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FM
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The Bridge - BBC4, Saturday 21 April

A grisly discovery on the Oresund Bridge, which links Denmark and Sweden, brings together cops Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia) and Saga Noren (Sofia Helin) - one from each country - in pursuit of a politically driven serial killer.

 


Radio TimesReview by:Alison Graham

 

Nibble tonight’s first two episodes of The Bridge and you will imediately want to devour the whole series. Just be careful not to break your teeth, because this is hard: a tough kernel of a gripping story wrapped in layers of rock. It makes The Killing seem cuddly. 

But The Bridge is immensely rewarding: a proper, grown-up thriller dense with characters who aren’t instantly likeable or likeable at all, even after due consideration. Nordic noir fans will love it, and they will fall for its odd, brittle “heroine”, twitchy Swedish detective Saga Noren (Sofia Helin). 

Saga isn’t a gimmicky maverick cop; neither is her Danish sidekick, Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia), a hairy, shambling dad to many children, a mere jokey foil. The pair are thrown together when a body is found in the middle of the Oresund bridge linking Denmark and Sweden. As the joint investigation begins, prepare to enter the murky netherworlds of the dispossessed and the damaged as a determined serial killer decides to right society’s many wrongs.

 

ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME

 

Detectives from Denmark and Sweden are forced to work together when a body is found on a bridge between the two countries. However, further investigation reveals the corpse has a gruesome secret - and investigators Saga Noren and Martin Rohde realise the criminal they are chasing will stop at nothing to get his message across. Scandinavian crime drama, in Danish and Swedish, starring Sofia Helin and Kim Bodnia.

 

Might be worth a look   starts tomorrow night BBC4 from 9pm 

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Originally Posted by ~Sweet Bramble's Mommy~:
Sounds very good, but it'd give me nightmares Hi pengy hope life is treating you well

I'm fine fankooo   how is the bundle of fur?

FM

Thanks to Pengy for posting this: I've been meaning to for over a week, but kept forgetting...

 

It looks really promising: a second series has been commissioned, but won't be broadcast in Denmark and Sweden till next year...

Eugene's Lair

Saw both parts and hooked. As usual with these things, a very strong cast of interesting characters with a gripping storyline. Top marks.

 

Except for the bloke who moved the woman and her kids away from the violent husband. Was he recruited from the 70's? That hair and moustache on top of the brown shirt and ugly tie combo.

 

Peter Wyngarde will be suing

FM
Originally Posted by Veggieburger:

Saw both parts and hooked. As usual with these things, a very strong cast of interesting characters with a gripping storyline. Top marks.

 

Except for the bloke who moved the woman and her kids away from the violent husband. Was he recruited from the 70's? That hair and moustache on top of the brown shirt and ugly tie combo.

 

Peter Wyngarde will be suing

Mrs Jer decided that the latter and the detective boss and some of the music were all quite reminiscent of 70's gentlemen's documentaries.

Garage Joe
Originally Posted by Avalon:

Tried to edit my previous comment but deleted it somehow.

 

Was talking to a friend earlier and he told me that the female detective in this has a form of Asperger's


Haha Avalon, I came in and was about to reply to your post and it disappeared. Cue much confusion!!

 

Yep I thought she might have Aspergers or some social phobia type thing. She has zero people skills, take the encounter with the bloke she picked up in the club.

 

Jer - so how many 70's gentlemen's documentaries has Mrs Jer seen?

FM
Originally Posted by Veggieburger:
Originally Posted by Avalon:

Tried to edit my previous comment but deleted it somehow.

 

Was talking to a friend earlier and he told me that the female detective in this has a form of Asperger's


Haha Avalon, I came in and was about to reply to your post and it disappeared. Cue much confusion!!

 

Yep I thought she might have Aspergers or some social phobia type thing. She has zero people skills, take the encounter with the bloke she picked up in the club.

 

Jer - so how many 70's gentlemen's documentaries has Mrs Jer seen?

  Sorry, Veggie!

FM
Originally Posted by Avalon:

Was talking to a friend earlier and he told me that the female detective in this has a form of Asperger's

From what I understand, this is never explicitly stated throughout the series, but it definitely seems to be implied.

 

I got the impression that they're being a bit careful with the translation: at one point, one of Saga's Swedish colleagues is translated as saying "Does he know she's a bit odd?", but the word she actually used was "special"...

Eugene's Lair

I recorded it last night and watched it this morning.

I thought the characters were interesting and the storyline was gripping. Really enjoying it so far and hope it doesn't get culled after one series, like Those Who Kill did.

 

Yogi19
Originally Posted by Veggieburger:
Originally Posted by Avalon:

Tried to edit my previous comment but deleted it somehow.

 

Was talking to a friend earlier and he told me that the female detective in this has a form of Asperger's


Haha Avalon, I came in and was about to reply to your post and it disappeared. Cue much confusion!!

 

Yep I thought she might have Aspergers or some social phobia type thing. She has zero people skills, take the encounter with the bloke she picked up in the club.

 

Jer - so how many 70's gentlemen's documentaries has Mrs Jer seen?


Several by the sound of it.

She also thought that at least three of the women looked similar and that this led to some initial confusion.

Garage Joe

I did find the Peter Wyngarde 70's character a bit confusing. When the woman went to see him with her kids I thought he must be her ex husband and the kids father but it turned out the violent bloke was.

No doubt it will all become clear.

FM
Originally Posted by Veggieburger:

I did find the Peter Wyngarde 70's character a bit confusing. When the woman went to see him with her kids I thought he must be her ex husband and the kids father but it turned out the violent bloke was.

No doubt it will all become clear.

I got confused as well, but I believe he's her brother (IIRC, he calls her "Sis" at the end of episode 2).

 

One other possible source of confusion that occurred to me is that Danish and Swedish viewers would be able to tell where a particular scene is set without being told, thanks to landmarks and the differences in accents. Not something that most non-Scandinavians will be able to do, though...

Eugene's Lair

Eugene

 

So was that her at the end then, the one who drank the wine and collapsed? As Jer says (or Mrs Jer), the similarity in appearance of some of the women made it difficult to tell who was who.

Perhaps I will watch both episodes again on catch up if I get time, I found it helped with The Killing and Spiral when I did that; helped to fix the characters more in my brain.

 

I may have asked this before, but on the subject of foreign language productions, has anyone seen the French film The Class? I really enjoyed it and wondered what anyone else thought.

My favourite foreign language 'anything' though is the Italian film Life is Beautiful

FM
Originally Posted by Veggieburger:

Eugene

 

So was that her at the end then, the one who drank the wine and collapsed? As Jer says (or Mrs Jer), the similarity in appearance of some of the women made it difficult to tell who was who.

 

I believe so, but I need to watch it again too! 

(As a general point, I didn't have too much difficulty with Spiral, but I usually watched the repeats of The Killing.)

 

Haven't seen The Class; sorry. My favourite foreign films tend to be Japanese, but going with the European - and specifically Nordic - theme here, I would definitely recommend Festen, Not an easy watch, but those who've been following The Killing and suchlike should be OK. Also, it's the original Dogme 95 movie, and as such it played an important role in making Danish drama look the way it does now. (Sofie Grabol and a lot of other Danish actors started out on Dogme films.)

Eugene's Lair

Ooh thanks Eugene I'll put that on the list. I can't say I watch any Japanese films really but their horror and animation is reckoned to be excellent.

 

I watch more French films I suppose, recently watched Trauffaut's The 400 blows which, I think, was semi autobiographical.

FM
We watched the second part tonight (before Homeland) totally hooked on both. We assume the stuff surrounding the bloke with nether region discomfort is .dk and the stuff surrounding the very organised girl is .se ....... Possibly ..... Whatever! It made a bit more sense.
Garage Joe
Originally Posted by Veggieburger:

I did find the Peter Wyngarde 70's character a bit confusing. When the woman went to see him with her kids I thought he must be her ex husband and the kids father but it turned out the violent bloke was.

No doubt it will all become clear.

OK: I think I'm on top of this now.

The woman in the first episode with the kids (Veronika) is Stephan's "client" (he's a Social Worker).

The woman in the second episode (Sonja) is his sister.

 

And yes: there are some confusing similarities! 

Eugene's Lair
Originally Posted by Eugene's Lair:
Originally Posted by Veggieburger:

I did find the Peter Wyngarde 70's character a bit confusing. When the woman went to see him with her kids I thought he must be her ex husband and the kids father but it turned out the violent bloke was.

No doubt it will all become clear.

OK: I think I'm on top of this now.

The woman in the first episode with the kids (Veronika) is Stephan's "client" (he's a Social Worker).

The woman in the second episode (Sonja) is his sister.

 

And yes: there are some confusing similarities

I wondered if this was the case (that's how I saw it anyway) 

FM
Originally Posted by noseyrosie:

 Love the Saga character, and I'm finding it darkly funny.

I agree with that. I'm still "finding my feet" with The Bridge, but one of its plus-points is that it can be genuinely funny in places.

Eugene's Lair

I really like the Danish cop and oooo wince when he got kicked in the how's your father

 

it is darkly funny given that the topic is quite harrowing but they've married the humour well with the deaths 

FM

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