I'm pretty sure that when I first watched the original series of "Borgen" back in 2010, I described it as the best TV I had ever seen. I was therefore greatly excited but also trepidatious to learn that it had been commissioned for another series some 10 years after it went off the air. Would the writing still be as sharp and insightful as it had been before? How many of the original cast would be returning and in what roles? Most importantly, would the new series damage the legacy of the original?
I'm happy to say that after watching the new eight-episode run my fears were completely unfounded and that this series was just as gripping, exciting, intriguing and relevant as the original had been.
Of course there have been massive world events this year, on the international scene, especially the Russian invasion of Ukraine while in my home country we have just seen a prime minister forced to resign by his party despite having a massive parliamentary majority from the last general election less than three years ago. Of course we all know that truth is stranger than fiction and I have certainly been more transfixed by live news reports on my TV than by any mere television programme watched over the same period. Perhaps the best compliment then that I can pay this series of "Borgen" is that it held my attention in almost the same way as watching the aforementioned real news despatches.
Once again the action concentrates on the main characters introduced all those years ago, principally ex-P. M. Birgitte Nyborg and her ex-press officer Katrina Fönsmark, now promoted to head of the nation's main T. V. news programme, I was initially sorry to see that Nyborg's spin doctor extraordinaire Kaspar Juul hadn't returned, but as if in acknowledgment of this, the producers recruited a new character, very much in the image of Kaspar, as Nyborg's appointed spokesperson in Greenland where much of the action in this series is set.
The major themes of the series were as ever plentiful and often interlinked but principally centred on hot topics like the environment, national independence, (a subject very close to my Scottish heart) and super-power interference as well as more grounded human subjects like family, workplace bullying, personal ambition, power, stress and loyalty.
I won't go into the different plot-strands but over eight excellent episodes the writing, acting and direction more than lived up to this show's own very high standards and still managed to seem up to date and well-informed about what goes on in the corridors of power.
Almost all of the motivations and actions of the characters, new as well as old, in their personal circumstances both domestic and employment-related, seemed credible. There were perhaps a couple of loose ends left dangling that I became aware of in the final edit, like the apparently unresolved murder of a compromised young man in Greenland and the hint of treachery not followed through by Nyberg's new, young male P. A. but these are minor gripes and at least the producers wisely decided not to introduce a new love interest for Nyberg. I personally would have liked to have seen the rise of populism in the overlapping eras of Trump and Johnson dealt with too, but you can't have everything I suppose.
Returning to the programme itself, this time it really did seem like the story had come full circle as we said "Hej-hej" to Birgitte, Katrina and the cast of supporting characters. Personally I don't expect to see any further series of this quite excellent programme, although I remember thinking the same after the end of the first run...
As they say, never say never...
I'm happy to say that after watching the new eight-episode run my fears were completely unfounded and that this series was just as gripping, exciting, intriguing and relevant as the original had been.
Of course there have been massive world events this year, on the international scene, especially the Russian invasion of Ukraine while in my home country we have just seen a prime minister forced to resign by his party despite having a massive parliamentary majority from the last general election less than three years ago. Of course we all know that truth is stranger than fiction and I have certainly been more transfixed by live news reports on my TV than by any mere television programme watched over the same period. Perhaps the best compliment then that I can pay this series of "Borgen" is that it held my attention in almost the same way as watching the aforementioned real news despatches.
Once again the action concentrates on the main characters introduced all those years ago, principally ex-P. M. Birgitte Nyborg and her ex-press officer Katrina Fönsmark, now promoted to head of the nation's main T. V. news programme, I was initially sorry to see that Nyborg's spin doctor extraordinaire Kaspar Juul hadn't returned, but as if in acknowledgment of this, the producers recruited a new character, very much in the image of Kaspar, as Nyborg's appointed spokesperson in Greenland where much of the action in this series is set.
The major themes of the series were as ever plentiful and often interlinked but principally centred on hot topics like the environment, national independence, (a subject very close to my Scottish heart) and super-power interference as well as more grounded human subjects like family, workplace bullying, personal ambition, power, stress and loyalty.
I won't go into the different plot-strands but over eight excellent episodes the writing, acting and direction more than lived up to this show's own very high standards and still managed to seem up to date and well-informed about what goes on in the corridors of power.
Almost all of the motivations and actions of the characters, new as well as old, in their personal circumstances both domestic and employment-related, seemed credible. There were perhaps a couple of loose ends left dangling that I became aware of in the final edit, like the apparently unresolved murder of a compromised young man in Greenland and the hint of treachery not followed through by Nyberg's new, young male P. A. but these are minor gripes and at least the producers wisely decided not to introduce a new love interest for Nyberg. I personally would have liked to have seen the rise of populism in the overlapping eras of Trump and Johnson dealt with too, but you can't have everything I suppose.
Returning to the programme itself, this time it really did seem like the story had come full circle as we said "Hej-hej" to Birgitte, Katrina and the cast of supporting characters. Personally I don't expect to see any further series of this quite excellent programme, although I remember thinking the same after the end of the first run...
As they say, never say never...
