Birgitte Nyborg is back. The facial features harder, the glasses bigger, the blouse buttoned all the way up. It’s been a while since the last season. Nine years to be exact. Now the Danish political series is entering a new round, and one can anticipate that: Sidse Babett Knudsen plays the high-performance politician better than ever.
The last three seasons, in which the games and souls of the powerful are examined, had been highly praised and received many awards. House of Cards wasn’t born yet and Kevin Spacey wasn’t canceled yet. As the first seasons of Borrow ran on Danish television, the American President was still called Barack Obama, and Donald Trump was an unsympathetic businessman. A lot has happened in the meantime.
Nyborg is now Foreign Minister and has to resolve a conflict with Greenland
In the new and fourth season, now on Netflix, the series is picking up steam. Nyborg is now no longer prime minister but foreign minister of Denmark. The kids are out of the house, the ex-husband is gray. “I’m glad I don’t have to work so much anymore,” he says. “I’m happy that I can work a lot without having to apologize,” she replies.
There is definitely a lot to do. The focus of the eight episodes is a conflict with Greenland. A drilling company has struck oil in the Arctic. The Greenlanders want to use the find for their independence, Nyborg doesn’t want that, and preferably no pipeline either. Because of the climate. At least at first.
Even if the small domestic politics in Christiansborg, the seat of government and parliament, which has characterized the past seasons, recedes into the background, Greenland is not a bad choice as a sideshow. The Arctic provides spectacular images, the conflict takes up current issues, including climate and identity crises. The new recruits from Greenland are also worthwhile: On the one hand there is the Greenlandic foreign minister (Svend Hardenberg), who prefers to negotiate over a sausage board at home and makes life difficult for Nyborg with his demands. And Nyborg’s Greenland ambassador (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard), who has read everything by polar explorer Knud Rasmussen, but has to deal with arctic soil for the first time because of his fear of flying.
But there are also constants. Star journalist Katrine Fønsmark (also great: Birgitte Hjort Sørensen), in between times Nyborg’s press officer, struggles with her new role as head of politics at the public broadcaster. Suddenly she is the middle-aged white woman who advises colleagues against pregnancy and gets shitstorms on Twitter for her leadership culture.
Nyborg is also struggling with age. That makes the series perhaps a little too obvious. Sometimes she pulls a hair from her chin, sometimes she dries her armpits with paper towels. Got it, the Secretary of State is going through the menopause. “I’m 53, I’m divorced, I’m alone,” she once analyzed. “After all, I have a subscription to a flower delivery service.”
In the past, Nyborg – despite skillful intrigues – mostly remained the beam woman. This is different now. At the latest when she crawls across the office floor after two bottles of wine and makes her political arch-enemy a consultant, a bit of Frank Underwood can also be felt in Birgitte Nyborg. “I’ve never seen her so aggressive,” Fønsmark says of her. Nyborg doesn’t want to lose her position at all costs, preferring to embarrass her son on television.
“You’re not yourself anymore, Birgitte,” accuses her at the end of the party deputy. “Yes, but I adapt to the circumstances,” she replies. The main protagonist leaves the role of super sympathetic. that does Borrow pretty good.
Borgen: Power and Glory, out June 2 on Netflix.
You can find more series recommendations here.