I have come very late to watching the Danish TV series Borgen, about a Prime Minister who arrives at the position somewhat unexpectedly and the effects it has on her character, her personal and private life. it is about power the affects the desire for it has, and the effects it has once achieved, about the dealings and sometimes double-dealings, the promises and broken promises, and the fine line between keeping power because of a true belief in the cause, and clinging on to it for its own sake.
The first series was shown in 2010 in Denmark but didn’t arrive in the Uk until 2012. I saw it advertised at the time, but thought ‘political drama? No thanks!’, however since I have become so hooked on other Danish TV series I decided I really ought to watch it as it had such favourable reviews… I was only about ten minutes into episode one and I was absolutely hooked! It wasn’t just the quality of the acting, production, narrative, characters, filming, background music, it was the subtleties, the pace, the build-ups, the light and dark… it is perfect television.
Series 2 was released in Denmark in 2011 and in the UK in 2013, and the third and final series in 2013 in Denmark and the UK. It has won countless awards and deservedly so.
To me as a writer it was a real lesson in how to portray realistic characters. Towards the end of the first series, certain characters (and I won’t revel who just in case you haven’t watched it yet!) begin to isolate themselves from their principles, their loyal supporters, their friends and family – there are reasons, and I can imagine in the world of politics many politicians must face similar dilemmas and accept the same sort of compromises. However, as a viewer I found myself shouting at the TV ‘No! No, don’t do that! Don’t trust him! Don’t do that to her! How could you??!!’
The characters were not written to play safe, we the audience were almost encouraged to dislike them, despise them even because of what they were doing or saying… which is what real life is like. Things aren’t always simple and nice, people have lots of reasons and motives for doing things, which other people may not agree with, be ignorant of, not understand… So when we create characters, as writers or TV producers or film makers, three-dimensional characters with faults and who make mistakes and are shown to be shabby sometimes, disloyal, proud, unfeeling, are so much stronger within our pieces of fiction.
I wrote a post a long time ago about not falling in love with our own characters; several people misunderstood what I meant. I meant that a creator must not be so in love with their creation that they view him or her through permanent rose-coloured spectacles, and make allowances and soften decisions the character makes, or actions he or she does. I do like my characters – I would almost go so far as to say I’m fond of some of them, but I must make them realistic with faults and errors of judgements and stupid decisions, and careless and even unkind behaviour. If I don’t give my ‘people’ many sides to their characters,different shades of motives and behaviours, then they will just seem cardboard cut-outs. Readers will fall out of sympathy with the characters even more quickly than their creator has fallen in love with them.
Back to Borgen… oh, heck, what is going to happen now? Have bridges been burned? has someone gone one step too far? back to series 2, episode 3!
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Lois Elsden 