In the UK: Saturdays, 9pm, BBC4. Available on the iPlayer In Sweden and Denmark: Aired last September on SVT1 and DR1. Second series commissioned for broadcast in 2013
It can’t have escaped your notice that the world is falling in love with Scandinavian darkness. As I’ve previously remarked, British TV certainly has, with BBC1 and BBC4 taking the lead with shows like Denmark’s The Killing, The Killing 2 and Borgen and Sweden’s Wallander (as well as the home-grown Kenneth Branagh version), and ITV3 making a stab at it with Denmark’s Den Som Dræber (Those Who Kill). But even the US has spotted the trend and as well as remaking Sweden’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movies, it’s adapted Denmark’s The Killing, now in its second season.
Do you know who else has noticed this trend? Scandinavians, that’s who. Spotting a golden opportunity to finally export a few shows rather than having to buy in 24 and Friends to fill the airwaves, Scandinavia is seizing it with both hands. Now Danish and Swedish TV have got together to create something that while entirely Scandinavian in character still has an eye on the worldwide market: The Bridge (aka Bron/Broen depending on whether you’re Swedish or Danish).
The story is seemingly simple: on the Øresun bridge between Copenhagen in Denmark (ooh, where The Killing is set!) and Malmö in Sweden (ooh, where Wallander is set!), someone leaves a body precisely halfway of the border between the two countries. This means that both Swedish and Danish police have to investigate, forcing an uneasy alliance between two apparent stereotypes who quickly reveal themselves to be a lot more than merely the Swedes and the Danes’ mutual national images: an icy female Swedish detective with Asperger’s (ooh, Dragon Tattoo!) and a salt-of-the-earth male Danish detective. But before investigations have gotten very far, it soon becomes obvious that this is just the tip of a very elaborate plan, one designed to change both countries and their ideas of justice.
And despite the fact it doesn’t have the emotional depth of The Killing, that it’s a little bit unrealistic and there is that slight hint to everything of a global market being eyed, this is actually really good television. So good, in fact, that despite it airing two episodes a week on BBC4 and my PVR actually recording Girls of the 90s on Viva the first time it aired, I actually found time to buck my normal trend and watch it before the next two episodes air tonight. Isn’t that amazing?
Here’s a trailer in Danish, because the BBC, in their infinite wisdom, haven’t put anything up on YouTube in English – although it’s worth remembering that when the show aired in both Sweden and Denmark it had to be subtitled whenever the other country’s characters spoke, so we’re all in it together, here. There’s also a little snippet from the beginning of the first episode as well, because it has a lovely opening sequence that I thought I’d share with you.
Do you ever have those “Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” moments when watching an actor in a movie, where eventually you realise that you’ve seen them when they were a child?
Evan Rachel-Wood in Practical Magic.
Who’s now been in True Blood, amongst other things.
Or Lukas Haas, that nice little Amish boy in Witness.
He was the crap gang member in Inception.
Then there’s Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel, who have been in everything and were in fact in everything when they were kids, too.
Then there’s Kirsten Dunst in Interview with a Vampire:
Who was in all three Spider-man movies and in Melancholia:
And of course Claire Danes was Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and is now doing very nicely for herself in Homeland:
Anyway, I’ve been having one of those moments while watching New Zealand show The Almighty Johnsons and finally, I’ve worked out where I’ve seen Keisha Castle-Hughes (aka Gaia) before:
She was, of course, the youngest person ever to receive a Best Actress nomination at the Oscars for Whale Rider all of 10 years ago now:
My how time flies, doesn’t it? (Of course, Cliff Curtis from Whale Rider has been finding work in the US with Trauma and now Missing.)
Here’s the trailer for it and after the jump, you can watch the whole movie – aren’t I good to you?
