TV Highlights: Bright Borgen, crazy comedies and Gallagher goes solo

If you’re looking for something a little more relatable, try Borgen, a Danish series that already ran in Israel a few years ago, but which now is on Netflix with English translation.

By HANNAH BROWN
Liam Gallagher: As It Was (photo credit: Courtesy)
Liam Gallagher: As It Was
(photo credit: Courtesy)
In the entertainment business, “high concept” is defined as a movie or show that has a premise which can be completely explained in one sentence, and Netflix’s Warrior Nun is a clear illustration of this. It’s about a teen who awakens in a morgue to find out she has been chosen to lead a group of demon-hunting nuns. Not your cup of tea? Well, how about Netflix’s The Old Guard, with Charlize Theron as an undead warrior who does a lot of heroic stuff?
If you’re looking for something a little more relatable, try Borgen, a Danish series that already ran in Israel a few years ago, but which now is on Netflix with English translation. It’s an intelligent political drama where people are not as evil and scheming as they are on House of Cards, as over-the-top outrageous as on Veep or as unrealistically noble as on The West Wing.
In Borgen, the main character is Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen), an attractive, even-tempered woman who, fittingly, is the head of the Moderate party as the series opens. Through a complex series of events that involve adultery, a pill-popping prime minister’s wife and a few other twists, including a scene-stealing debate performance where Birgitte goes off message and speaks with genuine passion, she becomes Denmark’s first female prime minster. The rest of the series is about her trying to consolidate her power without losing her soul, as well as trying to maintain her marriage, be a good mom and lose 10 pounds. The storylines are intricate and you need to pay attention. In some ways, Borgen’s moderation is not as satisfying as the venom of House of Cards or the profanity of Veep, but its characters are far more realistic and that is what makes it compelling.
However realistic they are, however, it’s still TV and the actors are quite stunning, the sets are lovely and the clothes are tailored and elegant. The wheeling and dealing on the show is quite restrained, however, in comparison to what we see on our local news every night, and it might make you wish you could vote for Birgitte yourself.
If a movie about an essentially likable group of people who go on a journey where everything that can go wrong does go wrong seems like fun right now, you can try Little Miss Sunshine on Cellcom TV. It’s about a family where everyone is having a crisis of some kind, all except their daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin), who has decided to compete in a children’s beauty pageant, with her grandfather (Alan Arkin), who has a penchant for snorting heroin, coaching her. Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette are Olive’s tense parents, Steve Carell plays her suicidal Proust scholar uncle and Paul Dano is her brother who has taken a vow of silence. It won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and for Arkin’s performance.
Another what-could-possibly-go-wrong comedy is Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Richard Linklater on Cinema Time on HOT starting on July 19. It stars Cate Blanchett in the title role as a frustrated mom who has given up on her work as an architect and is falling apart in increasingly outrageous ways. It was adapted from Maria Semple’s bestselling novel and while it isn’t nearly as funny as the book, Blanchett is so likably crazed you may enjoy it anyway. If you’re looking for something a bit darker, but original and very high quality, try L.A. Confidential, the 1997 neo-noir film directed by Curtis Hanson, that looks at the underside of 1950s Los Angeles and corruption in the police force. It won Oscars for its screenplay and Kim Basinger’s performance and is showing on July 19 at 10 p.m. on Yes 3. It also features Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Danny DeVito.
Oasis fans will want to check out Liam Gallagher: As It Was, a look at one half of the famous band, as Gallagher tries to make a solo comeback without his brother Noel, which is showing on Yes VOD. It has moments that may remind you of This is Spinal Tap, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.


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