Who would have believed that the new season of "Burgen", or in its Hebrew name "the government", would succeed in meeting the standards it itself set for international television about a decade ago.
Who would have believed that this series, which was one of the pioneers of the sophisticated and intelligent Scandinavian television, would actually succeed on Netflix, which at times seems to have been mostly written by an 8-year-old boy whose parents forgot to renew his prescription for Ritalin.
And especially who believed that even now, after the wave of series with the frozen and gray darkness and breathtaking landscapes as if gone from the world, the Nordics will once again remind us how to make a kick-ass commercial TV?
"Burgen" has of course always had the mystical ability to predict the future by chance, or not.
When "Burgen" brought the story of the rise of Birgitta Nyborg (Sidsa Babett Knudsen, who remains a goddess as if less than a decade has passed), the leader of a center-right party winning the prime ministerial election, no one could have predicted that in a year she would win the reality of Hela Thorning Schmidt .
This season what do we have?
Corona, which is quite predictable, but also the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A TV ahead of its time, have we already said?
Even if the plot became a little more extreme this time around, the magic secret of the show has always been able to dismantle the musty political life and give it a dramatic and fascinating touch even for the Middle Eastern viewer, for example.
The burning issues are of course the climate issues and China-US relations but, of course, as in previous seasons, Birgitta's personal aspect of life receives the polished and honed treatment of writers who know well how to attract viewers to them. About the sacrifices in relationships, careers and parenting, so it does not really matter whether you are part of the "castle" ("Burgen", a nickname for the Danish legislature) or not - in the end as a woman you always pay different and higher prices.
So where does the series still fall, and why did we still find places for improvement in it?
The hostel where she works sometimes requires her to roll out characters, put sentences taken from the "boring American politically correct" number into their mouths, and, yes, even create overly extreme situations.
There is nothing to do, once you make a deal with corporations, you must roll out in favor of the American viewer.
Ask the Divine Sultan dialect, which ranged in the second season of "Tehran" between one temptation or another and one car chase or another.
What to do, money speaks.
"Government," despite its shortcomings this season, is still a television that seeks to give its viewers a different style, not to mention - and sorry for the word when it comes to a format as shallow as television - even depth.
When it works it's a rare commodity on our TV, but when it's running out it can be tedious and boring.
However, if you watched the first three seasons, you will obviously enjoy the current one as well.
There is no doubt that in the sea of content provider's shallow boredom, "government" shimmers like a diamond.
Maybe it's us who's got used to horrible content, maybe we just became nostalgic, but despite the fact that it sometimes got too long, we thanked the God of TV for the opportunity to spend the last holiday in a quality binge.
Burgen: Power and Glory, Netflix
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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