(Couldn't find a better picture, probably because the BBC is yet to release it)
Here is the review of the much anticipated finale of the
Danish political drama, Borgen. If you haven’t watched the previous seasons,
the reviews of season 1 and season 2 are available in this blog.
Birgitte Nyborg loses the election; Lars Hesselboe is the
prime minister. She is back in the corporate world and Jacob Kruse is now the
head of the Moderate Party. However, she is not satisfied with the policies of
the current government and is unable to stay away from politics for too long.
She challenges Kruse for leadership in the Moderate party, unsuccessfully and
then, floats her own party with some MPs, with Katrine Fønsmark as her spin
doctor.
[The New Democrats (excluding Erik Hoffman and Bent Sejrø) - From left to right: Jon Berthelsen, Katrine Fønsmark, Nete Buch, Søren Ravn and Birgitte Nyborg]
This is an angle that I had been longing for, in Borgen, for
the reason that the viewers have had the opportunity of seeing Birgitte only as
the prime minister and never as a member in the opposition and so, finally, we
have it. The New Democrats, as her party was called, attacked the government
with regards to several policy decisions and towards the end, also had a good
election campaign. Torben Friis had a far more significant role in this, and
the focus was on the squabbles with the new young programme director, Alexander
Hjørt. I liked the fact that it had a lot more TV interviews, lot more
confrontations and focus on personal lives of individual politicians became
less in this season of the series.
However, I wanted to see more of Laugesen in this season,
but yet again, he had such a trivial role, even less than what he had in the
previous seasons. Episode six was very disappointing, and it was more like
filler as all it had was Søren Ravn, an economist and a former communist
joining the New Democrats and the media hounding his past. Moreover, I never
understood as to why the writers wanted to make Birgitte Nyborg more and more
like Helle Thorning-Schmidt – first female prime minister of Denmark (though,
Thorning-Schmidt achieved it after Nyborg did) and with a British partner
(Jeremy Welsh and Stephen Kinnock, respectively). But the most significant
drawback of the whole thing is the lack of Kasper Juul, whose role was minimal,
with only his thirty second appearances in the programme of TV1, ‘Juul and
Friis’ and also, Katrine wasn't even half as good as Kasper at the job of being a spin doctor.
The finale, to summarise, had good content in its episodes (barring 6),
with Nyborg leading a small party, trying to have a say in Danish politics. The
finish was not exactly noteworthy but it wasn’t abrupt either, and every
important character was given a closure barring Kasper Juul and to an extent,
Philip Christensen.
I’d put this at the same level as season two with a rating
of eight on ten. I’d also be writing a summary on the whole series, soon, which
would naturally contain spoilers.
Curtain!
Rating – 8/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
The recent new English dubbing of Borgen has totally ruined an otherwise marvellous series. We have a Cockney PR adviser who has a Scottish girlfriend, a Geordie foreign minister, several Yorkshire Labour MPs, a Scouser MP and a Welshman and Irishman as MPs too!! What a joke!! Totally unconvincing and spoiled the Borgen experience. The Dubbers tried TOO hard to represent every accent in the UK and made a right mess in the process. The PMs voice was the only convincing one out of the whole lot. Please sort it out!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't agree that the English dubbing (for S1 and S2) ruined the series. If you understand Danish, the English audio should be irrelevant. If you don't understand Danish and think the English dubbing is awful, you would not be able to find the series marvelous as you say it is. The acting skills of voice actors matter more than their particular accents. I don't know what's unconvincing about actors using different dialects of the same language. Or did you want the dubbing in RP accent throughout?
DeleteThe third series was pretty good as the two before where excellent. I find it quite amazing that Denmark produces so much, both film and tv series, of exceptional quality. What I marvel most about Borgen is how all relationships and characters are totally believable, almost all. In series 3 it seems there is a miscast or something is not right with the lover of Birgit Nyborg, Jeremy Welsh [Alastair Mackenzie] there is no cemestry and the scenes are really dull. Perhaps the director failed to give the actors space to create their relationship and took it for granted. This misstep took the whole series down. Very unfortunate with such a great accomplishment. Otherwise outstanding craftmanship in every field. I wonder what the producers and actors think of this matter? Unlikely they will admit such a pityful misstep, but we are talking about the Danes here, a superpower when it comes to filmmaking. For sure they did not get so far by hiding their misstakes. I would love to hear some comments on this.
ReplyDeleteA comment I actually agree with - you’re so right that the English character ( and im from 🏴) is totally unsuitable. He is bland, rather posh, very unexciting and visually boring and rather a caricature - he isnt the sort of man she would be attracted to. The bedroom scenes are devoid of passion and are as cold as his character’s personality. Cmon casting director get casting a real good foil of a love interest for our heroine!
ReplyDelete