BORGEN

“Borgen” is the Danish equivalent of the White House.  Sort of.  It is the government center, nicknamed “the Castle”, a massive square building in the midst of the most startling of modern architectural extravaganzas.  This show, on Netflix for 3 series with a 4th one just offstage, is about a highly idealistic and appealing Prime Minister in the complex Danish system of multi-parties and interests.

Bent, Brigitte, and Kasper

“This Danish drama series follows the intricate and complicated lives of the politicians, media spinners and reporters who feed off their triumphs and failures . . .  In the first episode, Denmark is preparing for parliamentary elections and Birgitte Nyborg, facing her first election as party leader, decides at the last minute to head in her own direction.”  (IMDB)

It is relevant to me in particular because being over-idealistic is one of my main character flaws and life-problems.  The only context where I don’t get into trouble — I thought — was sitting here writing.  But there is no escape.  That’s not comforting, but I appreciate all the insight I can get.

Brigitte, the main protagonist, is named for the playwright’s mother.  The actress is Sidse Babette Knudsen, one of the most appealing ever.  I suspect that the Prime Minister’s young son, Magnus is an echo of his own childhood.  This is NOT like “House of Cards,”  but not all the characters are faultless and a few are rotten at the core — at least misled in life.  In the beginning the set-up is a perfect family: almost unreal house-husband, teen daughter and small boy.  Then the husband leaves and soon finds a replacement female partner.  The teen girl tries so hard to please everyone, following her mother’s example, that she becomes emotionally paralyzed.  It is this crisis that causes Brigitte to choose her daughter over her government.  Now we see the cost of conflicting demands.

Of course, this is the plot of the book of Job, so it’s not surprising that one bad thing after another finally ends up being resolved and restored.  Kids grow up.  People find new partners.  There’s more to life than being the Prime Minister.  It’s the trip, the storyline, that holds us.

The second plotline is another younger woman, played by Birgitte Hjort Sorensen.  This TV journalist is on the trail of news, believing in disclosure and feeling it is her charge to find out everything.  She is paired with a character played by Pilou Asbeac who has been so damaged by childhood sexual abuse from his father that he hides, lies, spins, and sometimes slips into terrifying rage.  The young woman wants a child but also wants to continue working which means she must delegate the most important early years to others.  The man is deeply afraid of becoming a father.  When he does, he loves the child but the mother is now in a category that excludes sex.

The real father figure, Bent, is played by Lars Knutson.  He’s not a genetic father to the Prime Minister, but a wise veteran politician, the kind of person we would hope would be there and active.  There’s also a wise older woman, a feminist, played by Benedikte Hansen.  If I’d been a writer on that team, I’d have expanded her part considerably.  It’s remarkable that these very fine actors are not known or used in the US.

Even more remarkable is watching this while keeping up with the tale unraveling in the US.  Even in a small progressive country like Denmark the issues are nearly overwhelming.  When they are complicated by health issues or romantic entanglements, the results are not good, but even when things are going well, the country still has major issues to answer.  

Even sexual questions are hard to address.  One of the most moving episodes is about Brigitte trying to address the plight of female prostitutes and trafficking, separate issues, when she is so stupid about the reality.  (No male prostitutes were included.  Gay issues were not connected and anyway were just assumed to be normal.)

Our attitudes are shaped by our experience and — even diluted into fiction over years — they have impact.  When they are as thoughtfully shaped by appealing characters, as in “Borgen,” stories are a force for good.  At least IMHO.  We’ve had so many played-out tales of bad people so appealing that we like them and identify with them, that I fear our standards have become corrupt.

The problem is not just one of deteriorated character and evil goals, but also the continuing problem of means versus ends.  When people are driven by the conviction that they are right, it’s a temptation to cut corners. 

There is no street violence in this series and I see how it confuses Americans who are obsessed with avoiding violence, esp. if it involves the loss of property.  The other force that’s neglected is that of limited resources.  Our earth-derived raw materials are hitting scarcity.  This most obviously affects the oil industry.  The tricky part is that in spite of efforts to confine us to traditional resources like fossil fuels, people are escaping to electric cars and solar panels.  But there is no alternative to water.

In the scrambling we still can’t grasp that without dependable electricity, there are no computers.  Without the huge energy network across the continent, there is no electricity.  Changing climate means interrupted electricity while need rises.  Electronic controls mean “hackability.”

“Borgen” — once the romantic subplots are gone — is praiseworthy from one point of view which is that every  idealistic person hits a problem per “episode” from the redhead with the bouncing bosom who sells out Brigitte because she doesn’t have perfect success, to the board member who infantilizes the media for the sake of ratings, to the interruptions from health issues like heart attacks and cancer.  The message is that no one is invincible, even the most pure-hearted.

If series four is put on the air, we’ll see how far the writers manage to reach.  In it Brigitte is expected to be a foreign minister, which brings up globalization and the reconciling of cultures.  Denmark is a small white relatively homogenous country, much easier.  Whether the show is put on the air will also depend on where the US is after the election.  The series is both reassuring — in that we can still see an example of what a country could be like — and terrifying when we look away to ourselves.