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Trouble on the box

TV4 announced their autumn schedule this week and it showed a marked change of strategy: "More breasts and younger, hipper actors," as Sydsvenskan put it.

Published: 20 August 2004 14:20 CEST

The channel has been losing young viewers to commercial channels TV3 and Kanal 5, and wants them back. The new presenter of reality show “The Farm” promises “lots of conflicts, quarrels and love.” TV4 might not have revolutionary ideas when it comes to increasing their viewer share, but a strong bikini factor might well help them out.

For those readers still interested in the whole “Bonsai” crisis (see Director slams Swedish TV for a recent update), the book has been closed. Sort of.

“Bonsai” was nearly finished when writer and director Filippa Pierrou was fired, but we’ll never see the end of the drama that nearly was. After a few days of meetings with actors, Swedish Television announced that the production would be stopped entirely.

Dagens Nyheter’s coverage of the situation has focused on the money lost. Pierrou went on record with her surprise that so much of the Swedish taxpayers’ money had been thrown aside – 12 million crowns, by her estimation – while Swedish Television executive Gunwi Silander said that they simply didn’t have any more money to pump into the project. For the moment, the issue has been resolved.

The Bridge season four: What the first reviews say about the Nordic Noir finale

Cast and crew at the premiere of the final season. Photo: Björn Lindgren / TT

Almost a year after filming first began on the fourth and final series, there's less than a month to go until viewers can catch up with Saga Norén (played by Sofia Helin), and the first reviews appeared in Swedish media this week.

Warning: The reviews may contain spoilers for anyone still catching up on season three. Diehard fans, read on.

To refresh your memories, we left the third season with Norén forced out of her Malmö police job and agreeing to help her Danish counterpart Henrik Sabroe (played by Thure Lindhardt) find his missing children.

The fourth season picks up two years later. Norén is now in prison, convicted of her mother’s murder and waiting for her case to be reviewed.

Meanwhile, her Danish counterpart Henrik is working on a grisly case after the head of Copenhagen’s immigration office was stoned to death.

So far, it sounds like it has all the components fans of the series have come to expect, with a few twists and turns surely in store. But what did Swedish reviewers think of the series?

The Expressen tabloid gave the first two episodes a three out of five rating, saying that it was a “very promising” start and “exciting from the first second”.

Its reviewers praised Helin for “finding new ways to portray Saga” and for her “impressive interaction” with Lindhardt. However, a subplot, mysteriously described as “involving twins” was less impressive and described as failing to lift the show, though Expressen noted that it might develop more as the series progresses.

In the Aftonbladet daily, reviewers rated the show four out of five, saying that the team behind The Bridge have put together the final season with “the kind of casual and clear confidence that only those who know they have always been the best in class can afford”.

“The feeling is one of total control, and it convinces us that we won't be disappointed, whichever way The Bridge chooses to take for its final exit,” its reviewers said.

The Aftonbladet review also gave a bit more detail about the new setting of the show. Unlike previous series, creators have already revealed that the final season will be set more in Denmark than in Sweden, and will no longer be city-based.

Show writer Hans Rosenfeldt has revealed that the setting would be more rural than in previous series, saying: “A small village outside of Malmö will be a major location.”

And according to Aftonbladet, the fourth series will feature “a very strange, cult-like village” run by an older woman.

Rosenfeldt has also previously said the upcoming season will reveal more about the characters' personal lives — and that it will be the goriest yet.

Viewers can catch the fourth and final episode on SVT on January 1st, 2018 and the remaining seven episodes of the series will be broadcast on Sundays.

READ ALSO: What we'll learn about Saga in The Bridge's final season

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