CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings
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CurtainUp The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings |
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A CurtainUp Streaming Feature
Borgen
By Elyse Sommer |
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It's been almost ten years since Borgen was one of Netflix' s biggest hits, running for three seasons, with each season's ten episodes landing in one swoop. Now it's back, for a much darker
reboot &mdash this time just eight episodes but still all at once for the binge-happy. What's more, Borgen, the Danish word for the palace in which the three branches of the government reside is now Borgen-Power and Glory. Those added words refer to what now defines its main character's ambitions and actions.
But is this new season really another case of the tendency to keep a series going beyond its natural end? Now that I've watched it all, I'm happy to report that Borgen-The Power and Glory is not a case overkill. Instead, it's a satisfying, very timely new look at the lives of the original key characters, Sidse Babett Knudsen's Birgitte Nyborg Christensen and Birgitte Hjort Sorensen's Katrine Fonsmark. Birgitte is now Foreign Minister and Katrina is the head of the TV news program where she was previously its lead interviewer. Most of the other original cast is also back. What's more, there are a bunch of new characters since the plot now focuses on Denmark's having to deal with the discovery of oil Greenland's soil. Whether to drill for that oil or not creates the sort of conflict for Denmark as it has for countries all over the globe — the affect on the escalating climate crisis if opting to proceed with profitable but destructive drilling. Thus this latest season now has a timely, more global reach. Per the expanded title, Birgitte and Katrina's actions exemplify the way power, and holding on to it, has a way of compromising principles. While Borgen's many fans have been eagerly awaiting this new season, they may be disappointed that Pilou Asbaek' Kasper Juul, Birgitte's spin doctor and Katrina's lover, is not back. That said, most other major actors are back, but in believable and interesting new ways — for example, Birgitt's Season 3 economic adviser is now Katrina's supportive husband and Birgitta's arch political enemy has become a journalist whose advice she often takes. The closest counterpart to the initial seasons' spin doctor is Mikkel Boe Folsgaard's Asger Holm Kirkegaard who is Birgitte's Ambassador to Greenland and chief adviser. He keeps her secrets but but is not without his own personal problem. Obviously, for one of Birgitte's children to make an appearance in this time frame called for a cast update, and Lucas Lynggaard Tonnesen is outstanding as her now politically active son Magnus. Finally, this reboot is freestanding, not just a continuation of what has gone before so that its greatest appeal will be for established fans. Any situations from previous episodes are clarified by appropriately referenced dialogue. And so, no need to make time to see thirty past episodes. However, a word of warning: When you finish episode 8 of Borgen-Power and Glory,/ you're likely to find playing catch up with those previous seasons irresistible. |
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