Hacker Cinema
Borgen
2010 · TV series · 60 min episodes · 3 seasons
Created by Adam Price, Camilla Hammerich
40-year old political leader Birgitte Nyborg secures her party a landslide victory through her idealism and huge effort, then faces the biggest challenge of her life: how most effectively to use the newly won seats, and how far she is willing to go in order to gain as much influence as possible.
6 positive3 neutralfrom 9 commenters
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9 comments on Hacker News
Competitive markets provide natural death of weak content, without premature euthanasia of strong content. With on-demand streaming, viewers can stop watching if/when a show deteriorates in quality. Some shows have maintained relatively high quality over multiple seasons.
The Americans (6 seasons, 75 episodes) Battlestar Galactica (4 seasons, 88 episodes) Borgen (3 seasons, 30 episodes) Burn Notice (7 seasons, 111 episodes) The Shield (7 seasons, 88 episodes) Slow Horses (5 seasons, 30 episodes) WestWorld (4 seasons, 36 episodes) The Wire (5 seasons, 60 episodes)
There's a great few episodes on this in Borgen where the PMs paramour goes to the hospital because there are so many hormones pumped into Danish pigs and how powerful the industry is in the country.
Try this: look up the most highly rated episodes on IMDB and watch only those. Missing the crummy episodes usually does not interfere with understanding the story arc. Often, I set a minimum IMDB score that I will watch, like 8.5 or 9.0 to capture only the best. This works well with series that:
- take a year or two to find their footing or
- have a large cast (some mediocre) that get their own story lines of no consequence occasionally or
- introduce cast members that don't make it or
- implode towards the final season.
I have done this for many series that are somewhat uneven:
- The Americans
- How I Met Your Mother
- Fringe
- Orphan Black
- Halt and Catch Fire
- House of Cards (watching the ratings allows you to miss all of season 6)
- Arrested Development
- Bojack Horseman
- Veep
- 30 Rock
- Jane the Virgin
- Black Mirror
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- Suits
- Six Feet Under
- La Femme Nikita
- The Blacklist
- Peaky Blinders
- The Romanoffs
- Ozark
- Westworld (sometimes dropping episodes does not matter)
- Succession
- Borgen
And all of these series have lots of strong episodes.
Series I would not do this with:
- The Bear
- Breaking Bad
- Money Heist
- The Serpent
- Fleabag
- Chernobyl
- The White Lotus
What's a sin? Deemed by who?
Why is prostitution unethical? (in essence; many actual implementations are indeed terrible).
I found this interview of a porn actor and a porn actress by Hugo Decrypt quite interesting [1] (in French). It seems it can be done right.
The Borgen series also has a very interesting episode about prostitution. Season 3 Episode 5 if whatever shows up with a "borgen prostitution" search is correct. It presents interesting ideas on the matter. I highly recommend it. The episode can be viewed without seeing the previous seasons / episode. It depicts a woman who chooses to do this job and likes it. She provides arguments for why it should be allowed.
As for porn users, first, it's not only men who watch it. You are supposing men-only by mentioning father. And I've not noticed many romantic lives destroyed by porn (I'm quite sure at least some people around me in couple watch porn and they seem fine). I even seen a movie depicting a couple using porn to spice their sex. Why not? I would not be surprise people actually did that and would see nothing wrong in it. Are you sure you are not confusing your gut with reality? Now of course additions can ruin you, and I'm sure porn addiction exists, but I don't think most porn users are at this level of addiction.
And I would definitely welcome ethical porn / more respect to everybody involved in this thing, and wished people said no to unethical porn.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BubVE25uzo
(This was inspired by the Danish TV series Borgen)
Q: What's the Danish expression for "spin doctor"?
A: Spin doctor
Thanks for the recommendations! I haven't watched many Scandi shows since binging through Borgen, Forbrydelsen (The Killing) and Broen (The Bridge) few years ago. All highly recommended.
I watched a few episodes of The Rain and while it has impressive CGI, the acting is school-play level. The Killing or Borgen though a bit older are much better IMO. Also, while even older, Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom is fantastic tv.
There is a TV series about Danish politics - Borgen. In one of the episodes they had to deal with chiefs from Greenland. The whole scene looked like negotiating with the union - tough, hostile and ready to accept large amounts of cash. I think Trump and Chinese are moving in the right direction, question is who will be first.
Die Wand (The Wall, 2012, Austria) - A woman on holiday in the mountains is suddenly trapped behind an invisible wall, with only animals as companions... The movie goes deep into human nature, how we live with nature and other life forms, and is comparably profound with the best writing on those subjects. Incredible.
The Sea That Thinks (2000, Netherlands) - About the self, self-reference, meta-(meta-meta-)narrative, consciousness, illusion.. Wonderfully well-constructed.
2 of Kurosawa's: Dersu Uzala (1974), the story of the friendship of a Russian military map-maker and a Siberian hunter. Fascinating encounter of city man and nomadic hunter, two incompatible modes of living. (I think Yoda is based on Dersu, as Star Wars was based on Hidden Fortress) ..and Ikiru (1952), about a boring goverment office worker who learns he's dying and wants to do something meaningful with his life at last.
Series: My favourites are from France (Engrenages, Les hommes de l’ombre, Le Bureau des Légendes, Un Village Français) and Denmark (Borgen, Arvingerne, Herrens veje/Ride Upon the Storm). Maybe Un Village Français gets my top vote, the epic (7 seasons) story of a French village under Nazi occupation - the politicians, Resistance, communists, militia, Nazis, collaborators, Jews, businessmen etc. Unforgettably touching.