7. The Bridge
When the lights come up on the Øresund Bridge after a sudden blackout, a body is found directly in-between the two countries it connects, and thus begins The Bridge, my favourite Scandi-noir and favourite non-English language show in general. Soon after, we're introduced to Saga Norén and Martin Rohde, two detectives haunted by past tragedies and united by some strange kinship neither of them fully understand. It's got everything I love about Scandanavian crime shows- troubled protagonists, twisted crime plots, a thick atmosphere- but the beauty of The Bridge comes from how it takes all of these elements and weaves them together to create a deeply affecting parable about the lengths we go to fight monsters, and the affect that has on the human spirit
It came out when Scandi-noir was at its absolute peak, with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo remake arriving shortly after to bring the style to the mainstream, but I've never seen a purer or more passionate take on the conventions of this kind of story than this one. The plots are intricate, dark and devastating, rooting themselves in the poison of the human heart and doling out some serious tragedy. The mysteries are wicked and compelling, and each one of them buries its reveals perfectly. It's impossible to ever call any of the stories here until the very last minute, and The Bridge excels in delivering some of the most shocking twists in all of television. Even when the mystery has been solved and everything looks to be winding down, the shows knows how to twist the knife and make sure that nothing is ever entirely clean or painless. If you think there's ever going to be an entirely happy ending here, think again
It's quite possibly the darkest show on this list, with a foreboding, nearly suffocating atmosphere that threatens to swallow the characters at any moment, and an unflinching look at the horrors of the human mind that borders on total nihilism. The evils of the world are laid bare, and every psychopath faced by Saga and Martin- and his eventual replacement Henrik- shows us a part of the human psyche that revels in doling out a twisted and amoral version of how the world should be. It's frequently disturbing watching some of the properly nasty and horrific things that these characters do to shape the world into what they feel like it should be, whether it's using murder to draw attention to society's ills, unleashing a plague, turning horrific acts of cruelty into grisly works of art or recreating executions to mirror the evils of the system that failed them. The violence is extreme, but it always drives the main idea of the show: the world is chaos and impossible to control, and those who try to enact some sort of order on it are the exact force that will usher in our eventual destruction
It borders on the apocalyptic, as the world's values are eroded and every line is crossed. It's often exhausting to watch, but never impossible, because as warped and fucked up as the evils of the world are, by pushing back and fighting against them, we have to be doing something right. Cruelty and evil are dominating, all-consuming forces that are constantly encouraging us to give in, to let them reign so that the world can go to hell, but by showing that these things aren't unstoppable and can end, The Bridge is doling out hope slowly and carefully. It's not an optimistic show by any stretch of the imagination, but it knows that showing us the world at its worst is the best way to argue why any of it is worth protecting at all. The nihilism is constant, but when love or warmth struggles out from under it, there are few shows that are more profoundly emotional. Good doesn't always win in this show, but when it does, it really feels like the endless winter is a little closer to ending
The chaos even extends to the heroes: Martin's a mild-mannered family man who progressively starts to struggle with the animal within, Henrik is haunted by the ghosts of his past, and not always in a metaphorical way, and Saga's cool, controlled demeanor belies deep seeded pain that constantly threatens to rise to the surface. They're all damaged in some way, bent out of shape and unable to make themselves understood to anyone except for each other. They fight to uphold a system that is constantly ripping chunks out of them, but they fight all the same because the alternative is so much worse. They're incredibly flawed characters, but each one could have a claim to being among the best put to TV, especially Saga. Sofia Helin's performance borders on transcendent as an autistic detective, constantly facing down the worst of the human race. It's a nuanced, compassionate portrayal, refusing to define Saga by her disorder or treat it as either an obstacle or a superpower, instead painting it as what it really is: just another part of her life. It's a breath of fresh air in a sea of misrepresentation
And while they're all great individually, the real strength of The Bridge is how it plays them off each other. Saga and Martin's friendship is pure perfection as she brings stability to his steadily unravelling life, while he keeps her connected to a world that's trying its damndest to exclude her. It's a friendship built on mutual trauma but its no less affecting for it, and the chemistry that Kim Bodnia and Sofia Helin have together sells the warmth, humour and tragedy that their overlapping arcs are governed by. It's such a good dynamic that I really started to dread Martin's departure in the third season. Could Henrik really be a fitting replacement? The answer is obviously not, so the writer's didn't even try. Where Martin was Saga's tether against the chaos of the world, Henrik is kind of like her partner in self-inflicted destruction. They've both been through absolute hell by the time they meet each other, and the connection they forge through the pain is precisely what makes them capable of saving a society that is increasingly trying to give up on them. The change in partners reflects the shift in the show's worldview, where trying to maintain control gives into embracing and negotiating chaos, and so the show never jumps the shark, instead tying it into a weary jadedness that is progressively beginning to give in to growing hope
Of all of the shows on this list, its the one that's probably the least-talked about, and that's a damn shame. There's been no shortage of cop thrillers on TV but none of them match Hans Rosenfelt's punchy and poetic tale of a world going to hell and the unlikely heroes who are just disturbed enough to stop it. It's frequently draining and devastating but always knows when to reveal its wounded heart to keep the audience onside and remind us that there's enough good in the world to keep fighting for. It's tragic and disturbing and cyncial and teeming with real horror, but it knows that as long as there's evil in the world, there's always going to be good that can rise to meet it. Amen to that
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