Friday, April 27, 2012

In Praise of... The Bridge

Ooooh, am liking - nay, LOVING - The Bridge, the latest BBC4 arrival on the Scandi-drama front.






The deliciously frank Saga Noren is rapidly proving to be a new heroine for me: what does it say about me and my love for Scandi women?!  Lisbeth Salander (genius brain, Aspergers); Sarah Lund (smartly insightful, risk-taker, introvert); Birgitte Nyborg (savvy, emotional but tough, isolated); and now Saga Noren (smart, socially awkward, focused).

Some might accuse me liking characters who are either very different to me or in whom I recognise traits of myself (or traits I might admire).  But I don't think so - you don't have to identify with characters to find them interesting or affecting (see MediumRob's question of the week).  But these characters are appearing in dramas that have very well constructed dramatic arcs, and somehow despite all the cliches these resonate.

The Bridge is shaping up nicely to have a real impact on my Saturday nights (I've almost forgotten what other broadcast stations look like on Saturday nights, so long has the European drama thing been filling my weekends with BBC4).  Murders, tension, characters and conflict, politics and social issues: brilliant.

3 comments:

jams o donnell said...

Got the first two episodes recorded.Looking forward to watching them.

Glad to see that Braquo is back on FX on Sunday.Must be taking over from the increasingly tedious True Blood

Rob Buckley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rob Buckley said...

I finally got round to watching The Bridge and I loved it too.

Jams: thanks for the Braquo heads-up - I'd missed that! I'll set the Sky box ASAP.

(reposted to turn the link into a link - stupid Blogger commenting system)