Birgette hands over the reins to Hans Christian for a month. He is a mess, full of himself, and incompetent to do her job. When Laura starts to do better she decides to get back and right some wrongs. The press has decided, as I've said before, that a woman can't have high political office and keep up with a family. All the male chauvinism comes to the fore. The nice thing is that it isn't heavy handed. Like so many before her, she can't just strike back in an accusatory way and lambaste the press. This would show her to be reactionary. All that said, it is one of her finer moments when she calls for an election, getting to the matter first. I imagine season 3 will start with her re-election bid. In the other most salient business, Katrine and Kasper are ready to marry, but the subject of children is creating a mess--he want none. There is an interesting moment when he goes to see his mother, who is in the throes of dementia. It leads to some soul searching.
4 Reviews
Another Strong Finish
Warin_West-El14 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
For the second season in a row the writers have finished off their final episode with a well-tailored script that hits all the right notes and evokes the viewer's desire to watch another season.
I don't like the fact that this series has become a soap opera. With characters like Lars Hesselboe, a guy you just LOVE to hate. And I'm SO tired of watching Kasper Juul kissing girls. Hopefully, they've narrowed that down to Katrine.
Speaking of which, she got her old job back. And there was that brilliant moment of humility when Torben Friis admitted to Katrine that he really missed her.
Will Kasper and Katrine have a baby? God, I hope not. We'll have to wait and see. Kudos to the writers: Another Strong Finish.
I don't like the fact that this series has become a soap opera. With characters like Lars Hesselboe, a guy you just LOVE to hate. And I'm SO tired of watching Kasper Juul kissing girls. Hopefully, they've narrowed that down to Katrine.
Speaking of which, she got her old job back. And there was that brilliant moment of humility when Torben Friis admitted to Katrine that he really missed her.
Will Kasper and Katrine have a baby? God, I hope not. We'll have to wait and see. Kudos to the writers: Another Strong Finish.
Season 2: A more robust season but still doesn't feel like it runs particularly deep
bob the moo26 September 2015
I was surprised by the first season of this show, as it really didn't have the quality that the reviews had suggested it would have. It wasn't weak by any means, but it moved so quickly and seemed to be written so much on the surface, that I found it hard to engage with. I decided to come back to the second season, mainly because I wondered if the show just took that first season to settle in and become something better than it was in the first place.
In many ways, the second season is an improvement on the first, and the season is a much more robust beast which has better pacing and writing. Unlike the first season, you feel like things perhaps have a relevance of more than thirty minutes, and that maybe themes and plot points will extend longer than they did before. This is true to a point, but perhaps not to the extent I was hoping. It is good that the personal narratives are a bit more engaging and seem to have some consistency to their delivery; and likewise the political relationships and developments due tend to have more flow and linkages, but it is only like this to a point. For me personally I still felt like a lot of it was on the surface, and that even if it was written to suggest depth, it really didn't have it in there.
So, although we are allowed more time with characters, or on particular narrative threads, I still did not find them to be really engaging or have a depth of character that made me really care for the people or situations. The political stuff is for sure smarter and less liberal preachy than the previous season, but the continued use of quotes on the opening titles actually serve to remind you that this is not as smart as it is packaged to be. The performances are fine, and generally do good work even if the material limits their ability to really consistently find their characters. As a production though, it is all well made and has a professional look throughout.
The season ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, which will lead into the third season. I do wonder if I will bother, as I ended the season having enjoyed enough about it to hope that it could step up its game for the next season; but at the same time I wondered if it would be able to – since even this improved season still lacked a real feeling of depth and satisfying delivery.
In many ways, the second season is an improvement on the first, and the season is a much more robust beast which has better pacing and writing. Unlike the first season, you feel like things perhaps have a relevance of more than thirty minutes, and that maybe themes and plot points will extend longer than they did before. This is true to a point, but perhaps not to the extent I was hoping. It is good that the personal narratives are a bit more engaging and seem to have some consistency to their delivery; and likewise the political relationships and developments due tend to have more flow and linkages, but it is only like this to a point. For me personally I still felt like a lot of it was on the surface, and that even if it was written to suggest depth, it really didn't have it in there.
So, although we are allowed more time with characters, or on particular narrative threads, I still did not find them to be really engaging or have a depth of character that made me really care for the people or situations. The political stuff is for sure smarter and less liberal preachy than the previous season, but the continued use of quotes on the opening titles actually serve to remind you that this is not as smart as it is packaged to be. The performances are fine, and generally do good work even if the material limits their ability to really consistently find their characters. As a production though, it is all well made and has a professional look throughout.
The season ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, which will lead into the third season. I do wonder if I will bother, as I ended the season having enjoyed enough about it to hope that it could step up its game for the next season; but at the same time I wondered if it would be able to – since even this improved season still lacked a real feeling of depth and satisfying delivery.
Brilliant - Bafta Winner
whiteruud1 December 2013
No big explosion's , fireball's or special effect's in this TV series - just brilliant acting by a group of relatively unknown Danish actors. Borgen (Danish pronunciation: [ˈb̥ɒːˀwən]) is a Danish one-hour political drama television series. It tells the story of charismatic politician Birgitte Nyborg who unexpectedly becomes the first female Prime Minister of Denmark. "Borgen" ("the Castle") is the nickname of Christiansborg Palace, which houses all three of Denmark's branches of government: the Parliament, the Prime Minister's Office and the Supreme Court. The series stars Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg Christensen. The other main actors are Pilou Asbæk as troubled spin doctor Kasper Juul and Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as ambitious news anchor Katrine Fønsmark.[1] The show is created and written by producer Adam Price and co-writers Jeppe Gjervig Gram and Tobias Lindholm. It is produced by DR, the Danish public broadcaster that has also produced another international Danish hit series, The Killing.
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