The Bridge is without a doubt the greatest and most progressive Nordic-Noir series to come from Scandinavia. It seems quite presumptuous to start with such a bold statement but with an average of 1.2 million Swedish and Danish viewers, 1.5 million British viewers on BBC4 ,and two remakes (one American and one British) it’s the pioneer of the new breed of detective dramas. Featuring long narratives – unlike our British self-contained episodic cop dramas – The Bridge is about the human condition above all; why characters turns to crime, murder or conspiracy, and how detectives Saga (Sofia Helen) and Martin (Kim Bodnia) independently deal with situations that either require a certain amount of finesse or a profound lack of subtlety. With the long narratives we get accustomed to a great range characters, turning them from placeholder characters to intelligent characters changing and evolving as the series progresses. It’s the ever changing binary opposition between Saga and Martin that make this Danish detective series a hit worldwide – even earning Kim a Golden Nymph Award for best actor.
Now Season 3 is just over a month away It’s about time to compile all the news and information we have before the start of the first episode.
Warning: Spoilers from Season 1 & 2
One of the most important pieces of news we received about Season 3 was of course that Kim Bodnia (Martin) was no longer going to be a part of the series. The decision was based upon what had happened to the character last season. It was more than likely that Martin had poisoned Jens, the main antagonist in Season 1, as a part-revenge part-sympathy killing. Kim felt that to come out of Jail and play some part in Season 3 would be too unbelievable for the audience, who spent two seasons praising the character for being the most morally just man in the series. Film Lance had made a statement saying:
We had different perceptions of the season’s content. Bodnia was not happy with how the character evolved. It is a shame, but we must move on and accept it.”
Hans Rosenfeldt (creator) has stated that this season will explore more of Sagas past – including the suicide of her sister. Saga’s past is a storyline hinted at in previous episodes but never taken advantage of. It’s one of the more interesting parts of Saga’s past that we have only heard about in passing conversations and is emphatically discussed between The Bridge fans and theorists. To finally get some answers will be sweet indeed.
The ‘case’ will be much smaller than season 1 & 2 focussing more of Saga and her team. This will involve Solving crime in Malmö and Copenhagen. In this season it has been confirmed that there is a much bigger focus in Denmark and photos indicate that some of the action sequences will take place at Ørestad metro station.
For now speculation from the trailer in thriving – is there a clown themed killer? Is part of it set in a museum? Is that a tea party murder scene? For now It’s hard to speculate and remain a reputable source, so I urge you to watch the sneak peek trailer and make your own theories.
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