The start of the third week of November 2013 commenced well with finishing Borgen part two before reminding myself of the first three seasons of the Boardwalk Empire before watching the fourth episode of the fourth season and then watching the last three powerful episodes of season one Borgen, after watching an excellent edition of Bargain hunt, catching up on World and domestic.
So now I can devote my time to the last three episodes of season 1 Borgen which were powerfully moving and moved the series from been very very good to exceptional and without doubt the most outstanding political series todate.
The 8th episodes commences with the summer vacation for parliamentarians but not for Minister’s and their Civil servants. Birgitte is determined to have a break with the family as the difficulties between the couple and with their children begin to mount.. Because of the problems with security the decision is taken to take the family to the official weekend and holiday residence which the Prime Minister has never used. This is a large country house with many bedrooms rather like Chequers with the British Prime Minister uses for weekend house parties, an establishment which is full staff and with leisure facilities in secure seclusion. However the post nosh fails to impress the children who want Pepsi or a burger and chips and to be able to out to the pictures or the beach as any other family.
Meanwhile back at the ranch so to speak Kasper is facing two major problems. The first concerns the publication by the former labour leader of his political memoirs and which is suspected to concern the sexual behaviour of former leading politicians in the opposition coalition parties, targets including Bent, Birgitte’s trusted adviser and supporter, the Minister of Finance. If I remember correctly his affair was with a leading member of another party, sometime back. There are also accusations of homosexuality at the Minister of Justice despite his marriage and children. Kasper’s advice which the Prime Minister follows is to say nothing to the media and for the Ministers concerned to take no action. She appears on TV saying that it is a trivial matter part of the summer silly season.
However this cannot be said for the questions to Kasper and the receipts about the use of the Minister’s credit card to bail out his wife from an embarrassing situation at the store. He makes the point that two days before his death he had given the receipts to his media adviser to fix the position with the Expenses people, how so did Kasper get hold of the information? Kasper had spent the week trying to get hold of an advance copy of the book having learned that it had been released for ten journalists in preparation for publication day, he had tracked down who had the copy at the TV1 station and approached his former colleagues for help which was appropriately rejected.
Katrine had now realised that her former boyfriend must have gained access when he went to the flat to clear up after she had found her lover dead beside her when she woke in the morning. This immediately soured relations between the two and she did not believe when he tried to explain that on top of everything his father had died.
Previously Katrine had complained that although Kasper and met her parents and other family members she had never met his mother and father who he alleged had alive in Southern France for the previous couple of decades. He also tells Katrine that his mother had committed suicide/died when he was twelve years old. He learns the information when she manages to see him at the office and he is prepared to organise the undertaker but nothing else. He tells the undertakers that he wants a cremation service and an unmarked grave as quickly as it can be arranged. Back at the house he remembers his room and that at the age of twelve (it is assumed) his mother had to go away for a few days and his father had sexual abused him.
When Katrine finds out about the funeral she attends and find that she is the only other person there but Kasper subsequently refuses to explain why he does not want to talk about the matter other than saying his father was a coward and not a nice man.
In relation to the receipts he goes on TV refusing to disclose how he came by them on the grounds that being a good journalist one did not reveal sources and that he had taken the information to Birgitte who had said she was not interested and then to the Labour man because he felt strongly the matter should be investigation by the appropriate authorities. He had resigned and not sacked.
Because she is required to attend to political business the holiday does not go as well as the family hopes and when the daughter is about to miss a party friends they return. Because her son develops the problem of wetting himself she visits the school as a parent not as Prime Minister and he make the point that the boy may be reacting to changed atmosphere in the home and ask pointedly if her husband is happy with the situation that he finds himself in so when she poses the same question his answer confirms that her is not and that on issues is his dissatisfaction with being an academic lecturer rather than a functioning role in the business world he teaches.
Another indication that the relationship is fracturing is over sex where during the early part of the holiday she is interested but is not finding their situation has become mechanical and she admits the situation as the first time in a month she had felt inclined, because by the time I joined the series in the second season they were divorced this aspect did not have the same level of emotional impact as it would first time round, but the situation was emotionally affect such is quality of script, the direction and the acting.
This however is the beginning of the powerful emotional impact of the last three episodes with the eighth appearing to be about an aircraft contract where the price of the selected render goes up by a significant amount of Krone before it is signed. Because of this Birgitte attempts to find out about the planes that are under consideration leaving Bent among those coming to the aid of the Defence Minister saying the PM had to take the broad view, not create encumbrances for her Ministerial colleague and avoid getting embroiled in the details of a contract.
The first problem is when the media get hold of the information that the Defence Minister has been taken all expenses paid shooting trip in Scotland by the company winning the contract and he and the defence people plays this down saying it is part and parcel of the multi million process assuring her there is nothing else to find. However Katrine is persistent and manages to talk to the field sports person at the hotel where the Minister stayed and learns that he received an expensive present of a shooting gun within his personal name engraved and worth a quarter of a million krone. When this is raised with him on TV he pretends that the present was handed into the Ministry as is required when expensive presents are received after he realised its value. However he admits to Birgitte that this was only as soon as he realised the significance. The Minister gets to keep his job and the government survives again.
However this is not the position of the husband of the Prime Minister. He is head hunted and accepts the appointment as Chief executive officers of a company which the personal research undertaken by Birgitte reveals will gain a little as a subsidiary to the main contract, one of many Danish firms in this multi country produced fighter plane. She consults the appropriate official who advise that in the circumstances and because the appointment is being made long after the negotiations commenced the involvement is not a problem. It will be remembered that the husband has already been forced to sell environmental friendly wind turbine shares at a loss because of the contract that was to have been signed by the President of the former Soviet republic.
Unfortunately the renewed fuss because of the gun present means the media is scouring every nook and cranny to find evidence of corruption on the part of the coalition and she is told it would not be appropriate for the husband to take up the appointment. He is angry and devastated and when she insists he walks out of the household and there is no contact for several days.. She begins to think that he is involved with someone and goes to the home of the student who appeared to be interested in him only to find that she is in bed with another student. She is very lucky and the girl chooses not to go to the media about the situation.
The husband returns and admits that he has been spending the time with someone.
In the last episode of the first season, the first year in office is coming to an end and Birgitte is preparing to make the annual address of the Prime Minister to Parliament and she puts her heart and soul into the address which such a great success in terms of its appeal to patriotism and duty that she wins the praise of the former Prime Minister and also from the candidate on the extreme right and it has the desired effect of helping to bring unity and common purpose back to a country which has become overtly materialistic and divided.
She now dresses as a power woman and the strains and loneliness and isolation of her position has become all too apparent. In order to gain ongoing support from the Labour Party of the coalition she has been forced to replace her trusted friend and ally Bent with someone of their nomination. It is Bent who after all has throughout reminded her that in the position she cannot have political friends and must be prepared to hire and fire according to the needs the country, her Party and holding her position.
The great blow has been the decision of her husband to seek a divorce, despite her having offered that he could have erotic involvements which she could not provide as long as these were kept discrete.
Earlier having initiated her new policy of Government openness following the problems in relation to the Ministry of defence, she had insisted that everyone publish their diary of meetings, gifts and expenses etc just as she had previously insisted that Minister should not appear on TV, hold press conferences or issue press releases without these being cleared by Kasper who in effect becomes a Director of Communications.
When working late preparing for the speech and become attracted to Sanne the inefficient but kindly secretary who the head of the civil service has claimed he has been unable to move because of the pressure from her Trade union. Kasper has already been warned the Civil service chief of that age old saying about not doing beauties on your own doorstep. After they are caught together Kasper is warned again that having a secretary crying all the time is not something that will be tolerated and he has to cool it making the point that if it was up to him and their situation was different etc... The girl is also moved but this also only reinforces the sense of isolation in which Birgitte finds herself.
Testing out the new openness regime TV 1 wants top do a fly on the wall documentary about the Coalition government works and which will also include the family life of the Prime Minister. Because of the deteriorating situation at home Birgitte realises that they will not be able to go ahead unless there is editorial control over the scenes in the family home and she persuades Kasper to go to the head of the TV station with the request. Kasper plays a good game saying that another TV station has offered to do the programme on this basis and reluctantly the station agrees having previously trailed the development and also having appointed Katrine to undertake the task at the request of Kasper. She had been sent on leave for four weeks after her last bout of defiance and could not come back unless she was willing to be a team player. She was considering not returning hence the request by Kasper obviously feeling he owed her after causing the break up with the boyfriend and she supported him over the death of his father.
When the team member whose nose was put out of joint by the return of Katrine. discovers Kasper involved in the editing of the part involving the home visit which provide a clear insight how something would could appear half hearted or negative is turned into a positive moment by switching the context, he advises Katrine who storms in and resigns on principle. What she does not know and does not give Kasper time to explain is that the Prime had to pull out of allowing any part of the home interview to be shown. The husband had been so affected by having to put on a show that he had spent the whole night in his car rather than go and see a girlfriend. He and decided that his wife had become a very different person from who he had married and he did not want to participate in the continuation of what he saw as the destruction of their relationship, he wanted to keep alive the good experience which they had had..
There are those who will not understand the brilliance which others attach to this programme and there will those where the programme will have struck many deep and painful chords.
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