TV Show Review

TV Review: THE BRIDGE (BRON / BROEN): Season 2, Episode 10 [BBC]

Sofia Helin The Bridge

BBC’s The Bridge Season 2 Episode 10 TV Show Review. The Bridge (Bron/Broen): Season 2, Episode 10 was a masterful thriller that treats you smoothly throughout its first half, elevates the suspense half-way through and explodes in a combination of mercilessly brutal thrills and engrossing drama during its second half. Unfortunately, I had missed the previous episodes of the show, before seeing the very special Episode 10. That didn’t spoil for me the completely enjoyable experience of it in the slightest. I watched a television show which is worthy of big mainstream cinema for its acting, its beautiful cinematography but most of all-its exceptional writing. The characters are quiet, subtle and interesting; the storyline is simple and powerful. The shots are quite spectacular-definitely not what you can see in your average American TV series-or at least with much, much better CGI if any CGI was involved in The Bridge at all. It is clearly the product of the hard work of the Danish and Swedish cinema.

First of all, the acting was spectacular. Sofia Helin as Saga Noren, a strong, unsociable female detective completely triumphs in the role with the looks of the model, but at the same the intelligence and the spirit of Lisabeth Salander from The Millennium series. Her cold behaviour is mixed with her innate, deeply buried but still obvious humanism and the opposition make this character truly special. Kim Bodnia is capable of generating tremendous amount of tension and emotion through his eyes. He is clearly guarding secrets and not in the most successful way. I haven’t watched any of the previous episodes and I figured it out just by the look in his eyes so this is one actor that definitely knows what he is doing. The villain actors perform much more quietly and passively but that made the crimes all the more shocking.

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The cinematography is top-notch as well. The very fact there is a sense of artistry in the cinematography when we are talking about a TV show speaks for itself. The colours are cold, dark and in perfect nuance with the brutality of the story unfolding. The editing is awesome at the most shocking moments and produces quite the shocking moments during several, very intense climaxing points in the episode. There is a clear sense and understanding of visual impact. Usually in TV series you just see the camera following the characters. Towards the end, in Episode 10 we witness a moment when we are wondering whether one of the protagonists will do something. At the exact moment she is seemingly leaving we stay with the person opposite her and we are allowed to wonder whether or not the protagonist is gone. Then we see the reaction of the person opposite her, who slowly acknowledges her presence and we slowly, painfully and therefore quite effectively realize that the protagonist is still there and the character will do what we fear. The realization hits us when we cut back to this protagonist, seeing him standing closer than ever before.

The gem of Episode 10 is the story. The first half would seem sort of slow and definitely low on thrills for the uninitiated. There is a murder investigation that hooks us up and we get to know the relations between the main characters fairly quickly. What makes this episode awesome is the build to the middle and everything that follows. There are several long thrilling sequences which show us the crime of the villain, the intriguing race to saving the day, the heart-stopping climax of this battle and finally the full solving of the mystery which results in a powerful dramatic moment that is crucial to the main characters. I learned to care for them in the course of only 60 minutes. The Bridge is a great show with awesome production values and rich artistic involvement.

Leave your thoughts on this review and this episode of The Bridge below in the comments section. For more The Bridge reviews, photos, videos, and information, visit our The Bridge Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, or “like” us on Facebook.

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Deyan Angelov

My name is Deyan Angelov and I am 25. I have written articles for FilmBook. I graduated from the University of London, Royal Holloway in 2014. I have worked as an air operator, sound recorder and camera operator for different TV stations. I have participated in a variety of internships at Nu Boyana Film Studios.
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