Three Cheers for The Bridge!! And then a long one.

The Bridge Series 2: Episodes 3 and 4

It takes me until the third episode to realise the similarity between gang leader mad Mads and actor of 3^rd Rock From the Sun and Brick Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  He also looks like someone else but I just can’t quite put my finger on it.

We begin this week with the stolen tanker which ended last week’s episode 2, among a lot of new looking cars.  When a (I think) security guard goes to look at it he spots a bomb attached the dashboard and as he begins to run, it causes a big explosion.  More great cinematography here as the shot pans out to the explosion from far off.  (Just how did they film that I wonder?).

Seems a bit weird for a group of eco terrorists to be blowing up a petrol tanker, but anyway.

Rasmus is still trying to get Saga’s attention in the police station, a theme continued from the previous episodes.  When searching for a match from cctv, he thinks he spots one and decides to investigate on his own.  Partly, I expect, because he knows he won’t get to go if he tells Saga and Martin and partly to impress Saga. Predictably, this goes spectacularly wrong and he ends up with mace in the eyes and loses not one, but two of the gang.  Kattis, who was the one he recognised, and Mathilde who just happened to be going there at the same time, escape.

New characters this week are Caroline, her husband and her sister Bodil, who is probably having an affair with her brother-in-law.  Where do they fit into this?  As I said in last week’s blog, we often have no idea where characters fit into the story and the scriptwriters aren’t telling us yet.  Caroline, at the behest of her sister, hires a male prostitute and then backs out.  This after her husband buys her a breast enlargement as a birthday present.  Bit of a boob there.

Saga is her usual excellent self, although there wasn’t enough of her and Martin for me this week.  The sex theme continues as Saga asks Martin who he is having sex with and when he says nobody, she asks how he is coping as he used to have sex all the time with loads of people.  She also tells her colleague that “Jakob is good at having sex. He does as I say.”

Another baddie, Julian and brother of Mathilde is also the boss of Laura, the schoolgirl who got her teacher sacked for having a lesbian affair with her.  She is also the daughter of the man who had filmed her in her boat when the ship (Saga managed to correct the father that this was still a ship, not a boat again.)

Our 4 original gang members are killed off at the end of episode 3, murdered by the “higher ups”, in what was supposed to look like a mass suicide.  Episode 4 showed that the gang were placed in a container all holding hands with a sign in the middle of them, but Saga quickly proved it was murder.

So we didn’t know who had done it at all, even though it was clear there was someone in charge.

Linus, brother of dead reluctant gang member Niklas, finds out about the death on TV via the hapless Rasmus and inexplicably, Saga is the one sent to speak to him.  She inadvertently says the right thing and gets a hug from the distraught teen.  The director missed a trick here, not showing Saga’s confused expression.

Our heroes are quickly on to Julian and  he uses Laura to film a meeting with his contact.  Julian is taken out (dead?  His body was taken) and then Laura is shot but not dead and Saga and Martin recover the memory card from the camera, although the footage is unlikely to be of much use.

Martin starts to fall back into his old ways kissing colleague Pernille, but manages to stop himself.  Must be a bit easier knowing his infidelities led to his son dying.  He continues to go and visit series one baddie in prison and I’m still not sure why.

Saga struggles to concentrate when boyfriend Jakob visits her at work and gets rid of him pretty quickly.  What exactly is in the relationship for him?  She also undoes her trousers when left in a meeting room alone. (Which Martin turns the light out on when he leaves).  Is she pregnant?

We leave tonight’s episodes with an unknown baddie laying out the four animal masks ready for the next set of gang members.

Going along nicely, but please don’t start getting predictable!

Issues:

• The Scandinavians still have no idea how the tune of ‘Happy Birthday’ goes.
• How on earth did Rasmus manage to identify Kattis from the cctv pic with other photos?  I thought it was a bloke in the former.
• Was Niklas really 23??  He must have had a paper round on both sides of the bridge.
• This week’s words seemed to include “braw” which appears to mean good (which I expect is more bra) and also “I cannae”.  It would seem the similarities between Scotland and Scandinavia are more than first thought.
• Still on words, have our subtitling friends taken a bit of a liberty using the words “dunno” and “scooch” tonight?  I’m not convinced these are things you would hear on Malmo High Street.
• Seemed very obvious that the Malmo Four were being led to their end at the close of episode 3 and also that Julian was consigned to a similar fate at the end of episode 4.  I hope it isn’t getting predictable.
• Did we really have to see Jakob in his pants for the second week in a row?
• The sign between the dead gang read “The fight don’t end”.  Sigh and indeed, tut.
• Saga took a picture of then dead Mathilde with her own phone.  Is this called a deadfie?
• Do you think Caroline’s husband was the one flashing the car lights as Julian was taken out and that was why he lied about his plane being delayed?
• It’s nice to see Amir of the Green Party in Borgen still doing commendable work.
• It’s also a shame that Ruth Hedeby, boss of Brix in The Killing has now just become a sex mad sister.
• I know Scandinavia has a reputation as being quite liberal about sex, but talking about hiring a male prostitute loudly in a cafe?
• Did the budget for lovely scarves get completely used up in Borgen?