how many pacts with the devil can one make?

When the first episode of the Danish political drama series Secure On September 26, 2010, Denmark, with a parliamentary system very similar to that of the Netherlands, had a male prime minister. Now there’s the Netflix premiere of Borgen – Power & Glory (but we can also Deposit 4 say), nearly a decade after we parted ways with the fictional Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg (the wonderful Sidse Babett Knudsen). And in the meantime, the Danes are already ready for their second female prime minister. As a reminder, except for two weeks, the Netherlands had Mark Rutte as Prime Minister all this time.

Does one have anything to do with the other? In any case, the fictional first female prime minister, so unforgettable in all her determination and uncertainty, was not a bad role model for any politician. The first two seasons in particular meant an international breakthrough for the Danish drama, with a number of actors who we would also see far beyond the national borders.

Secure was always at his best mixing the personal and political life of the people at Christiansborg (say the Danish Binnenhof). Screenwriter Adam Price made sure that it never became a soap opera, but that there was a solid line about how politicians in a parliamentary democracy should compromise, and perhaps set aside their personal views.

the excellent Borgen – Power & Glory is a collaboration between Danish television and Netflix, and while it helps to know the histories of some of the characters, this eight-episode season can also be watched on its own. Played the first seasons of Secure is mainly in the corridors of Danish politics, in this new season, still by the very skilful hand of Price, the drama is lifted on an international stage. While also introducing a number of exciting new characters, culminating in Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, as the Danish ambassador to Greenland. The way he loses his heart to the wrong person at the wrong time is worth a series in itself.

Birgitte Nyborg is now foreign minister (in the cabinet of a new female prime minister), divorced, mother of two grown children and in an ongoing struggle with the menopause, which has in store for her some undiplomatic temperament changes. Another acquaintance from the earlier series, former information officer and journalist Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) is appointed chief of news of the Danish television news in the first episode. Both stories form a kind of parallel narrative about media leadership and politics in times of social media. The politician reluctantly converts to Instagram and the journalist is pilloried on Twitter and Facebook.

In the first episode, a major international issue arises when a huge oil field is found beneath Greenland (formerly a Danish colony, but still connected by an umbilical cord), akin to the find that made neighboring Norway one of the richest countries. has made in the world. Price masterfully masters all the sensitivities surrounding this issue, from the relationship with the 50,000 original inhabitants of that vast empty land, to the superpowers who want to control everything in their hunt for raw materials.

Bigger budget and bigger palette, but here too every dilemma is traced back to Birgitte Nyborg’s struggle with herself; how many pacts with the devil can one actually make? No one better than Sidse Babett Knudsen to embody the politician and mother who balances between ideals and brutal reality.