eabakkum Review of Borgen

Borgen (2010–2022)

Credible and fascinating insight into Danish politics

[9/10 · 17 February 2012]

The Danish TV series Borgen describes the professional and personal lives of the ministers in a Danish cabinet, with a heavy focus on the prime minister Birgitte Nyborg. The theme fascinates me, since I am a political (unpaid, of course apart from the personal satisfaction) activist myself. It is easy to empathize with the main characters, since the political system and culture in Denmark and the Netherlands (my native land, located in the northwest of Europe, in the immediate vicinity of Denmark) are comparable. Be aware that the cultural aspect may pose some problems for viewers, who are used to the presidential system. The role of a prime minister in a coalition is significantly different from the role of for instance the American or French president. Borgen is made for the patient ones. With ten episodes of 55 minutes each you need to invest a full nine hours of your precious own time. Personally I enjoyed every minute of it. The reason is twofold. First, although to many people politics may seem to be boring, it is actually a world of fantasy and suspense. Beneath the efforts of the politicians to look just like common people lie professional skills of bonding, representing, managing, and yes especially competing. Outsiders who enter this world, even when they come from a business environment, are often amazed at the shallowness of the personal relations. It is a battle - with the annotation that the winners and losers are not really persons, but cliques. The leader of each clique is powerful, but also the instrument of his clique. He or she needs to be exceptionally dedicated and focused. In the end the leader considers himself (not the program of his clique) to be the solution to the political questions. This is the topic of the series Borgen: the transformation of a fairly warmhearted woman (Nyborg) into a hard-hearted prime minister. Power is addicting. During the process she even accepts the disintegration of her own family. It makes her mad, but her personality has become too self-centered to leave room for doubt. The second reason for my appreciation of Borgen is the high credibility of all of the events in the script. Each of the ten episodes has its own little tale of an urgent political affair. I consider myself to have a good insight into political life, and can find essentially no faults in each of the tales. They concentrate on the management of the affairs by the cabinet, in particular by the prime minister. Therefore much attention is paid to the contacts with the media. To sum up just a few of the affairs: a bugging scandal (sounds familiar to you?), blackmail by a foreign dictator, allegations of corruption, conflicts with the business community, violation of human rights (...?). This series is truly above-average. Since I find critique always more interesting than praise, here are some comments. Episode 2: I find the speech of Nyborg at the final election debate futile and childish. Episode 6: the cabinet almost succumbs to the threat of a dictator to cancel a large industrial order by a dictator. Why? Politicians will always give the highest priority to their own reputation, and an industrial backlash does them little harm. Episode 9: Nyborg forces her husband to resign from a job, that might damage her reputation. Of course this is thinkable, but here we surpass the limits of humanity. Episode 10: Because of opinion polls Nyborg decides to change the distribution of ministers in her cabinet. In reality politicians attach little value to polls. If you like stories such as this one, consider reading my other reviews.