[ad_1]
When the Danish political drama series Borgen opened in the United States in 2012, Stephen King, the best-selling novelist in history, chose it as the best television work he saw that year. This is a matter of great importance in the world of series in the country of Uncle Sam, not only because of King’s weight of opinion, but also because his list of options for that year was announced in the atmosphere of the launch of the first season of the American drama series “House of Cards” (House of Cards), behind which Netflix built its fame. Millions of Americans attracted him to the new streaming service at the time.
In fact, it can now be argued that after six consecutive seasons of “House of Cards,” “Burgin” appears to be more intense and deep in its plot than the most important American political drama of the last decade, and its characters are more complex. and liable to break free from the first impression as the narrative progresses. Most important of all, it is not the story of the rise of another corrupt Machiavelli to the top of the hierarchy of power (according to Machiavelli’s prevailing and erroneous impression, but that’s another story), but a discussion of what is the power itself and its dialectical effect on the people of politicians, either in their conduct after they possess power and position, or on their personal lives as individual human beings, their families and their close associates, and always within the framework of a Bourgeois ideology of the soul, as if applying a qualitatively different Danish flavored cultural propaganda to the superficiality of North American products in that sense. The original series, produced by Danish state television, is known to have sold its rights to American companies, some of which are considering Americanizing the series and re-presenting it entirely in the manner of other excellent Danish works such as The Killing and The Bridge. .
In the world of “Burgen” (a Danish name that means the castle and is known in the seat of parliament in Copenhagen, the capital), women play important political and media roles, including the position of prime minister, which the glamorous star Sidesi Knudsen presents as Brigitta Nyborg. Political action, despite its inevitable Machiavellianism, and if it does not reach its extremism in “House of Cards” and Kevin Spacey’s black arts, can be a struggle between conflicting interests and personal inclinations without completely abandoning principles and interests. nationals, at least when it comes to Brigitta’s personality.
Danish television doesn’t produce much drama, but most of its work is commercially successful and internationally acclaimed. Perhaps the secret is in the slowness and the absence of commercial rush that Hollywood knows, for example. This is where things take their time, and each series consumes many years of hard work before being presented to viewers. And we see it in that high literalism of “Burgin” that has manifested itself early since the Pilot episode of the first season, where the eloquent settlement of the main story thread and the launch of parallel narrative sub-threads, with a clever revision of all the characters, and promises of what we can see if we follow the ten episodes of the season.
The narrative of the series, which won the BAFTA Award for Best International Drama 2012 and other prestigious European awards, and is inspired by the conduct of political events in Denmark in the 1980s, begins a few days before voters go to the ballot boxes to cast your votes in a general election. Brigitta, chairwoman of a small centrist party, found herself in the position of becoming royal after the main parties failed to obtain a sufficient majority. In the end, however, she decides to take office herself and win the game of negotiating with other parties to obtain a fragile, but sufficient majority, to become the country’s first female prime minister. Ironically, a few months after the first season of “Burgin” was shown, a woman became prime minister for the first time in the country’s history. Brigitta’s rise came about thanks to the support of three men: her longtime longtime political party partner, the spokesperson and personal advisor, and her husband, who initially accepted the principle of working a small position in education and caring for children, but that of course does not detract from his political competence, the force of his logic or his presence. La Feminista “is charming without exaggerating the sexual character, and remains their compass when sometimes they slip.
Although the first season in its ten episodes revolves around the elections and their aftermath, the series does not lose its ability to excite for a single moment, taking advantage of the parallel narrative substrings, so that some episodes appear as independent films in their own right. . If the narrative lags a bit, as in some moments in season two, Brigitta’s performance is enough to regain control and maintain viewer interest.
The human aspect of Brigitta’s biography – and secondly, journalist Catherine Fonsmark (played by Brigitta Snorsen) – gives the series exceptional weight, be it in terms of the weight that politics, power, and the struggles of Thrones and professional responsibility impose on souls, values and consciences, or the pressures to which contemporary workers are exposed. Her attempt – doomed to inevitable failure – to balance the roles of employee, partner, lover, mother, housekeeper, daughter, sister and friend … not to mention emotional (and sexual) drought and physical exhaustion and criticism about his weight and the persecution of the tabloid press in his private life, and where each political decision has implications for the personal. And you. Everything personal and private is reflected in one way or another in the political. All this is presented in an economically comfortable bourgeois atmosphere, and then the viewer can let her imagination run wild in the conditions of working-class women.
In the series, women play important political and media roles.
The conflicts in “Burgin” over power and governance, the intrigues of politicians (and politicians) behind the scenes, and the transformation of the media from guardians of the three authorities into an actor among them, give the series an Pleasant vivacity, with whom the viewer does not need to know the political reality of Denmark, since everything that is presented has a global theme. And the faculties that exist in any human encounter, although some reproach them for the ideal aura that they give to the democratic process in the West. Today we know the extent of its emptiness and the extent of deception and fraud in it. However, the series falls intellectually weak in raising foreign policy issues (the relationship with American intelligence and the United States government, the Danish forces involved in Afghanistan, the mediation between the Sudanese parties to the conflict, the relationship with the European Union, communism and the bogeyman of the former Soviet Union). Exaggeration, naivety, orientalism and propaganda seep in. However, this aspect may not bother the general Western audience, which either does not care about foreign policy or unhesitatingly lines up behind the country’s right-wing policies without asking many questions and does not undermine the main theme of the Serie.
Brigitta’s brilliant performance throughout the three seasons, even in her most human weakness, lack of sex and love, or a patient receiving radiation therapy, is accompanied by a similar brilliance in acting as the other characters in the series, almost without exception. It’s not just about how well the actors perform, it’s also a product of screenwriter Adam Price’s professional engineering. The characters in “Burgin” are colorful, three-dimensional, realistic – as the bourgeois perspective allows – and fluid, evolving and deepening as the episodes progress.
The fourth season, produced by Netflix, will follow Brigitta’s journey through the world of Danish politics, this time in the role of chancellor. While we owe it to the American company to restore one of the most important television and political drama innovations of the last decade, if not the most important at all, our legitimate concern for us viewers abroad is flat handling. of political problems outside the borders of “Bergen”, the seat of the Danish Parliament, in previous seasons. It will double when Brigitta lives on the entire foreign policy planet, under the direct patronage of the American. But hey, isn’t that the reality of Danish politics today?
Subscribe to «News» on YouTube here
