conversation between Daniel Ferbé, an offensively good-looking hipster and twat, and an older colleague of his. Ferbé, of course, gets his comeuppance.

Oh, and the murder itself, intensely theatrical, is interesting too. There'll be more on that, I'm sure, and many, many more…