More of the best television ever seen: Denmark's BORGEN--Season 3 arrives on DVD and Blu-ray

Around halfway through, and having just finished yet another first-rate episode (yes, they all are) of the newly-released-to-DVD-and-Blu-ray, third season of BORGEN, "This is the most intelligent television show I've ever seen," my spouse declared with unusually firm resolution. I wouldn't think of contradicting him. It's now been less than six months since the DVD debut of the second season of this amazing series via its U.S. distributor, MHz Networks, so I am guessing that the demand by American viewers is continually growing. (TrustMovies' post on Borgen's second season soon became and has remained the most-viewed on this site for months now.)

Everything we've loved -- cherished, really -- about this smart, thoughtful and human drama about political and family life in present-day Denmark, mirrored via the careers of two women, has remained in place, even as the series now broadens its canvas to include everything from a new political party and life-threatening sickness to the pork industry (as in pigs, rather than money-for-boondoggles) and possible betrayal by those closest at hand.

The two women are of course, Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg (the ever-spectacular Sidse Babett Knudsen, above) and gorgeous, hotshot political reporter for TV1, Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, below, left), both of whom continue to learn and grow, as well as occasionally surprise us.

Instead of beginning exactly where season two ended, the new one starts after some time has passed (a couple of years, I believe), and so we catch up with things even as we watch the current goings-on. One of the terrific things about this series is how consistently it treats its audience as adults who understand and are interested enough in politics -- what it means, how it works and how important it is to a country's populace -- to be able to follow the ins and outs of the often complicated maneuvers on display.

The series also comes from a place of genuine left-wing politics. It's set in Denmark, so, yes, this is the model -- dreaded and demonized by America's right-wing Republicans -- of the "welfare state" that tries to look after its citizens as best it can. Yet the series' creator and oft-times writer Adam Price (shown below) understands and communicates the difficulties of this looking-after and the price paid in the many compromises necessary to "serve the people."

One of the best episodes of the whole three seasons is on display this time, dealing with prostitution and sex trafficking. This hour wipes the floor with literally everything else -- narrative or documentary -- that I've seen on these subjects, forcing us to confront stuff that usually lies carefully unruffled, just below the surface. As usual, I am not go-ing into much con-tent detail because you deserve to have it all unfold before you with the surprise and intelligence of fine dramatic narrative.

Borgen, season three, is available now from MHZ Networks, and elsewhere, too, of course.

BORGEN: SEASON 2 arrives on DVD. Is it as good as Season 1? Yes -- and even better.

BORGEN junkies -- which would most likely include everybody who ever began watching this provocative, humane and politically astute Danish TV series -- will be happy to know that Season 2 has now arrived on DVD. Even better, the quality has not declined in any respect. In fact, I'd say that the second season outdoes the first. Not by a mile (Season 1 was too good for that to happen) but maybe by a Copenhagen city block.

Everyone's favorite Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg (center, above, and played so well by Sidse Babett Knudsen that I'm not sure I'd want to accept her in any other role) is up against new challenges, with her mentor Bent (Lars Knutzon, above, left, back in business) and her PR guy Kasper (Pilou Asbæk) up to his usual tricks, as per romance and politics.

Season 2 offers ten episodes on four discs. Each episode is utterly riveting, though I would suggest that the two-parter about an African nation's civil war that involves oil, China, big business and Denmark's peace plan requiring the country's recently-resigned Green party chairman to act as interpreter -- is perhaps the best in the new series.

Certainly the most moving and unsettling is the story of Nyborg's daughter's mental melt-down that requires our PM to lead her country at the same time as she protects her child and considers options and choices. This is particularly unsettling because it calls into question the usual male opinion that women cannot really lead and govern properly because they are, well, women. Other topics covered this season include closeted homosexuality, the environment, private vs public heath care, divorce and taxes.

Being about politics, the series allows that compromise, blackmail and betrayal are never far from home, and you come away with the renewed understanding that being a "good guy" is simply not possible all or even much of the time. Still, Borgen never gives in to easy cynicism. The small country of Denmark does indeed appear "governable" (which is increasingly more than can be said about these United States) because the wealthy and powerful have not taken over completely as yet -- as has happened here, where money rules all, all the time.

If you already know this series, you've undoubtedly found a way to see Season 2. If not, start watching Season 1, and I swear you'll stick around for the rest. Borgen: Season 2, in Danish with English Subtitles and distributed here in the USA by MHz Networks -- an independent, non-commercial national broadcaster, headquartered in the Washington, DC metro area -- is available now, in 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen, Region 1 NTSC, at a suggested retail price of $50 (less a nickle), though certain on-line retailers are selling it for just $33.