On 09/01/2013 03:25 AM, turquoiseb wrote:
To get the bad taste out of my eyes from watching a couple of episodes of the US version of "The Bridge," I decided to watch the new season of "Borgen." What a difference.
Now, now, I watched the first episode of Broen. I don't understand why you didn't like the US remake. After all it's by the same writers and producers and done with a better budget. The storyline was pretty much the same but adapted to the US/Mexican border. I don't think Americans would have found a show about the the Denmark/Swedish border to be all that compelling. Then they were able to bring the Mexican drug lord element in and the coyote element as well.
I think it is just your "Amercans sucks, Europe good" meme you often expound on here. Of course you know I get that. Hell, when the first day of my TTC in France I looked around and thought "you idiot! You're going be cooped up in a hotel for six months when you should be traveling around seeing Europe!" I did intend to get back and do exactly that but so far that was limited to a stopover in Amsterdam to and from India.
Of course the Swedish actress is sexier and Unger chose to play the role about bit more wallflower which sells the Aspergers a little better.
OTOH "Crossing Lines", a European production which played on NBC this summer did respectively. Yup, some scenes had subtitles too. This may be the odd difference between Comcast running NBC and GE which ran it.
After watching the first episode of Broen, which looked like someone captured it off a DVR on the composite output. I watched a DVD rental "Evidence" with Steven Moyer and Radha Mitchell. Probably no interest to you and not to much of FFL but it was found footage horror flick with the spin being that Moyer is a forensic video analyst.
After that I tried to start a popular title on Netflix and stopped it as soon as it began rebuffering. So chose a Netflix recommended title "Abduction of Eden" which was excellent. I had intended just to watch about a half hour but finished the whole film. It's based on an true story about a girl who was abducted and forced into prostitution in the Las Vegas area. I think we'll be seeing more from the young actor Matt O'Leary who did a bang up job on his role as her handler. But I have to be a bit embarrassed as I assumed it was shot in the Southwest. It was shot in Washington state in areas I am familiar with. But eastern Washington doesn't look a whole lot different in the desert areas than the Southwest. Just no suguaros. :-D
For those who have never seen the series, it's a drama set in and around the buildings of the same name (meaning "citadel" or "castle") which house the Danish government. The first two seasons dealt with the rise to power of the (fictional) first woman Prime Minister of the country, and with all of the shit she had to deal with on a daily basis, both in political life and private life. And they were brilliant, in all of the ways that Danish TV series are, and US series (on the whole) are not. It was a series filled with nuance and subtlety and real characters with real-world problems. It "pulled no punches" when dealing with the political pressures of Danish politics (mainly centering on issues of immigration and corruption), but it did so without histrionics, and without the posturing so present in American "political" dramas. But what made the series so brilliant was that it wasn't about politicians and News broadcasters, it was about human beings who happened to be politicians and News broadcasters. These people aren't different from anyone else, and "Borgen" brought that to life on the TV screen. They have "issues," like anyone else. They have problems at home, and with their romances, like everyone else. And they make mistakes, just like everyone else. The main draw of the series, as with all of the shows created by the DR production company there, is the strength of the actors chosen to portray the roles, and the dialogue given to them to portray. Season 3 starts with the former Prime Minister having been voted out of office a few years before, and wanting to return to politics, but feeling betrayed by all of the compromises her former political party has been making. So she starts another political party, one dedicated to principle rather than expediency. It's really great so far, so I highly recommend it to others who saw the former two seasons and liked them.
