I started watching Borgen. After the first episode, I have mixed feelings, so I'll focus on what bothered me. From the initial reference to Machiavelli, I understand—or at least assume—that the show aims to explore how power affects a person’s moral integrity. Fair enough. Personally, though, I’m not that interested in the psychological and character-driven aspects of a political drama, since I don’t find them useful lenses through which to view politics. Nor do I want to watch a political drama for its characters. But fine, I accept that this is the show’s approach.
The second issue is the series of coincidences in the pilot. I get that the goal is to put a morally upright (and, let me add, naïve—more on that later) person in power out of nowhere, but it overdoes it. The narrative structure feels a bit shaky. Still, I’ll roll with it—it’s the show’s premise, the necessary break from reality that kickstarts the story.
The third and most significant issue for me is the protagonist as a politician. I understand that the show wants to present her as a decent, approachable woman with moral integrity, who takes on her role as the leader of the Moderates with honesty and a genuine desire to serve her country. I get that, in principle, I disagree with centrism as a political stance—trying to blend policies from across the spectrum—but that’s not what bothers me here. It’s not that I want full nationalization of the means of production and the show is making me watch a Keynesian, for example. If that were the case, I’d actually find it very interesting.
What bothers me—and what I struggle to ignore—is the depoliticization of politics. We hear the protagonist speak with staggering naïveté, offering no substantial proposals beyond rejecting the policies of the two major parties (Labour and Liberals) and vaguely championing something "new" without ever defining what that means. At the same time, an overwhelming amount of focus is placed on her personal life, as if politics is primarily about personalities and lifestyle choices. Given all this, I find it very hard to see her as a pure and principled politician who will be corrupted by the system.
Despite my complaints, the show as a whole draws me in. I love political dramas, and they’re hard to come by.
So I’ll give it a shot.