I'm surprised that no thread has emerged on this as we're now up to episode 4.
As with the first series, it's enjoyable to watch for the script, interweaving of plot and the acting, but I can't help comparing the fictional portrayal of Danish politics in Borgen with the fictional portrayal of British politics in The Thick of It - it could hardly be more different. In Borgen the heroine is shown having to cope with political crises, a fragile coalition, ambitious colleagues, a predatory press and all while juggling a difficult situation at home - and shown managing it. In The Thick of It ministers are shown up as vain, venal, conspiratorial, above all incompetent, while the Alistair Campbell figure, Malcolm Tucker, is portrayed as a manipulative grotesque - his counterpart in Borgen, Kaspar, is more complex, human, fallible yet efficient. It's a totally different perspective.
[SPOILER below]
Thinking of the political slant of this series at least, it seems to be more conservative/realist. There are idealists portrayed - including, to a certain extent, the PM - but they are being pensioned off through illness (Sjero) or intrigue (Marrot). In the first episodes the PM is persuaded round from a position of wanting to pull troops out of Afghanistan to keeping them there for the long term. In the last two episodes the PM is proposing an early retirement scheme to fund welfare reform (and in a separate narrative, agrees to a military assault rescue to recover Danish seamen held hostage by Somalian pirates). I'd be hard-pressed to work out what distinguished any of the political parties portrayed in the series, but in that I suppose it is quite true to real life
As with the first series, it's enjoyable to watch for the script, interweaving of plot and the acting, but I can't help comparing the fictional portrayal of Danish politics in Borgen with the fictional portrayal of British politics in The Thick of It - it could hardly be more different. In Borgen the heroine is shown having to cope with political crises, a fragile coalition, ambitious colleagues, a predatory press and all while juggling a difficult situation at home - and shown managing it. In The Thick of It ministers are shown up as vain, venal, conspiratorial, above all incompetent, while the Alistair Campbell figure, Malcolm Tucker, is portrayed as a manipulative grotesque - his counterpart in Borgen, Kaspar, is more complex, human, fallible yet efficient. It's a totally different perspective.
[SPOILER below]
Thinking of the political slant of this series at least, it seems to be more conservative/realist. There are idealists portrayed - including, to a certain extent, the PM - but they are being pensioned off through illness (Sjero) or intrigue (Marrot). In the first episodes the PM is persuaded round from a position of wanting to pull troops out of Afghanistan to keeping them there for the long term. In the last two episodes the PM is proposing an early retirement scheme to fund welfare reform (and in a separate narrative, agrees to a military assault rescue to recover Danish seamen held hostage by Somalian pirates). I'd be hard-pressed to work out what distinguished any of the political parties portrayed in the series, but in that I suppose it is quite true to real life
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