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The Bridge – Bron/Broen. A triumph of Writing. Direction. Characterisation. Cinematography. Editing. Acting

 

 

Saga

 

 

 

The Bridge – Bron/Broen

Writing. Direction. Characterisation. Cinematography. Editing. Acting. All first class and sustained.

Need I say more? It is much easier to generate drama and suspense during a thriller than to close it out satisfyingly. If The Bridge didn’t have the rare perfection of a Usual Suspects or a Sixth Sense it did a pretty impressive job. The drama of the final confrontation under the Bridge itself was redolent of Hitchcock at his best and the tension of the moment centred credibly on the characters we knew and from whom we expected a certain kind of response: and we were not disappointed.

I thought the beginnings of a kind of emotional empathy in Saga, driven by intelligence and the contradictions life and events throw up rather than instinct, was credible and touching. Occasionally one hears of someone described as “a dry old stick, but I’d trust him with my life”. Such a one is Saga: and locating these qualities in a woman and writing beautifully to that, was a triumph – of conception and a counter-balance to a ludicrous and always false assumption that such an emotional demeanour is characteristically male. As she drove away from the final scene and the end of the series – the one thing above all else we were left with was the desire to know what happens to her next. You can’t ask much more than that.

Nitpicking a bit – the cadence of the reveal was a bit rushed so we didn’t see the killer for long enough for his motivation etc to be fleshed out so it was a big ask for us to feel the full power of his evil. This was the only casting I wondered about – but menace can be culturally specific and perhaps this was what a distinctlyScandinavian serial killer might look and act like. The final episode narrative was therefore a bit rushed and dispensed with one key character a little bit easily I thought.

But what a great series! Another Scandinavian fascinating strong woman role to rival Sarah Lund and the prospect of at least one more series to come, maybe 2. Saturday nights will not be the same until the Saga saga returns.


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