First of all, the Bridge is interesting for the main characters. Swedish female detective Saga Noren seems to suffer from some kind of autism spectrum disorder: she hardly understands the principles of everyday communication of people, she has no friends and family, often she looks unemotional, does not understand humor and does not know how to lie. However, as is often the case in such cases, she has a high intellect and unconventional thinking that helps her to judge people more objectively: The saga is so psychologically different that it allows it to look at human nature. Thus, she manages to be a good detective, thanks in large part to her supervisor Hans, who treats her like a father and helps smooth out “sharp corners” in communicating with colleagues. At the beginning of the series, with her formalism and stubbornness, she and the viewer set themselves against themselves; but then you begin to sympathize with her.
Her partner, the Danish police officer Martin Rohde is the complete opposite of her. Cheerful, sociable, easily arousing people’s sympathy and trust, often allowing minor violations and abuses to solve cases more successfully. Martin has a large family and a lot of children, and not only from his wife ... in other words, he is a womanizer. Often very emotional and quick-tempered, contradictory and unstable in everything.
It is on the duet of these characters that the series is built. Their differences are aggravated by the fact that Saga is often characterized by more masculine character traits (workaholism, emotional callousness), and Martin is more female (incontinence, sudden mood changes), which in general creates a comic effect: brutal macho looks like a hysteria against the background of the Saga. The saga, however, amuses even more: as I mentioned, she does not know the notion of tactfulness, so, for example, she can easily ask the father of the murdered girl whether the deceased was filmed in porn. All these moments successfully underline the overall gloom of the series.
And the series is really very dark. All according to the canons of noir - everyone has skeletons in the closet, and even if justice prevails, then little will appear to anyone. The worst part is the innocent.
The first season is dedicated to the hunt for a terrorist maniac who commits violent and extremely inventive actions in order to draw public attention to social problems. The intensity of the plot is over 9000, the drive is not inferior to Hollywood blockbusters. And at the same time, the Scandinavians managed to weave an element of criminal drama into the dynamic main plot, really showing many social problems and contradictions.
The second season is not worse, but in part, like a cold shower on your head. The matter, firstly, in the changed characters - Martin, after the tragic denouement of the first season, became gloomy and even more hot-tempered, and Saga, for the first time in her life trying to seriously arrange her personal life, no longer walks with an eternal unflappable half-smile and increasingly frowns. Second, the end of the second season, despite the logic, turned out even more gloomy. Not that it's bad, but I want to ask the writers, "Brothers-Givds, why are you so much for them and us?" Third, again, just terrorists, this time environmentalists, and an entire organization. Yes, the background is different, but the impression remains that environmental terrorism is the number one security threat in Scandinavia. The second season is no worse than the first. It's just a pity that the characters have changed - Martin is no longer a loving jackass who believes in justice, and Saga is no longer a Terminator girl, a cheerful and immediate threat of crime. But what to do is realism, life breaks people.
The series' flaws. They're small and controversial, but there are. First, the main plot - it is paradoxically organically intertwined, as I mentioned, with dramatic lines showing the development of characters' personalities. Yes, the creators of the series managed to combine the incompatible – Scandinavian psychological drama and a thriller, the script of which seems to be borrowed from anime or an American blockbuster. But still, Imho, the main plot itself (in both seasons), is far from realism, and in the second season it is also grotesquely “epic” in scope. The question arises, by the way, why do the police in Sweden and Denmark deal with cases related to the international terrorist threat? Shouldn’t this case be taken away from them by some “people in black” (I don’t know what they call the security services there)? However, this is, of course, more interesting - I agree with the writers here.
Another funny observation is that the series is rather unsightly represented by the Danish police. If you look closely, then all violating the law and generally useless cops who appear in the frame are Danes. There are two lousy Swedish police officers, but one of them is half Danish and started in the Danish police, and the second is not a werewolf in epaulettes or even a criminal, but just a fool. I don’t care if I’m a Dane or a policeman, but I’d love to hear what the writers think. And then after watching does not get out of my mind the surprised exclamation of the Saga in one of the episodes of the first season: "So this is how the Danish police work!"
Well, the influence of David Fincher's thrillers, especially "Seven", can be seen with the naked eye.
But this is all irrelevant - no matter how paradoxical the design of the series, it works, "The Bridge" looks great, the main characters make you empathize, secondary - too, the plot is fascinating, the moral choice of the characters makes you spend hours scratching your head after watching the question of who is right, who is to blame, and how you would act in their place.
Summary: an excellent detective series with lively, memorable heroes, a gloomy atmosphere and a powerful plot. Special thanks to the actors: Sophia Helin for the courageous and fragile at the same time Saga Noren, and Kim Bondia for Martin Rode, who, despite all his shortcomings, tries to be a good person and defend justice. I am looking forward to the third season.
9 out of 10
Original