Since 2013, fans have had to wait for it. Now the globally successful Danish series “Borgen” continues and is shockingly topical. An important audience favorite is no longer there.
In Greenland people are celebrating and in Copenhagen the problems are starting. A gigantic oil find on the world’s largest island is the starting signal for the long-awaited fourth season of the Danish political series “Borgen” with the subtitle “Power and Glory”.
Almost ten years have passed. Since Thursday, Netflix has finally continued. The cards have been completely reshuffled.
Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is now in her early 50s and the Danish foreign minister. According to her government’s beautiful facade, she forms a dynamic team with the new prime minister, who is around ten years her junior. “The future is female”, cheer magazines. Behind the scenes, however, the intrigues are more abysmal than ever. Because Nyborg quickly makes enemies with her strict and uncompromising rejection of oil production in one of the most sensitive ecosystems.
Prime Minister Signe Kragh (Johanne Louise Schmidt) feels her competence has been cut off and forces the minister into public humiliation. There is also a sharp headwind from Greenland: The autonomous region is hoping for astronomical income and does not want to be dictated by the former colonial power Denmark. As if all the trouble wasn’t enough, the politician is still dealing with the hot flashes of menopause.
Meanwhile, the journalist Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sorensen) has made a career. She becomes the head of the news department on television and soon extends her elbows.
The new sympathizer of season four is Asger Holm Kirkegaard (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard), who has to travel to Greenland as the new Arctic Ambassador despite his fear of flying. In the freezing cold, he has to conduct negotiations and get details about the oil drilling project.
It quickly turns out that it is not only about raw materials, but also about world politics. Russians are involved in the drilling consortium. “Borgen” has its finger on the pulse of the times, the Ukraine war has already broken out in the series. More and more Birgitte Nyborg gets caught between the fronts and gets caught up in her own intrigues.
“Borgen” offers intelligent suspense, and one can be thankful that showrunner Adam Price scrapped his plans to end the format with season three. Netflix has landed a coup by securing the series. So far it has been shown on Arte in Germany.
No longer there is the big crowd favorite Pilou Asbæk, who in the previous 29 “Borgen” episodes fabulously demonically played the windy political advisor Kasper Juul. The Dane went into politics in real life and enrolled in the Social Democrats that rule his country. As a member, the actor wants to fight the party’s restrictive refugee policy from within.
