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During a blackout, the body of a woman is found in the middle of the Øresund Bridge, between Sweden and Denmark. Half of it belongs to a Swedish politician, the other half to a Danish prostitute.Trapped in no-man's land between two countries, a binational investigatory team is put together to solve the crime. Laid-back Danish family man, Martin, the laid back family man from Denmark, and Saga,the socially awkward singleton from Sweden, soon realise that they are chasing a dangerous killer with a serious agenda. (Arrow Films)
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Reviews (7)
The essence of Scandi crime series with all the essential trimmings. The pluses include the dark and dismal atmosphere, its focus on the characters, exceptional uncompromising nature and social crossover in the form of a (seemingly) socially aware culprit. The minuses include the character of the unerring murderer and the primary the bane of most Scandi crime series, it’s needlessly over-complicated. And over-complicated in spite of a certain transparency of plot; in this case often several episodes in advance. It doesn’t take away anything from the whole show, but it’s annoying. What in the end makes this more than a mere, darn good genre piece is the central duo, who deserve to be serenaded with odes and it’s hard to decide whether it’s better written or acted, and they alone could make much worse series than The Bridge work excellently. The same applies, word for word, for season two as for season one; both the pluses and the minuses. It’s just that here they follow the rules of a continuation “about more and on a bigger scale". It runs the same course, has the same style, theme and structure, just in the guise of a new case. Especially the backstories are almost one to one in terms of type. Whether or not this is a(n) (dis)advantage depends on what you expect from it. Even so, in the end it is sufficiently unique not to come across like some cowardly sticking to tried and tested formulae. Again and mainly thanks to the characters; and this time it isn’t just the central duo, although they are still peerless (not only) in this genre. | S1: 5/5 | S2: 4/5 |
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I didn't really appreciate the acclaimed Danish series The Killing, specifically its first two seasons, because I clearly felt their contrivance and considered them an artificial construct. The same can be said of The Bridge, and yet this series eventually captured my attention, despite my initial doubts, and with each episode, I enjoyed it more and more. I appreciated its social and psychological dimension, as well as its attractive characters. It is dark, uncompromising, consistently surprising, and overall an excellent work about how one embittered person can destroy their surroundings with their hatred. This is one of the peaks of contemporary television series production that can do without an excessively large budget. All it takes is quality screenwriting, clever directing, and excellent casting. Overall impression: 90%. /// I have just finished the second season and I must admit that it is as high-quality as the first one, maintaining its unique style and cleverly building on the previous narrative. I can therefore apply the same criticism to it, that it is an artificial construct, but very well executed, written, and directed. Simply a Nordic treat. After the second season, I feel like giving it 100%.
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The Bridge is an extremely precise genre spectacle in every respect. But in that lies my sole criticism of it. The screenwriting concept and genre focus are too obvious throughout the narrative with the eccentric duo of investigators, the interconnection of the case with the social issues of the day, the criminal genius and his elaborate plan, and ultimately the premise itself, which makes it clear that this is a Scandinavian co-production. Though in principle it is unfair to compare all Scandinavian crime productions to the ground-breaking The Killing (which of course was far from being the first internationally successful title of its genre; see Unit One, for example). But it is quite evident that The Bridge comes from the same dramaturgical roots and would like to have the same effect. Because of its exceedingly obvious contrivance, it will always remain “just” a genre series and will never be able to measure up to the complexity and emotional and ethical impact of The Killing, especially its climactic third season.
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1st series: For lovers of "over-twisted" and socially conscious Nordic detective stories, this is something like a luxury chocolate shop. Although the series follows the model of an American thriller on thematic crime, it of course translates it into the Nordic value system and perceives it in the context of social phenomena - the mysterious criminal acts like Nolan's Joker for some time, i.e., a director of phenomena that reveal the fondness of a peaceful society for excess. Some of his "trials" are brilliant, and their borderline moral-ethical nature goes beyond ordinary political correctness. The fact that The Bridge is moving towards a "more conciliatory" motivation of the perpetrator is something like an expected tax, which does not spoil the pleasure of the chaos that "TT" is committing. What's more, the tax accounts for dizzying profits - a beautifully asymmetrical central duo with the jovial Kim Bodnia and the alien Sofia Helin (her Saga finally shed light on what is so sexy about Cumberbatch's Sherlock for some women), metrosexual light design and framing of shots that is chillingly beautiful and protects The Bridge from decaying into sentiment and genre clichés. Pure pleasure from the visual that is thought out to the last irrelevant shot (even the filler scene in which the detective gets out of the car and goes home is lit so that one sees how someone thought of it as an integral part of the whole), cold and withdrawn atmosphere, an interesting probe into the Scandinavian conscience and, despite its predictability, also a strongly emotional finale... If you even remotely like names such as Mankell, Nesbo or Larsson and sometimes tear-up at the BBC version of Wallander, then this has to be perfect for you. 2nd series: There are a few more awkward transitions and strange discrepancies, again repeating some of the purposeful work with side storylines (the characters and their destinies appear only as purposeful "complications" of the plot), but on the other hand, the creators learned this time and constantly maintain the tension and "global" perspective of the case. If the first series fell off a bit around the 7th episode, the tempo is constant here and the gradation paradoxically comes by moving to the intimate level of the characters. The ending is one of the best in the genre, there is a monstrous cliffhanger of the main plot, but the greatest strength brought to the narration is the repetition of the motif of revenge from the end of the first series. Jens, as the "legacy" of the first series, works great all the time, and while the dialogues and social "faux pas" of Saga and Martin no longer have the same intensity, the emaciated specter of "truth terrorists" pushes their relationship further to the bitter finale. I'm really looking forward to the next series, because the creators have shown the ability to maintain quality, not change the concept and at the same time move it forward. In addition, unlike Sherlock, Saga is not subject to the position of "antisocial superstar" and the more she opens up, the more human, imperfect and the less cool she is. In fact, she is quite annoying with her obsessiveness and in some respects she begins to evoke her colleague Lund.
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An instant favorite. I like Nordic crime dramas, and The Bridge is the best of the best. The series has an excellent atmosphere, a well-written story, and suspense that just keeps building up. I consider Season 2 to be the weakest of the three, but still worth no less than five stars. I was very concerned about Kim Bodnia's departure, but Thure Lindhardt was able to fill his shoes and had great chemistry with Sofia Helin. I hope that the creators will get talked into making a fourth season. The best line of all three seasons: "Saga Noren, Malmö police"."
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