Product
description (Amazon UK):
'The body of a woman is found in the middle of the Øresund
Bridge. Half of it belongs to a Swedish politician, the other half to
a Danish prostitute. Trapped in the middle of the bridge connecting
Sweden and Denmark, a bi-national investigatory team is put together
to solve the crime. Laid-back Danish family man, Martin, and Swedish
single woman, Saga, have to work together to stop the horrific staged
murders before the terrorist wins over public opinion with his
anti-corruption agenda.'
The Bridge (Danish –
Broen, Swedish – Bron) is a Danish / Swedish TV series written by
Björn Stein and created by Hans Rosenfeldt. Similar to my previous
review of Forbrydelsen – Season 1, I shall review it as a story,
and not as a drama, since I haven't the faintest idea on how to judge
acting or screenplay.
I had been reading a lot
about the combined metropolitan area of Copenhagen-Malmö and that
too, integrating so rapidly ever since the construction of the
Øresund Bridge. So, while reading about them, I stumbled upon this
TV series while reading about Copenhagen-Malmö and I found the
concept to be rather different and really interesting – and I
couldn't avoid my temptation, despite my usual aversion towards
stories narrated through a visual medium.
The power supply is to the
Øresundbron is cut off, for a very brief period and within that span
of time, a body of a woman is found, exactly in the Denmark –
Sweden border. The member of the Malmö CID, Saga Norén (Sofia
Helin) takes the lead, initially because the woman is Swedish but it
is found out that it is the body of two different women, with the top
half belonging to a Swede and the bottom half, a Dane. This brings
Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia) into the investigation, a member of the
Copenhagen police and a Swedish-Danish collaboration begins, in order
to solve the case.
It was interesting, and had
an altogether different kind of mass murderer who maintains contact
with a journalist, using him as a medium to communicate his message
and eventually got himself named the 'Truth Terrorist'. I found this
similar to Ian Rankin's crime novels, where social issues / current
state of the society are brought out through a crime novel (I also
found a lot of similarities between this story and Rankin's first
Rebus novel Knots & Crosses which
is something I shall be writing about, soon). Moreover, the Martin –
Saga combination was really interesting, two totally different
characters; Martin is married whereas Saga is single; Martin
understands emotions whereas Saga shows no sort of emotions, and
occasionally ends up saying something comical and also, Saga is too
strict about rules and procedures whereas Martin doesn't mind a
breach so long is it benefits the police. Like in the case of any
GOOD crime story, there were a lot of twists and turns, keeping
things going for 10 hours and also one can expect a lot of
red-herrings. Some say that the impact of the murder in the family of
the deceased wasn't touched at all in this series but that is
something that I appreciate, unlike the case of Forbrydelsen Season 1
where the scenes involving the Birk Larsens began to get too boring
beyond a point. What was really disappointing was the way the
character of Stefan Lindberg, the social worker based in Malmö was
ignored subsequently and if the writers were going to do that, there
was no need to emphasise on him so much, in the beginning.
There
is a second season scheduled but I really wonder how they're going to
do it, considering the title, the scope seems too narrow and if Saga
and Martin are to collaborate again, it could only be possible in
case the case of an old wine in a new bottle scenario but it'd be
interesting to see how the writers manage it. I also learnt a lot
more about Scandinavia from Broen than I could from Forbrydelsen or
Borgen.
Considering
the investigations, the way in which they were carried out, the
story, and of course, what I believe to be the most important aspect
in any crime story, that is the end, which was more than satisfactory
and considering all this, I'd award this a rating of seven.
Rating
– 7 / 10
Have
a nice day,
Andy
