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The Bridge Season 4 – The finale is here, and note that this review assumes you’ve seen seasons 1-3!
Yes, for me, this is the pinnacle of Nordic Noir drama. Well, this and Braquo, but that came to an end after four seasons, and this has done so, too. I guess there’s only so far you can go with the characters before things start repeating themselves too much. Still, it’s better to have four great seasons than four great seasons and a few rubbish ones. Season 4 continues the trend where everything runs much deeper than you originally thought, and that’s the beauty of this show.
Clearly a bit of time has passed since season 3, as by-the-book butter-wouldn’t-melt but slightly-crazy Saga (Sofia Helin) is in jail for bumping off her mother. While she’s in the clink, her former partner Henrik (Thure Lindhardt) is out on manoeuvres trying to piece together the brutal murder of Margarette Thormod, the female director of the Immigration Board, who was stoned to death.
Meanwhile, there’s a woman called Sofie, who, together with her son Christoffer, are having to constantly move homes forreasons which will be explained in due course; and Henrik’s cop partner, Jonas, is as homophobic as they come, since he constantly refers to one suspect as “the homo”. Don’t cops in Denmark have any diversity training, or do they take their cue from our Tory party?
I love how Saga choose pottery as a prison hobby, because it doesn’t involve interaction with other inmates, but the question everyone wants answering is, that given her situation, how will they get the band back together? Well, the connections that tie Denmark and Sweden will soon be revealed.
Oh, but what happened to the plotline teased at the end of season 3, with Henrik and Saga trying to find his young children? Well, that is also addressed, so be patient.
In fact, the way all the strands of plot weave together – and at the start, how you can see more of them doing so in the coming episodes – is still such a joy to watch, and while there’s plenty I could say about it, I’d just be revealing how it plays out from start to finish – which would negate the point in watching it. So, on Friday night, get it watched!
The Bridge Season 4 is now complete, and aired on BBC2, each Friday at 9pm, so it’s had a promotion from BBC4 but, sadly, since it aired on a weeknight, it was only shown at the rate of one episode per week rather than the usual two. Why didn’t the BBC put them all on the iPlayer? That was hinted at in the trailer, since it stated both “BBC TWO” and “BBC iPlayer”, and they’ve done this before with dramas like The City and The City.
Doing this weekly, on BBC2, made for an interminable wait when we’re used to two episodes each time, so if you haven’t seen any of it, you owe it to yourself to get the full boxset and watch from start to finish.
When it started on BBC2, the series had already aired in its native homeland, but in the original language with no subtitles, as usual.
A couple of asides:
- Episode 6 takes almost 18 minutes before it gets to the opening credits, for reasons you’ll discover, and I didn’t even realise we hadn’t had them, I was that gripped.
- I wholeheartedly understand how Saga feels when it comes to hot-desking in the workplace, especially with the number of people who can’t be bothered to wash their hands after using the toilet, as well as those disgusting people who SMOKE! Bleah!
Now that it’s all over, I’m really going to miss Saga. Every now and again, she’d recognise that she wasn’t the most tactful, but 99% of the time, it’s like she had forgotten she could be that way, such as a particular clanger she drops late in the series, and then asks Jonas, “Shall I go back and apologise?”, to which he replies, “It’s a bit late for that(!)”
I don’t want to say any more, as whenever you come across someone amongst the characters, you never know who has relevance and who doesn’t. Hence, as I’ve seen the whole season, I want to keep you guessing, but rest assured, The Bridge is still on top form, and it’s just a shame it has come to an end.
That said, this finale brings certain elements full circle, as well as filling in a lot more of Saga’s backstory, so while season 3 was 90% perfect, while it does feel 100% at times, overall, this is on a par with season 3. Still, if a drama in its fourth season is still worth 9/10, that’s damn good going.
If I had any complaints about it, they’d be one or two things I’ll mention behind a spoiler header. I won’t reveal the baddie, or anything like that, but I will talk about elements of the finale:
For the other aspects of the presentation – the picture is spot-on as you’d expect, and the sound is fine with mostly dialogue and ambience, as you’d expect. The only extra is a short Season 1-4 Boxset promo trailer. A shame there’s nothing else, though.
The Bridge Season 4 is released on Monday on Blu-ray and DVD.
You can also buy the entire four seasons in a boxset on The Bridge Season 4 is released on Monday on Blu-ray and DVD.
Overall Score: 9/10
Director: Henrik Georgsson
Producers: Bo Ehrhardt and Anders Landström
Head writers: Hans Rosenfeldt and Camilla Ahlgren
Storyline: Hans Rosenfeldt, Camilla Ahlgren, Nikolaj Scherfig, Torleif Hoppe and Veronica Zacco
Cast:
Saga: Sofia Helin
Henrik: Thure Lindhardt
Jonas: Mikael Birkkjaer
Lillian: Sarah Boberg
Linn: Maria Kulle
Barbara: Julie Carlsen
Frank: Anders Mossling
Dan: Lars Ranthe
Richard: Pontus T Pagler
Patrik: Pontus T Pagler
Christoffer: Erik Lönngren
Taariq: Alexander Behrang Keshtkar
Sofie: Lisa Linnertorp
Neils: Thomas W Gabrielsson
Silas: Jesper Hyldegaard
Susanne: Sandra Sencindiver
Kevin: Elliott Crosset Hove
Harriet: Lena Strömdahl
Elsa: Linda Kunze
Robin: Julia Frisberg
Lucinda: Anna Tulestedt
Henrik’s daughters: Smilla Bak and Holly Bjarke
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.