Bron/Broen/The Bridge BBC4 on Saturdays

[CAMRAMan]

I watched the first episode last night and I'm hooked! In some ways it's the usual, dark Nordic thriller, as in Wallander or The Killing, but this has the additional twist of being a joint Danish/Swedish scenario. The Killing was to an extent, but not as much as this, where we have the compulsory oddball cop duo; a womanising, male Dane (just post-vasectomy op) and a "Lisbeth Salander" clone, Swedish female. The interaction between them was well played and will be a feature of the rest of the series, I'm sure.

Criticisms? A couple: Saga Noren is just too Lisbeth Salander (Dragon Tattoo character) to be original, and many will lose out on the nuances of the Danish/Swedish interplay. Perhaps the translators could have thought of a way of separating the almost comic exchanges at the station between the Dane & the Swedish police team. As it was, it came over rather deadpan in the subtitles. (Danish & Swedish are quite similar when written, but very different when spoken. There is also quite a lot of history between the two nations.) Oh, one more: there seem to be very few Scanian Swedes in the action. The Swedes there speak in a dialect that is much closer to Danish, but rather tricky for some other Swedes to pick up, so maybe it's a "political" thing.

All in all a good start and I'll try to fit in the next episode tonight.

[ferret]

yeah I watched this as well, thought it was pretty good, I did raise the question about why are these nordic cop/political dramas so much more worth watching than similar drivel we get from america ?

and I loved the millennium trilogy books, the dvd's are ok 

[perpetual dan]

I also liked it, with some very funny moments. I've got more interest in the characters than I have in all the US cop shows put together. I see what you mean about the Dragon Tattoo similarity though.

[Juan Martín]

I really enjoyed this although I did think that the female lead has been made consciously weird, to be further along the oddness continuum from Sarah Lund. This is now what the viewer expects of Scandinavian detectives.  I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

I don’t watch many US shows but I usually find British TV drama very disappointing. It largely appears to consist of people shouting at each other. In fact, this seems to be their default position – you know that we are doing drama because we are shouting. That’s before it becomes evident that the writing is clichéd, hackneyed, hysterical drivel. I often think that the three most depressing words in the English Language are ‘new ITV drama’.

[citoyen]

I love it. I'm not familiar with the Dragon Tattoo stuff so any similarities go right over my head.

Re the subtitles: I found myself wishing they would have the Swedish and Danish in different colours so us non-speakers could distinguish them (someone on twitter suggested different typefaces, which would also work), though generally the language differences only seem to be important when the Danish cop is speaking to Saga or the obnoxious journalist, and then their facial expressions tell you all you need to know.

It's true that a lot of British TV dramas are rubbish (yes, especially the ones on ITV) but we still make some excellent stuff, and while The Bridge, The Killing and Borgen have all been excellent, I do wonder if they are really representative of Scandinavian TV as a whole - there was also Those Who Kill on recently, which I haven't seen yet, but I wonder if the fact that it's on ITV4 is significant...

d.

[Andrew Br]

I'm enjoying this series as well.
I think that the Scandic dramas are more involving than some of the American (and UK) equivalents because they're slower and the dark panning shots of the cities add atmosphere.

Give it a few more episodes and your ears will begin to pick up the differences between Danish and Swedish accents.
Having said that, I can't place the location of the accents within each country.................

[CAMRAMan]

There was a scene in the Swedish police station when the Dane spoke to the Swedes at his usual speed and they were all thrown, as Danish is hard to pick up for them, but the subtitles couldn't discern this. I also thought of different colours, but apart from using the same descriptive text as used for the hard of hearing, it's tricky to know how this would be picked up.

As for the bluntness of Swedish sexuality that we saw in the bar, I was at home once when a fellow student knocked on my door and - almost as bluntly as Saga - asked for sex. She however, was a cracker and not at all weird.

I cannot pick Danish accents, but there are very few Scanian characters - at least with a pronounced accent. Conveniently, Saga seems to be Stockholm/Standard Swedish. Scanian Swedish is akin to comparing broad Cornish to RP.

[ludwig]

Excellent show but I can't help thinking that life would be easier in Scandinavia if people occasionally slept at night.

[citoyen]

As for the bluntness of Swedish sexuality that we saw in the bar, I was at home once when a fellow student knocked on my door and - almost as bluntly as Saga - asked for sex. She however, was a cracker and not at all weird.

I once went on a date with a Swedish girl. We didn't even get as far as holding hands.

Oh yes, I do know how to pick them...

d.

[Steph]

Danish isn't a language, it is a disease of the throat. My oddest moment in Jylland was when I asked for a coffee in a Spar, and the girl said to me, in English, "I am really sorry, but I don't speak Norwegian. Do you speak English?"

The written Nog is almost identical to Dansk, but the Swedes use a different alphabet. I am told I speak Norsk like a Swede...as one example for AWL's indication of the differences, there is a word that, when used in Norsk and Svensk means 'lively' and in Dansk 'quiet'. The joke is told of the Swede over in Copenhagen for a night out who asks the taxi driver to take him to a really lively night spot. So the man drives him to a graveyard.

[RJ]

 

Watched the first two episodes last night.  (Curiously, the bridge in question came up at a public inquiry I've been involved in.  I have a little list of candidates for the "Joergen" treatment  )  Very good - we'll keep watching.

[perpetual dan]

Excellent show but I can't help thinking that life would be easier in Scandinavia if people occasionally slept at night.

That'd be pretty close to hibernation though.   

[ferret]

The Killing was another good un, but I also tried watching the american one that was on tv a few weeks later, total crap I thought, it just seemed to be predictable, stodgy and drawn out. 

[Jakob]

I am told I speak Norsk like a Swede..

And you then expect Danes to be able to understand you?.

[CAMRAMan]

I was on the isle of Bornholm once - it's off the SE coast of Sweden, but owned by Denmark & very Danish.

I cycled onto the campsite and carried out the booking process in Swedish. We understood each other OK, but I had to give them a passport for ID. As soon as he saw I was English, his attitude became much friendlier and less formal. They really don't get on very well a lot of the time...

[CAMRAMan]

Saturday's double bill was brilliant TV. They seem to have mastered the art of suspense and how to drop in clues. Red herrings abound, I'm sure, but they've also made the characters plausible enough to make me hate the politician's wife, Anja's mother and Daniel the journalist.

I have to say I find Saga's autistic-like behaviour is getting rather annoyingly predictable, but that's a minor quibble...

[RJ]

Anybody else stick with it?  We caught up with the last two episodes on iPlayer last night - well worth it.

[CAMRAMan]

Yes, enjoyed it. The finale was a bit of a mixed bag though. Whilst I wouldn't expect every loose end to be tied up and explained - this isn't American TV, after all - I think there were significant threads left hanging. For example, the hostage that Martin shot.

I thought that Saga's development over the series was great. After being advised by Martin to open up to and engage with her colleagues, she joins them round the coffee table one day. It all goes quiet. "I started my period this morning", says Saga by way of opening a topic!

Very good TV all in all.

[Andrew Br]

I stuck with it to the end as well.
It became my Monday night's entertainment; finish dinner, switch on i-Player, pour glass of red, at 23.30 wonder where evening (and most of bottle) has gone..............

Part of the attraction for me was the Saga character and how she developed. I snorted in a most unattractive manner several times.
Plus I had a little moment every time her colleague (Anne ?) was on screen.

What's next from the Scandics ?
I can't wait.

[citoyen]

I think there were significant threads left hanging. For example, the hostage that Martin shot.

What was left hanging about that? I assumed she lived to tell the tale and will probably sue the police or something. I don't think you need to spell out every last detail explicitly. Likewise, I think there was enough of a hint about August's fate that we didn't need the grisly details.

Anyway, there's going to be a second series, so they need to leave a few loose threads...

I thought that Saga's development over the series was great.

Yes, she's a superb character.

d.

[CAMRAMan]

Well, I assumed she'd died. After all, it was a point blank shot to the chest. Guess work is good, but I think that was one that was left a bit too implicit. August's fate was clearly spelled out, in contrast. The lack of grisly details meant the imagination had to be used to imagine his final hours after the light went out. That's brilliant, but I felt a little more of a hint was needed for the hostage's fate to be guessed at.

[citoyen]

Well, I assumed she'd died. After all, it was a point blank shot to the chest.

I thought he'd shot her in the shoulder. And Jens did say that he didn't expect Martin to kill her, just wound her.

Either way, I'm not sure it's that important - she's not a proper character. What happens to Martin as an outcome of that incident is more significant in dramatic terms. (Likewise, we care less about the guards who were shot dead on Martin's lawn than Saga, who was shot and survived.)

d.

[Andrew Br]

I thought he'd shot her in the shoulder. And Jens did say that he didn't expect Martin to kill her, just wound her.

d.

My understanding too

One slight quibble with the Bridge and The Killing 2; twice now a "hero" has been shot and left for dead. Wouldn't a "professional" be sure to finish them off with a head shot or two ?
Not that I'm an expert or anything, just in case you were wondering/worrying.

[Martin109]

Danish isn't a language, it is a disease of the throat. My oddest moment in Jylland was when I asked for a coffee in a Spar, and the girl said to me, in English, "I am really sorry, but I don't speak Norwegian. Do you speak English?"

Danish is a language with (almost) all the consonants worn away to nothing, so you really just have vowels left.  Write it down and all the consonants are back as normal!

[citoyen]

That's brilliant, but I felt a little more of a hint was needed for the hostage's fate to be guessed at.

Just thinking a bit more about it, it's very much to your credit that you care. 

The dead guards on the lawn bothered me slightly but not the hostage. It is a recurrent problem in modern dramas of this sort that incidental characters are far too easily bumped off as collateral damage and we're not supposed to think twice about them. I don't approve.

d.