"The Bridge" - Season 4 on BBC2

[Nick Armstrong]

Totally agree Rumpole which I find worrying ........your AA needs you...it's French...

Your wish is my lobster, antonio

I do find Martin's reactions to Saga's 'syndrome' responses amusing (indeed, they seem to play it for laughs a bit more - a tad less subtle than last series, perhaps) - it's almost all he can do sometimes not to do a double-take to camera...

[Stunsworth]

...and the connection with the eponymous Bridge more tenuous save for the first few minutes...

A weekly 2 hour date, for sure

I always assumed that the 'Bridge' was metaphorical - Danish and Swedish police working together - as well as literal. Whatever, the first two episodes were excellent. Looking forward to this weekend's episodes.

[Nick Armstrong]

I always assumed that the 'Bridge' was metaphorical - Danish and Swedish police working together - as well as literal

Yes, I suppose so... Hadn't thought of it like that.... and also perhaps about the 'bridge' being established between Martin's and Saga's very different characters and inner worlds...

[amateur51]

Yes, I suppose so... Hadn't thought of it like that.... and also perhaps about the 'bridge' being established between Martin's and Saga's very different characters and inner worlds...

The tintinnabulation of falling coinage amidst the purring of contented ocelots

[Nick Armstrong]

The tintinnabulation of falling coinage amidst the purring of contented ocelots

Third shredded wheat this morning, ams??!

[Nick Armstrong]

For passionate followers and would-be stalkers, both 'Saga' and 'Martin' will be in London for the two day Nordicana Festival in February - along with 'Kaspar Juul' and 'Birgitte' from Borgen, Calum...

sauce goose gander etc

Details here:

http://nordicnoir.tv/nordicana/

(it's in the wilds of the East End - The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL

[Nick Armstrong]

Just caught up with the Guardian review. Pretty much sets out my thoughts too.


Unfeeling ice queen Saga and grief-stricken Martin: what a brilliant double act
Sam Wollaston

The Guardian, Monday 6 January 2014

Right now we're pretty bloody good here at smartarse (Sherlock), hardarse (Luther), cold slab (Silent Witness), history boys in blue (Ripper Street RIP). But for a dark, brooding, character-led crime thriller that sucks you in and down like a whirlpool, keeps you up at night, puzzling, worrying, maybe even worrying that you're somehow involved yourself, then you're still better off looking east, to Scandinavia.

Good news then: The Bridge (BBC4, Saturday) is back. The same bridge – the beautiful Oresund bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden (again this is a collaboration between the two countries); new case. A coaster, the Faxborg, steaming up the strait veers off track. The bridge (other sort) is deserted. Down in the hold, five young people lie chained up; they appear to have been drugged and are sick. Boom, the ship collides with the bridge.

Porsche-driving ice queen Saga Noren is soon on the scene. She enlists her old partner Martin Rohde, crushed still by the death of his son. At the beginning of the first series I worried that The Bridge didn't have the humanness of The Killing, the same sense of personal tragedy and loss. That came, though, with the terrible death of Martin's son. Now he is a shadow of a man, stuck in a hopeless cycle of useless therapy, endlessly lapping the swimming pool at the soulless hotel where he lives (he's separated from his wife), haunted by the face of his son's killer. Saga's reentry into his life is a welcome distraction.

She's still the star. Not lovely like Sarah Lund but weird, unfeeling, blunt, and also vulnerable. Sometimes the she's-clearly-somewhere-on-the-spectrum stuff is a bit overdone, to the point of hamminess, but funny too – The Bridge might be bleak but it's not without its laughs. Oh, and she has a boyfriend now, an actual live live-in one, though she has no idea how to behave with him. Of course that's part of her attraction – to him, to the viewer.

Saga and Martin are a brilliant if unlikely double act, a mix of steel and shambles, feeling nothing and feeling too much, calculation and empathy, misunderstanding but now mutual respect.

It's beautiful to look at, in a gloomy way, of course. Does the sun never come out over there, even for a minute? Are there really no primary colours? Even Saga's lovely Porsche is a muddy mustard colour …

It's a brilliant case too. A bunch of out of control eco-terrorists, enraged at the impact humans are having on the environment, is on a killing spree – poisoning, drugging, introducing pneumonic plague, plotting big bangs. Plus there are twists and subplots about the lives of the gang members, and the people trying to catch them, their families and children. It's murky, swirling, dark and dangerous – like the water in that strait when the tide is in full flow, the tide that pushes the Faxborg and its sinister cargo on to The Bridge. And – also like that water, I imagine – once you're in, it's very hard to get out again. I'm very in.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

oh dear that picture has got me collies all wobbled .... now if she was going to be there i fancy Brick Lane would be totally overwhelmed by old geezers with pot bellies and bald heads throwing themselves at the feet of the divine beauty .... or something like that ..





i find the new season of The Bridge as excellent as the first; however two episodes in and i would take nothing for granted yet - the web is still being spun and what looks like snow may indeed be summat else [or eco warrior & C]

[Stunsworth]

It seems A A Gill in The Times doesn't like it...

Another modern emotionally dysfunctionai detective coupiling has returned too,

with The Bridge. he's a messy avuncular Danish detective,she's a cold Swedish one stuck up some autistic spectrum.Each is a cartoon of their national character as drawn by the other.

And That's a funny idea.The first series was marvellous,the first episode of the second series couldn't

have been more disappointing. It wasn't just dull - it was depressing and dull ,as if it had decided to make a TV show based on the cartoonish stereotypes that the rest of Europe has about Scandinavia.

Never has a second series been so comprehensively hoist by it's own conceit.

Not that I'll lose any sleep over that.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

murdoch hack eh

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... but isn't the point (well, one of them, anyway) that Saga very definitely isn't "unfeeling" and/or "cold"? Her comments & behaviour just wouldn't walk that tightrope between "comedy" (not the right word, really) and pathos if she were.

[Anna]

I'm glad The Guardian (and other) reviews have mentioned Saga's somewhere-on-the-syndrome being greatly exaggerated in Series 2. From being rather endearing I think it has become overplayed and rather irritating. However, that's just me I expect.

There also seems to be more emphasis on sex. I wonder if Caroline's husband is sleeping with her sister? (as for Claudio the male escort!) Is Rasmus seriously dim? Will Martin refuse yet another offer? Is Jakob as strange as his underwear? Is the Mother of Three now the Mother of Two It's ok but not a patch on Series 1.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm glad The Guardian (and other) reviews have mentioned Saga's somewhere-on-the-syndrome being greatly exaggerated in Series 2. From being rather endearing I think it has become overplayed and rather irritating. However, that's just me I expect.

Interesting that you should say this, Anna; last night, for the first time I did notice that I felt I was being expected to laugh at the situation more than I was in the first series. I wouldn't call it "greatly exaggerated", and I don't find it either "irritating" or "endearing" - but the precise balance between "heartbreaking and hilarious" isn't as effective this season, I feel. It's very clearly gone over too far onto the "comic relief" side of the formula.

There also seems to be more emphasis on sex. I wonder if Caroline's husband is sleeping with her sister? (as for Claudio the male escort!) Is Rasmus seriously dim? Will Martin refuse yet another offer? Is Jakob as strange as his underwear? Is the Mother of Three now the Mother of Two It's ok but not a patch on Series 1.

I wondered about Caroline's sister and her husband, too - but the bloke is so wet, I'm astonished anybody would want to get into a bed with him without incontinency sheets - although somebody obviously is.

But I think the plot is terrific - I never expected the denoument at the end of the first of last night's double bill, nor, for that matter that at the end of the second. I wonder if there are three cells (of terrorists) that the "mother-of" is "-of"?

[Stunsworth]

Caroline's sister in the Mrs Big character IMHO. You heard it here first, and it wouldn't be surprised if I'm totally wrong.

Then again, i thought Caroline's husband's insistence that his plane was delayed was very suspicious. Most online services, which is what Caroline used, are based on actual data.

[Nick Armstrong]

Interesting that you should say this, Anna; last night, for the first time I did notice that I felt I was being expected to laugh at the situation more than I was in the first series. I wouldn't call it "greatly exaggerated", and I don't find it either "irritating" or "endearing" - but the precise balance between "heartbreaking and hilarious" isn't as effective this season, I feel. It's very clearly gone over too far onto the "comic relief" side of the formula.

Yes, I felt that straight away

I do find Martin's reactions to Saga's 'syndrome' responses amusing (indeed, they seem to play it for laughs a bit more - a tad less subtle than last series, perhaps) - it's almost all he can do sometimes not to do a double-take to camera...

Still gripped though... (and reeling from above observations about Caroline's sister and Jakob's pants... ). The set up about the wet husband did make one think: so it's not him then....