(Rated 10/5 )
I have to write something about this outstanding series but not quite sure what will come out. I am being careful not to include any spoilers or at the very least any that would detract from the incredible experience of watching this. It is also a part-review focused pretty much solely on the aspect that caught my attention – the personal and psychological stories of the key detective characters. As it’s a TV crime drama series and you can of course get it on DVD and see over and over, it’s not as though - with this one – I need to permanently record the experience in case I forget how it felt like I have felt the need to do with theatre productions. Yet then again I am sure it will feel different the next time I watch. Certainly seeing the final episode ever for the first time I was absolutely on the edge of my seat and couldn’t eat or drink! Totally gripped and frightened for Saga and Henrik – not sure I have ever been made to care so much for two characters. And that’s the incredible story-creation and writing – Hans Rosenfeldt – and superb skill of Sofia Helin and Thure Lindhardt in performance and expression of their character’s emotional development following huge traumas. Saga and Henrik are the most extraordinary couple. Absolute genius in putting these two together with their conflicting issues and struggles both craving love and healing but fighting their own demons, which draw them together while repelling them.
I have to write something about this outstanding series but not quite sure what will come out. I am being careful not to include any spoilers or at the very least any that would detract from the incredible experience of watching this. It is also a part-review focused pretty much solely on the aspect that caught my attention – the personal and psychological stories of the key detective characters. As it’s a TV crime drama series and you can of course get it on DVD and see over and over, it’s not as though - with this one – I need to permanently record the experience in case I forget how it felt like I have felt the need to do with theatre productions. Yet then again I am sure it will feel different the next time I watch. Certainly seeing the final episode ever for the first time I was absolutely on the edge of my seat and couldn’t eat or drink! Totally gripped and frightened for Saga and Henrik – not sure I have ever been made to care so much for two characters. And that’s the incredible story-creation and writing – Hans Rosenfeldt – and superb skill of Sofia Helin and Thure Lindhardt in performance and expression of their character’s emotional development following huge traumas. Saga and Henrik are the most extraordinary couple. Absolute genius in putting these two together with their conflicting issues and struggles both craving love and healing but fighting their own demons, which draw them together while repelling them.
Season1 (and ongoing into 2) puts Saga together with Martin –
Kim Bodnia – a family man with imperfections and something on the side – but
whose arguably ‘normal’ conventional life-style was a huge contrast to Saga’s
single life and autistic-like behaviour patterns. He is Danish and she Swedish
and a double murder which a combination of two bodies placed together in the
middle of ‘The Bridge’ between Denmark and Sweden starts the crime drama
element. Though that aspect of things is excellent in itself, the main interest
for me – as I said above - was always the personal lives of the detectives and
their interactions. I found the same with ‘Lewis’ and Hathaway in a much more
subtle British way of course. Scandi-Noir drama is so gritty – of course
initially brought to our attention by ‘The Killing’ with Sarah Lund – Sofie
Gabol – and that jumper ;). She was fascinating in herself but with Saga it is
as though we step up several gears with a phenomenal conception and her
psychological journey is the most interesting I feel I have ever witnessed - in
drama anyway. However her story starts relatively gently if you like. And we
learn about her idiosyncrasies through Martin picking up on them – in the main
humour is involved. Saga’s own special methods work well in detection – asking
many questions, being obsessive about solving the puzzle – though her
directness upsets many, especially the loved ones of murder victims being told
insensitively about their demise. She does not understand small talk – mind you
neither do I ;) – and seems to feel no emotion. Sofia’s embodiment of her is a
masterclass in acting for sure. As Kim commented you feel the emotion just
beneath the surface but using body language and an invisible veil of Sofia’s
own facial creation nothing is apparently there. Saga struggles in
relationships and especially living with anyone. She has OCD. She assesses right
and wrong with head and not heart. She and cuddly Martin develop a lovely
friendship yet ultimately when Martin falls foul of the law, it is Saga who has
him convicted. (I know a spoiler but for the sake of making this review a
little more comprehensible ;))
There is no coming back from that in Season 3 so Martin is
gone and a couple more Danish detectives ‘suffer’ Saga and we wonder if she can
work with anyone again til along comes Henrik. His story is as strange as hers in
a several contrasting ways yet beautifully structured such as to bring us
personal roller-coaster drama between them to the absolute max! I thought the
first two seasons were excellent and with Martin gone, worried it would dip,
but my goodness it stepped up even more gears, and in ways I relish. The
traumas, the psychology, the ‘disorders’, the contributing backstories are
riveting. Is Saga ‘just’ a classic case of Asperger’s or did her behaviours
manifest from deep wounds in childhood? And in asking that question how much of
anyone’s apparent ‘disorder’ is nature or nurture? My favourite scene is Saga
telling a psychotherapist why she thinks she has PTSD. But I’m leaping ahead to
season 4. In season 3 we initially feel Henrik is unsympathetic til his
backstory is gradually revealed. This becomes critical to the ongoing
interactions and adds a case to be solved. Henrisk and Saga seem to use each
other at first but it is mutually beneficial and a relationship – with their
issues – which they can both handle. Yet will emotions develop – and if so what
then?! Can there be a happy ever after with them saving each other? And what
even would that mean? Probably not any conventional contentment but in a way
this series beautifully brings into focus unusual ways of being and how people
manage that. Far more realistic in my view than the stock relationships and
standard ways of them going wrong we get shown time after time in dramas. Ironically
I relate to the former better myself and perhaps that is in part why I relish
it. I relate to and feel for Saga more than many characters I have observed –
is that because I have a disorder myself? – I don’t think so – I think she is
super-real in her abnormalities which help all we ‘abnormal’ unconventional
types connect with her J
After all who is normal anyway?!
Yes The Bridge is excellent crime drama, but for me is it
also the most fascinating study in human psychology and ways of relating.
The Bridge – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2018
