April 27, 2012
No, this post is not an addition to that endless list of posts on Evil Men vs. Evil Women.
And it is not an ode to my mother, who brought me up fighting many odds etc.(I don’t think there were that many, and I was fairly well-behaved, at least as a child).
So, those of you who entered this post all set to comment on how I should stop the male-bashing and get on with my daily-soap-watching, cool down and read on..
There was a time in school and later at work, when my teachers/managers used to appreciate one quality in me – they called it ‘perseverance’. I did not fully appreciate their perspicacity at that time. I simply thought they had received that word in their ‘A word a day’ mail the previous day or saw it in the solution for the day’s crossword and wanted to show-off their new-found knowledge! However, at moments of deep introspection – you know those moments, when you start with the thought ‘Who am I?’ – I am struck by the perceptiveness these great souls displayed.
Every time I introspect, I realize that I am crazy about films and TV shows. And my love for well-made mysteries and thrillers has made me search the internet relentlessly for information on movies/shows in any language and then get hold of them to watch them in the evenings or over the weekends. (And with that, I hope I have justified my hitherto unjustified meandering over-long introduction!!).
I don’t know what I was searching for, although I know that definitely one thing (which one, I can’t say), led to the other and in the end, I came to know about this Danish TV series called ‘Forbrydelsen’ (meaning, ‘The Crime’). It was supposedly telecast on BBC in the original language with English subtitles and was supposedly very well received. Thanks to the internet and the most popular movie source in the world (and I am not going to name the provider), I watched the first season of the series, consisting of 20 one-hour episodes and am now midway in season 2 of the series.
Each series traces the investigation of one murder by the Danish police, specifically by the lead detective Sarah Lund (played by Sofie Gråbøl). Like all good police procedurals, the investigation is painstaking and the results are not immediate. I was reminded of one of my favourite police procedural movies – Zodiac, while I was watching the first season.
I was fascinated by the character of Sarah Lund. I have often mentioned about my attraction towards flawed characters in fiction – especially if the flawed character is the protagonist of the story. The flaws complement the good qualities of the character and makes her more believable. Add to it, the fact that I was really tired of watching women mostly in the sidelines of any good movie/series ( and I wrote a long post about it a while back). I did not read about the story outline before starting to watch the series, so it was a pleasant surprise watching this character on screen.
There are some characters in fiction, that you tend to love. You may never like them in real-life, but as characters in the story, they add another dimension to it. Their unpredictability makes the investigation process more interesting. And if I, a regular viewer think that way, no points for guessing that the makers of such fiction think so too. So the challenge for every creator is to create a slightly dysfunctional protagonist whose quirks are different from those we have already read/seen.
In that sense, I am not able to think of what is special about Detective Lund. She is like any other smartass investigator we have seen umpteen times in other films. She is driven and married to her work. She is a failure with her personal relationships and no matter how much she tries to be otherwise, she cares for her profession more than her family. She has no interests (obvious ones at least) outside of work. She does not treat her colleagues as friends and does not seem to have friends outside of work. She has a son, who she thinks she loves, but it is easy to think otherwise. She has a caring boyfriend, who is there for her whenever she wants, but whom she seems oblivious to. She has a loving mother who supports her when she needs a place to stay. And who is the only person who speaks her mind and constantly chides Lund for treating people around her badly, yet nothing seems to get through the woman’s mind. She is relentless in her pursuit of the killer of a young woman (who we see mostly in pictures) and is willing to concede her mistakes as long as she is allowed to pursue her next lead to the true killer.
Her male colleague, who is supposed to be her replacement (since at the beginning of the series, Sarah Lund is all set to emigrate and settle down in Sweden with her boyfriend and son), resents her attitude and coldness, but cannot help but respect her uncanny ability to see past the facades of people and think from multiple angles on the same issue.
While watching the series, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate the character from the actor and it is to Sofie Gråbøl’s credit, that I will never be able to think of her as anything other than Sarah Lund. I loved the fact Lund is never given any special treatment as a woman. She gains the grudging respect of her colleagues and superiors purely due to her intellect and steely interior and not because of her intelligence in spite of being a woman. She does not demand respect – in fact she does not seem to care what people around her think about her. And that was very refreshing to see
For all her characteristics, I was not able to think of the character of Sarah Lund being replaced by a man. This, in spite of the fact that she exhibits almost none of the characteristic (and stereotypical) features of a woman – caring, nurturing, working from the heart rather than intellect, having strong intuitive skills etc, nor does she conform to the other kind of stereotype of the b***y career woman. The series shows no judgement on her behaviour towards her family. The character seemed more real to me than any other portrayal of a woman detective I have seen in movies/television. The character of Kima Greggs in ‘The Wire’ comes close, but she still was one of the team members in that show and was a representative female character in a largely male-dominated story.
I don’t know if I have conveyed my liking and respect for this series and the lead character. But I have got my hands on at least 2 other Danish series. And it appears that in one of them called Borgen, which is again very popular, the lead character is a career woman. So having strong women characters is probably normal in Denmark. ‘Forbrydelsen’ has been remade in English as ‘The Killing’ and telecast in AMC. The first season supposedly received universal critical acclaim.
My insatiable hunger for more interesting and well-made series is exposing me to films and TV shows in languages of whose existence I had only vaguely heard of (I am ashamed to say that I was sometimes under the impression that people living in Denmark were Dutch!!). Forbrydelsen now ranks among my other favourites like The Wire (always the first and will probably remain so), Breaking Bad*, and Dexter (Sherlock – the immensely interesting and awesomely made TV series is likely to get on to this list pretty soon, but I have seen only the 1st episode – the pilot and the original – so far).
And it is not an ode to my mother, who brought me up fighting many odds etc.(I don’t think there were that many, and I was fairly well-behaved, at least as a child).
So, those of you who entered this post all set to comment on how I should stop the male-bashing and get on with my daily-soap-watching, cool down and read on..
There was a time in school and later at work, when my teachers/managers used to appreciate one quality in me – they called it ‘perseverance’. I did not fully appreciate their perspicacity at that time. I simply thought they had received that word in their ‘A word a day’ mail the previous day or saw it in the solution for the day’s crossword and wanted to show-off their new-found knowledge! However, at moments of deep introspection – you know those moments, when you start with the thought ‘Who am I?’ – I am struck by the perceptiveness these great souls displayed.
Every time I introspect, I realize that I am crazy about films and TV shows. And my love for well-made mysteries and thrillers has made me search the internet relentlessly for information on movies/shows in any language and then get hold of them to watch them in the evenings or over the weekends. (And with that, I hope I have justified my hitherto unjustified meandering over-long introduction!!).
I don’t know what I was searching for, although I know that definitely one thing (which one, I can’t say), led to the other and in the end, I came to know about this Danish TV series called ‘Forbrydelsen’ (meaning, ‘The Crime’). It was supposedly telecast on BBC in the original language with English subtitles and was supposedly very well received. Thanks to the internet and the most popular movie source in the world (and I am not going to name the provider), I watched the first season of the series, consisting of 20 one-hour episodes and am now midway in season 2 of the series.
Each series traces the investigation of one murder by the Danish police, specifically by the lead detective Sarah Lund (played by Sofie Gråbøl). Like all good police procedurals, the investigation is painstaking and the results are not immediate. I was reminded of one of my favourite police procedural movies – Zodiac, while I was watching the first season.
I was fascinated by the character of Sarah Lund. I have often mentioned about my attraction towards flawed characters in fiction – especially if the flawed character is the protagonist of the story. The flaws complement the good qualities of the character and makes her more believable. Add to it, the fact that I was really tired of watching women mostly in the sidelines of any good movie/series ( and I wrote a long post about it a while back). I did not read about the story outline before starting to watch the series, so it was a pleasant surprise watching this character on screen.
There are some characters in fiction, that you tend to love. You may never like them in real-life, but as characters in the story, they add another dimension to it. Their unpredictability makes the investigation process more interesting. And if I, a regular viewer think that way, no points for guessing that the makers of such fiction think so too. So the challenge for every creator is to create a slightly dysfunctional protagonist whose quirks are different from those we have already read/seen.
In that sense, I am not able to think of what is special about Detective Lund. She is like any other smartass investigator we have seen umpteen times in other films. She is driven and married to her work. She is a failure with her personal relationships and no matter how much she tries to be otherwise, she cares for her profession more than her family. She has no interests (obvious ones at least) outside of work. She does not treat her colleagues as friends and does not seem to have friends outside of work. She has a son, who she thinks she loves, but it is easy to think otherwise. She has a caring boyfriend, who is there for her whenever she wants, but whom she seems oblivious to. She has a loving mother who supports her when she needs a place to stay. And who is the only person who speaks her mind and constantly chides Lund for treating people around her badly, yet nothing seems to get through the woman’s mind. She is relentless in her pursuit of the killer of a young woman (who we see mostly in pictures) and is willing to concede her mistakes as long as she is allowed to pursue her next lead to the true killer.
Her male colleague, who is supposed to be her replacement (since at the beginning of the series, Sarah Lund is all set to emigrate and settle down in Sweden with her boyfriend and son), resents her attitude and coldness, but cannot help but respect her uncanny ability to see past the facades of people and think from multiple angles on the same issue.
While watching the series, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate the character from the actor and it is to Sofie Gråbøl’s credit, that I will never be able to think of her as anything other than Sarah Lund. I loved the fact Lund is never given any special treatment as a woman. She gains the grudging respect of her colleagues and superiors purely due to her intellect and steely interior and not because of her intelligence in spite of being a woman. She does not demand respect – in fact she does not seem to care what people around her think about her. And that was very refreshing to see
For all her characteristics, I was not able to think of the character of Sarah Lund being replaced by a man. This, in spite of the fact that she exhibits almost none of the characteristic (and stereotypical) features of a woman – caring, nurturing, working from the heart rather than intellect, having strong intuitive skills etc, nor does she conform to the other kind of stereotype of the b***y career woman. The series shows no judgement on her behaviour towards her family. The character seemed more real to me than any other portrayal of a woman detective I have seen in movies/television. The character of Kima Greggs in ‘The Wire’ comes close, but she still was one of the team members in that show and was a representative female character in a largely male-dominated story.
I don’t know if I have conveyed my liking and respect for this series and the lead character. But I have got my hands on at least 2 other Danish series. And it appears that in one of them called Borgen, which is again very popular, the lead character is a career woman. So having strong women characters is probably normal in Denmark. ‘Forbrydelsen’ has been remade in English as ‘The Killing’ and telecast in AMC. The first season supposedly received universal critical acclaim.
My insatiable hunger for more interesting and well-made series is exposing me to films and TV shows in languages of whose existence I had only vaguely heard of (I am ashamed to say that I was sometimes under the impression that people living in Denmark were Dutch!!). Forbrydelsen now ranks among my other favourites like The Wire (always the first and will probably remain so), Breaking Bad*, and Dexter (Sherlock – the immensely interesting and awesomely made TV series is likely to get on to this list pretty soon, but I have seen only the 1st episode – the pilot and the original – so far).
3 comments:
Hi i just stumbled upon this post of yours while searching something on google. I am a big fan of this series and I have watched both first & second season. Can't wait for the third season to start. I really liked how you described Sofie Gråbøl’s charachter and i fully agree when you say 'The flaws complement the good qualities of the character and makes her more believable'. So true!
If you liked this tv series than don't miss another danish show 'Broen' which is also being telecast on bbc as 'The Bridge'. Just finished watching the first four episodes and its brilliant!
Thanks Lucky.. I am in fact planning to watch Broen soon!!
Great! Will be looking forward to your review. I've become a fan of your writing after reading some of your posts.
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