Borgen
****
Netflix, from today
WITH a click of her killer heels she was back, picking fights, slaying enemies, and embroiled in a battle over independence.
Not Nicola Sturgeon, returning to work after her brush with Covid, but Birgitte Nyborg, the central character in Borgen, the Danish political drama that counts Scotland’s First Minister among its biggest fans.
When the second series finale was shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2013, Ms Sturgeon took part in a Q&A with Sidse Babett Knudsen, the actor who plays Nyborg. At the time, Ms Sturgeon was Deputy First Minister to Alex Salmond. (When are we going to see that drama on the screen?).
After almost a decade away, Europe’s answer to the West Wing has returned for a fourth series, this time on Netflix. Gone are the days when Borgen (Danish for “the castle”, as the parliament is affectionately known) was just another plucky Scandi contender on BBC4. Now it’s an international hit, rubbing shoulders with The Lincoln Lawyer and Ozark.
Befitting this new status, everything is glossier, starting with the slicked back hairdos of the women. Nyborg is still striding the corridors of power and being silhouetted against windows JFK-style, only this time she does so as Foreign Minister, or as the newspapers tag her, “Foreign Minister Nyborg, 53”.
There’s a new, younger woman in the Prime Minister’s office (“Signe Kragh, 41”), one determined to keep Nyborg and her New Democrats in their coalition place.
What’s this, a catfight plot line in one of the most right-on dramas ever to appear on TV? A show that was woke while the rest of the world was still sleeping? Darn tootin it is.
Women, as ever, are front and centre in writer and creator Adam Price’s drama. They have left behind the struggles of the past, chief among them how to combine work and family, but new concerns have replaced them. Feminism has become, well, more complicated.
Take the drama’s other main character, journalist Katrine Fonsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sorensen). She’s back at channel TV1 but as the head of news, and her economist boyfriend from the last series is a stay at home dad to their two children. As a short-staffed boss it’s now Katrine’s turn to inappropriately raise an eyebrow when a reporter mentions maternity leave.
Other old faces back for a spin around the floor include Torben Friis, once Katrine’s editor, and Michael Laugesen, the half Trump, half Piers Morgan media mogul and Nyborg’s sworn enemy. Audience favourite Kasper Juul is sadly missing (not dead, just gone to Game of Thrones), which may turn out to be a serious loss over the eight episode run.
In the new series, Nyborg has two main headaches. First, a firm has struck oil, potentially lots and lots of it. Second, Nyborg is in the sweaty foothills of the menopause, forever asking why it is so hot in here.
The oil is a problem because it is in Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory that Denmark has largely ruled for 300 years. Might Greenland use the oil in a new push for independence? And what of Denmark’s promise to be carbon neutral by 2050? To cap it all, there are Russian interests lurking in the shadows.
Yet where others spy bear traps, Nyborg sees opportunity. Life is good but she wants to be back in her truly happy place, in the Prime Minister’s chair. If that means a fight, then pass those heels and her handbag, she’s up for it.
Welcome back Birgitte, you have been missed.
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