Borgen, Season 1

[selenak]

In the last week I watched the first season of this Danish series on dvd; a few months back when Political Animals was broadcast more than one person told me the show to watch about a female top politician was Borgen, and I've also heard West Wing comparisons, so I was more and more curious.

Borgen in its first season shows the rise to power and

Comments

[frenchani]

Season 2 is better. I remember that when I watched the first season on ARTE I kept being distracted by all the look-alikes as if Borgen was filled with clones of famous actors. Katrine looks like Rose from Doctor Who, Kasper is a mix of young Kenneth Brannagh and Joshua Jackson, and the villain of the play, Michael Laugesen, looks like Eric Stoltz!

Even the actress playing Birgitte looked familiar.

You didn't find Philip to be sex on legs? I think the actor is easily the hottest man on the show.

[selenak]

Well, this isn't a show boasting of hot men, so that's not saying much. :) But really, no. Maybe the actor would be in another role, because to me hotness isn't invariably there where actors are concerned but comes and goes depending on the characters they play. (A great example: Ian McKellen, very hot indeed as, say, Magneto, but not at all as Richard III - who can be played as a sexy villain, and most often is, but McKellen deliberately didn't do that. It's body language more than make up, and demeanour, of course.) In conclusion: no, Philip does not do anything for me.

[ayrdaomei]

I caught Borgen on a random cable channel here in the US last fall. I believe I saw most all of Season 1 and Season 2. I really enjoyed it as well, although I am much more a fan of when the show focuses on the halls of power as opposed to Birgitte's domestic issues. And this post reminds me that I need to start looking into where I can watch Season 3...

[cereswunderkind]

A quick question - is Danish close enough to German that a German-speaker can manage without Borgen's subtitles?

And to follow on from that, I find that not being able to look away from the screen greatly deepens my enjoyment of the show. No second-screening when Borgen is on! (or The Killing or The Bridge or Wallander for all that.)

And lastly, loving the Hanne-Katrine interactions in Season 2!

[selenak]

Danish: no. It's like German and English: some of the words clearly have the same linguistic root and/or sound very similar, and/or mean the same thing, like -sen and "Sohn" (son), "ny" and "neu" (new), "borg" and "Burg" (castle), etc. But not nearly enough to actually understand the language when you hear it spoken.

Good to hear about Hanne and Katrine!