"The Bridge" - Season 4 on BBC2

[amateur51]

I've grown to feel fond of the signature tune for the series, 'Hollow Talk' by the Choir of Young Believers, a nominally Danish 'group' of changing performers around the founder. The lyrics are as incomprehensible in print as they are as sung by him....

If you click on the subtitles option when watching The Bridge on iPlayer, you can follow the words of the signature tune but ... they're strange

[kernelbogey]

Strange, Ams, never seen that on my iPlayer: but they are in my YouTube link. Though I wonder if the words about 'Go back to the beginning' are meant to refer to the Jens-Mikaela-Martin triangle. Just rewatched ep 9 and still stunned by it!

[amateur51]

Strange, Ams, never seen that on my iPlayer: but they are in my YouTube link. Though I wonder if the words about 'Go back to the beginning' are meant to refer to the Jens-Mikaela-Martin triangle. Just rewatched ep 9 and still stunned by it!

I think it could be a necessary DVD purchase eventually, substitutes for those endless treats foisted upon us by the TV planners, such as When Eight Bells Toll, Four Weddings and A Cliché and Toy Story (tho I rather like Toy Story )

[kernelbogey]

I wonder if the words about 'Go back to the beginning' are meant to refer to the Jens-Mikaela-Martin triangle.

And it's just occurred to me that maybe the 'hollow girl' is Saga... Or is Jens's elaborate 'social conscience' just 'hollow talk'...?

For helvede!

[Norfolk Born]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAH6Zt30n58

[aeolium]

I caught up with the conclusion to this last night as I was away at the weekend, and I agree that it was a gripping (and painful) denouement. I thought the intensity increased as the focus was concentrated on Martin and his involvement with the killer. It turned into a sort of morality tale, a combination of Ibsen and Sophocles leading to a terrible nemesis for a thoughtless betrayal. Like Dave2002 I was not wholly convinced by some of the earlier narrative, the 'five points' for instance as it became clear later on that Jens was not remotely interested in highlighting social or political problems, only in his private revenge. And as with a certain operatic tetralogy quite a lot of suspension of disbelief was required: could one man have accomplished all the ingenious plotting and elaborate device constructions unaided? And how did Saga who lacked an awareness of elementary human responses and reactions have such an uncanny insight into the mind of the killer? But in the end these were minor quibbles. The strength of the series was in the slow development of character and relationships, in psychological insight and in the morality tale.

In the UK a certain football player slept with his best friend's wife and ended up winning the FA Cup and the Champions League and playing for England. In this Scandinavian series the same action resulted in the elimination of a lot of citizens of two cities, the terrorising of the family of the guilty party and his public humiliation. It's grim up north.

[Nick Armstrong]

I caught up with the conclusion to this last night as I was away at the weekend, and I agree that it was a gripping (and painful) denouement. I thought the intensity increased as the focus was concentrated on Martin and his involvement with the killer. It turned into a sort of morality tale, a combination of Ibsen and Sophocles leading to a terrible nemesis for a thoughtless betrayal. Like Dave2002 I was not wholly convinced by some of the earlier narrative, the 'five points' for instance as it became clear later on that Jens was not remotely interested in highlighting social or political problems, only in his private revenge. And as with a certain operatic tetralogy quite a lot of suspension of disbelief was required: could one man have accomplished all the ingenious plotting and elaborate device constructions unaided? And how did Saga who lacked an awareness of elementary human responses and reactions have such an uncanny insight into the mind of the killer? But in the end these were minor quibbles. The strength of the series was in the slow development of character and relationships, in psychological insight and in the morality tale.

In the UK a certain football player slept with his best friend's wife and ended up winning the FA Cup and the Champions League and playing for England. In this Scandinavian series the same action resulted in the elimination of a lot of citizens of two cities, the terrorising of the family of the guilty party and his public humiliation. It's grim up north.

That puts an exact finger on my reaction, aeolium. Yes one suppressed some incredulity at the 5 point plan, but easily so given the power of the rest. I don't usually feel so emotionally engaged but the fates of the two engaging youngsters Anja and August really cut me up

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

,,,, the five issues were to me an expression of inattention, of what is not looked at and therefore a clear and coherent component of bitter betrayal - the sheer callous negligence of it - and the act of revenge as a demonstration of what was not seen or considered to matter [sufficient to stop the betrayal] so it may be a stretch to see jens up to all of that but not at all when considering the narrative [does saga have more than a clang association?]

now what puzzles me is was this richness the outcome of a considered authorial approach and thought through, or the outcome of a creative process of bricolage and editorial filtering? ... the latter i feel ... but nonetheless incredibly rich conceptual narrative and visual fare ... and a gripping dramatic experience ...

[amateur51]

Martin was a serial betrayer, we are told - but was it active thinking betrayal or carelessness/thoughtlessness? Or was it something intrinsic to his nature, having been betrayed once himself perhaps he needed (as he did after his vasectomy) to be re-assured that he was still desirable, worthwhile, that he could still attract another human being?

And Jens was focussed on his own misery, but we know that his wife was going to leave him when she had her tumble with Martin. What was the reason behind this? Was Jens a controlling person before the events that led up to episode 10? Was his wife seeking merely to 'break free' or was there something deeper? The step into homelessness might have been an opportunity to go as low as you can, to almost lose control, only to then regain it in spades with his revenge plan. Jens did not seem to be worried about the number of ordinary uninvolved people who got hurt/might have got hurt, during his revenge. And his plan was to escape justice by blowing himself up with the perceived perpetrator of his downfall.

What a great TV series!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

a less dynamic view would have jens at rock bottom in his life finding that his capability as a paramilitary policeman offered him personal salvation when deployed in a mission to tell the society and friends who had betrayed him exactly what he felt .... murderous ... we can not escape the autonomy of this murderousness .... as the five issues makes clear we murder by our negligence as much as by the demonic impulses of Jens ... and the tragedy is then that it is a murderous project that rescues Jens life ... in his eyes all others are tools and puppets [the paranoid schizophrenic gang - and what a creative blinder that idea is] in this personal renascence and in good saga form the is personal odyssey is writ large ...

this programme taken in sequence with the Killing I & II and Borgen highlights the severely cramped creative imagination in UK media which at best scarce rises above reportage or whimsy

[aeolium]

No, I still don't think the 'five issues' plot was a particularly coherent part of the overall narrative. I thought it was more of the standard intellectual puzzle for the police/race against time that has been seen in other serial killer drama series. Why would Jens as a paramilitary policeman care about these issues, particularly as he was quite happy to dispose of the homeless, the vulnerable, the children? I think it would have made more sense if it had been part of a deliberate plan to humiliate the police and especially Martin's role but for reasons of narrative deception (on the part of the scriptwriters) the Martin/Jens relationship only started to impinge quite late on in the series. What about the story of the social worker and his sister - was that a complete red herring here to throw the audience off the track? I think one weakness of the Scandinavian crime series is the overconcern with concealing the identity of the criminal (unlike, say, in many Hitchcock films). To my mind the story was more involving in the last episodes once the identity was known.

[kernelbogey]

No, I still don't think the 'five issues' plot was a particularly coherent part of the overall narrative. I thought it was more of the standard intellectual puzzle for the police/race against time that has been seen in other serial killer drama series. Why would Jens as a paramilitary policeman care about these issues, particularly as he was quite happy to dispose of the homeless, the vulnerable, the children? [...]

I thought this for a while. But I recall that Jens had had an argument/legal battle with one of the property millionaires (Charlotte's husband, I think) targeted for the bail out; the journalist had begun to report on Jens's bereavement story and the case against the offending driver, but was apparently bought off; living in a caravan for a time clearly meant he was homeless; the psychiatrist murdered by the 'Ninja' who befriended Anja had treated Jens, but (I think) failed him in some way - and I have probably forgotten other personal connections for Jens with the planned targeted victims.

[Nick Armstrong]

A casual observation - I think August is the nicest-looking young man to appear on me telly since Billy in Neighbours aeons ago

He has facial dimples that make my smiling muscles ache

Ams - you could become his facebook friend: http://www.facebook.com/emilbirk

[kernelbogey]

Ams - you could become his facebook friend: http://www.facebook.com/emilbirk

Not related to the Birk Larsens, I suppose?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I thought this for a while. But I recall that Jens had had an argument/legal battle with one of the property millionaires (Charlotte's husband, I think) targeted for the bail out; the journalist had begun to report on Jens's bereavement story and the case against the offending driver, but was apparently bought off; living in a caravan for a time clearly meant he was homeless; the psychiatrist murdered by the 'Ninja' who befriended Anja had treated Jens, but (I think) failed him in some way - and I have probably forgotten other personal connections for Jens with the planned targeted victims.

... so many details "lost" in the vast story: definitely a series that will repay repeated watching.