Borgen Is The Danish West Wing
What's a political-TV junkie to do now that Scandal's about to wrap up its third season, House Of Cards was devoured all too quickly, and re-watching The West Wing on Netflix makes you feel like you're frittering away TV time you could be spending on shows you've never seen before? No, you don't watch C-Span. You watch Borgen.
I get that seeing phrases like "from the producers of...The Killing" might prejudice you against a show, but the original Danish version of the show is actually pretty great. And anyway, Borgen isn't a crime procedural: it's the story of Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a politician leading the country's Moderate Party into a national election. As the series begins, she's a somewhat marginal figure who doesn't have much confidence that she will carry the Moderates to victory, but when the incumbent Prime Minister accidentally gets involved in a scandal, she manages to defeat him, as well as the leaders of the (many) other parties. This seems spoiler-y, but since the credits show her taking her place in Parliament, you have a pretty good idea how things are going to end up; I'm not telling you how. And unlike the story of How I Met Your Mother, the story of How Birgitte Became Prime Minister only takes an hour to tell.
The political wrangling that follows the election is a little bit obscure -- and would be more so, I imagine, if your understanding of government was formed outside a country with a Parliamentary system. But producers do a good job of explaining how coalition governments are formed in Denmark. Even if you don't feel confident enough in your comprehension to write a Civics paper about it, fighting, backstabbing, and spin transcend linguistic barriers.
As Birgitte, Knudsen is warm, appealing, and, when the situation requires it, steely enough to stand alongside Battlestar Galactica's Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) on your list of Awesomest Fictional Politicians. Because her win is so unexpected, she is tentative at first, so we get a lot of scenes in which her mentor Bent (Lars Knutzon) helps build her confidence with actually good leadership advice. And as Denmark's first female Prime Minister, Birgitte really has no models for how to lead the country as a mother and wife -- and when conflicts arise on that score, the show treats them seriously, without giving her a too-good-to-be-true husband whose infinite patience is never tested by the requirements of her new job. Philip (Mikkael Birkkjær), her husband, is supportive of her and readily steps up as the primary caregiver for their kids, but he also gets realistically annoyed when she misses dinners with the kids or takes him for granted. Seeing that the show's producers have given some consideration and thought to what this experience would really be like for someone in Birgitte's situation makes it all the more compelling and addictive.
Some of what you may read about Borgen (which means "The Castle," as in the Danish metonym for Parliament, but I assume it hasn't been translated for its English-language release is because "borgen" is fun to say) will mention that it comes from the same producers as The Killing, but do not let that prejudice you against Borgen! It's not a crime procedural; it's about politicians, the reporters who cover them (and how news is made), and the consultants who get in between. You're not likely to be irritated by flat performances and implausible plot twists, as in AMC's version of The Killing; if anything bugs you about Borgen, it'll probably be that the policies Birgitte and the rest of Parliament execute seem practically utopian compared to what passes for governance in this stupid country.