by Adam Ferenz
This is going to be short. Most of the entries this time around will likely be shorter than the previous portion of the countdown. The sheer volume necessitates that, but also, if it worked for David Thomson and our own late, great Allan Fish, why not give brevity a whirl?
In Denmark, the government is seated in a single complex, known as Borgen. This series, conceived by writer Adam Price, ran for three seasons and thirty episodes, telling the story of the first female prime minister of Denmark. It tells a tale of backroom deals, compromises, infidelities-political and personal-as well as being entertaining, enlightening and never less than compelling. Several of the actors are recognizable from other roles, with Pilou having gone on to Vikings and now Game of Thrones, while Sigrid Babse Knudsen was last seen on Westworld.
The first season concerns the winning of an unexpected minor majority by a party that has never been in power, and the struggle to assume power by Knudsen’s Birgitte Nyborg Christensen, and her efforts to establish her party in a leadership role through a tense coalition government. The second season follows through on the character building and promises of this, with the third season following her, temporarily out of politics, re-entering the political arena and establishing a new party altogether, and the trials and tribulations involved in that, ending with her making a compromise that is true to her ethical standards, and which gains her the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs.
That is really what the series is about-finding balance in a world that asks you to go beyond compromise, both ethically and morally. Birgitte is a complex character who must navigate a suddenly tumultuous life, complete with a husband and children who she feels slowly distant from. She is a woman who wants to be a mother, a wife, and a public figure, but is constantly facing pressures to make a choice, either personally or professionally, which limit her in ways she is unwilling to bend. This push and pull forms both the emotional and plot-level core of a series that is always incisive and entertaining.
This is a series that can run plots for only a couple episodes but explore them in such depth that you swear there must have been an entire season dedicated to it, and a show which rewards long-term viewers but is also easy to catch for more casual ones. You might need to be caught up that Katrine is now up to this, or that Kasper is now dealing with that, but other than this, the show is largely interested in quasi-episodic delineations of power. That is has been called a Danish “West Wing” is not a stretch. While it does not reach the overall heights of the NBC drama-it simply is not interested in sustaining itself long enough to achieve that sort of liftoff-this work is one of the few political shows-alongside West Wing, Yes Minister/Prime Minister and The Thick Of It-to so carefully consider what politics truly is. This is a series with moments of political maneuvering that both Machiavelli and Josiah Bartlett would be proud of.And in the end, it tells a complete story, for all its characters, one that feels true to where they have been, where they have arrived and which points them toward a future easily purchasable by the viewer. Highly recommended.