Danish dramas are very much in vogue at the moment. After the stunning success of The Killing and The Killing 2 on BBC Four, this is a great addition to that list. Borgen is a political drama about the machinations of a new coalition government ring any bells? However it looks very similar to The Killing, with a similar obsession with beautifully-lit interiors, paintings and lamps in the corridors of power, and even has two very familiar faces for fans of that police drama. Both of the wonderful Sara Lund’s sidekicks are here, one playing the main character’s husband, the other the editor of a local TV station.
Borgen though is not a mystery, rather a multi-layered, in-depth look at the murky world of politics. Birgitte Nyborg (Knudsen) is the leader of the Moderates passionate, modern-thinking, smart, charismatic, she is clearly the best person for the job. The old PM looks too old-school, and when he is discovered to have used his official credit card to buy his wife gifts in a brilliant sequence he looks doomed. The Labour leader is too alpha male, the greens too wet.
Problems emerge when Birgitte wins the election but can’t claim outright power as the seats are too evenly shared. As a result she has to do some deals and discovers her ideals and ideas have to be replaced by pragmatism and some shady dealing.
Meanwhile the TV station covering the election has some political machinations of its own. Ace reporter Katrine is sleeping with a party member, who promptly drops dead of a heart attack in bed. She is forced to ask old flame Kasper for help, but he is still in love with her and has political ambitions of his own.
This wonderful series plays out like a game of chess, with each party slowly gaining or losing ground, and Birgitte trying to win battles but constantly tripped up by her own people. There’s a superb episode concerning the US’ use of Greenland as a huge landing strip for its planes, and even a touch of All The President’s Men when a Deep Throat character emerges to give Katrine a red-hot story.
It’s a very different beast to The Killing in many ways there is no murder mystery but Borgen does have a woman as its central character, and she’s every bit as compelling and watchable as Sara Lund. Birgitte is sassy, intelligent and an admirable character, but when she asks herself if she will lie within her first 100 days in office it’s pretty obvious she will have to.
Perhaps the biggest difference between this and The Killing is the humour The Killing was pretty much a laugh-free zone, here there are some cracking one-liners. My favourite is when Birgitte is waiting for the Queen’s official notice to form a Parliament, which takes an age as the voting is so close. Utterly exhausted and frustrated, Birgitte, in the Queen’s waiting room, bellows Can’t the bitch count?’.
Overall Verdict: Riveting, good-looking, superbly acted political drama which deserves its place alongside The Killing on your DVD shelf.
Reviewer: Mike Martin