The Bridge - Måns Mårlind, Hans Rosenfeldt & Björn Stein
Season Four
This season’s meta-plot flows the unpredictable twists and turns of the previous ones but the writers make the mistake of giving us too many hints about the killer too early on.
These twists and turns are harder to follow and it feels like there are more sub-plots happening than in the previous seasons.
This just makes it very hard to keep track of what is happening. To make matters worse we are missing our hero for what feels like half the season – probably more like a third.
We start with Saga in jail which is just terrible given we know there is no way that she would ever do this. We have seen her destroy the relationships around her to do the right thing.
Coupled with this is her boss, unsupportive as ever. But Linn’s perspective in this case perplexes me. She is cold and uncaring but gives Saga so much space when she returns.
These two positions don’t fit. The writers seem to have forgotten that the reason we are here is for Saga.
But just putting her on screen and showing her idiosyncracies is not enough. While this sort of ham-fisted writing might have worked during the first season when we were getting to know her it does not fly now. We know her and we want to see her being an amazing police officer.
We do not get to see this until the final episode where her brilliance returns and she figures out that there were two killers and she saves Henrick’s newly found daughter’s life.
The rest of the season we see her struggle with self-doubt and panic attacks. I don’t think that this is plausible now more than in the first season.
The trauma that triggered the attacks happened before the first season and for them only to be manifesting now makes little sense. The show ends with Saga leaving the police force because her psychologist said that she did it all out of guilt.
While I don’t disagree with the psychologist per se, just because Saga’s original motivation for joining the force is guilt it doesn’t mean that there are other reasons she should now stay.
The whole episode feels like Saga is manipulated rather than helped as we have seen the same thing happen to her in earlier seasons. A person wanting to help her suggests a course of action – she does it and it blows up in her face. It also cheapens her whole character and life in the force.
The rest of the surrounding story is good and the plot is interesting if somewhat hard to follow. The great supporting characters are back and I think that they made the right decision to base this season on the Danish side of the Bridge so we didn’t have to see Linn.
The season wasn’t all that bad. It was just such a huge disappointment compared to the first three and knowing that we will see no more Saga is just really disappointing.
They did well closing off all the plots that had been bubbling along. I would highly recommend watching the first three seasons but this one is only good if you need the closure.
