--- title: "Borgen" year: 2010 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/borgen" fi1m_score: 84 critics_score: 82 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-17T14:15:26.764818+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T14:15:39.839950+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Borgen (2010) Created by Adam Price, Camilla Hammerich · 1h 00m · MPA TV-MA · Drama **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 82 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* Everyone is reasonable, everyone is compromised, and nobody has been home for dinner since the election > Adam Price and Camilla Hammerich’s Danish political drama is as intelligent and as well played as its reputation, with Sidse Babett Knudsen holding the centre of it. It is also tidy: every week a problem, every week a lesson. We recommend it warmly, with that caveat. ## Synopsis Copenhagen, the last week of a general election. Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) leads a small centre party and is not expected to win. The sitting prime minister, Lars Hesselboe (Søren Spanning), is damaged by a scandal over his expenses, and in a televised debate Nyborg puts down her prepared notes and speaks plainly to the studio. The result leaves her in a position to form Denmark’s first government led by a woman, if she can hold a coalition together with her old mentor Bent Sejrø (Lars Knutzon) at her side. At the TV1 newsroom, anchor Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) and her editor Torben Friis (Søren Malling) chase the story. At home, Nyborg’s husband Philip Christensen (Mikael Birkkjær) has agreed to put his own career second. ## Review *Borgen* is the nickname for Christiansborg, the palace in Copenhagen where the Danish parliament sits, and the series Adam Price and Camilla Hammerich created treats it as an office block that happens to contain a throne room. Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) leads a small centre party. In the first episode the sitting prime minister, Lars Hesselboe (Søren Spanning), makes a mistake in the last week of the campaign, and Nyborg finds herself able to form a government. She takes the job. The thirty episodes that follow, across three seasons between 2010 and 2013, are about what it costs her, and most of them are as good as the reviews said. The shape is weekly. Each hour hands Nyborg a problem: a minister who has said the wrong thing, a bill one vote short, a favour owed to Svend Åge Saltum (Ole Thestrup), the leader of the populist right, who plays the plain farmer and is cleverer than his opponents give him credit for. Bent Sejrø (Lars Knutzon), her mentor, sits at the end of the table and tells her what she would rather not hear. By the end of the hour she has found a way through, and it is nearly always a compromise she would have refused at the start. The writers, Price, Jeppe Gjervig Gram, Tobias Lindholm and others, make her sound right when she gives ground and right when she does not. The other half is television. Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) reads the news at TV1 under an editor, Torben Friis (Søren Malling), who wants the story tonight, and beside Hanne Holm (Benedikte Hansen), a veteran reporter. Malling is the quietest asset here. He never raises his voice, and he makes the newsroom feel like the building where the real power sits. The editors, a long roster of them, cut between palace and studio so that a decision taken in one becomes a headline in the other before the scene is over. Nine directors share the work, Charlotte Sieling, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen and Jesper W. Nielsen among them, and the look holds across all of them. Søren Gam and Dorte Knirke Madelung give Nyborg an office of pale wood and long tables, and TV1 a glass box in which everyone can watch everyone else fail. The light is Danish winter light, grey and low, and half the important conversations happen in the back of a car at night. Halfdan E’s theme is a short, cold piano figure over a pulse, and the episodes themselves run almost without music, which is the right decision for a series about people talking. Knudsen holds it together. She plays Nyborg as competent, warm and capable of surprising herself, and the moment in the first episode when she puts down her notes at the televised debate and simply talks moved us more than we were ready for. It was not the speech. It was her face afterwards, as if she had done something she could not take back, and the cut to Philip Christensen (Mikael Birkkjær), her husband, watching at home with their son Magnus (Emil Poulsen), knowing what it would mean for the three of them. Philip has agreed to put his own career second. We will not say how that goes. The flaw is tidiness. Problems arrive on Monday and are solved by Friday, and the right answer is usually visible; the only question is whether Nyborg can afford it. The opposition, Saltum aside, is a set of positions rather than people. The home scenes are written with the same neatness, and it suits them less, because a marriage does not resolve on a weekly schedule and once or twice the series behaves as though it might. The third season opens with a change we will not describe, brings in Lars Mikkelsen as Søren Ravn, an economist, and takes a few episodes to settle. The comparison everyone reaches for is [*The West Wing*](https://film.one/tv/the-west-wing), and it holds as far as it goes: both series love competent people and want us to love them too. *Borgen* is colder, and its politics is coalition politics, where nobody wins outright and every victory is on loan. Watch two episodes a night and not more. The problems are meant to be sat with, and the subtitles are quick. *Fi1m score 84, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are unanimous: every notice we have read is positive, and most critics call Borgen compelling before they call it anything else. The praise gathers around Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg, whose prime minister is found sympathetic, principled and, as the series goes on, harder than she started. Critics also credit the writing for making coalition politics watchable, for its interest in women holding power and the double standards they meet, and for asking repeatedly what idealism costs once you are in office. Those who return for the later series report that it loses none of its grip. The spread is narrow, running from good to very good rather than dividing anyone. Such reservations as exist come from one direction. Den of Geek finds the politics simplified and the episodic structure limiting, and thinks the show is closer to personal drama than to political insight. The Times, warm but cooler than the rest, notices how often it is funny. Nobody dislikes it. ### Reviews we read (9) - **Radio Times**, Lewis Knight (5 stars): The critic calls the fourth season a triumphant return for the Danish political drama, highlighting Birgitte Nyborg's evolution into a more ruthless figure amid conflicts over Greenland oil drilling, climate policy, and power versus principles. Praise centers on the strong performances by Sidse Babett Knudsen and Birgitte Hjort Sorensen, the timely themes, and the series' focus on women in power. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/borgen-season-4-power-glory-review/) - **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): Borgen is a fantastically compelling and intricate drama about politics, gender, change and power, with great characters. It is the best Danish TV drama since The Killing. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/jan/07/tv-review-borgen-sherlock) - **Evening Standard**, Nick Curtis (85/100, inferred): The review of the third and final season praises the series as ridiculously compelling, noting it has lost none of its edge, rich texture, or focus on compromise, the personal-political divide, and strong female characters. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/review-borgen-bbc-4-8942987.html) - **The Telegraph**, Clive James (85/100, inferred): The reviewer finds the Danish political drama highly engaging and far from boring, praising its tight narrative, emotional range, and the winning, nuanced performance of Sidse Babett Knudsen as the liberal, principled politician Birgitte Nyborg. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9027411/Clive-James-on...-Sherlock-Borgen-and-Public-Enemies.html) - **IndieWire**, Aljean Harmetz (80/100, inferred): The review praises Borgen's return for season 3, emphasizing its blend of political intrigue and psychological depth in following the characters' arcs. It highlights the show's compelling exploration of power dynamics and personal tolls as a standout quality. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/review-borgen-in-all-its-political-and-psychological-glory-is-back-for-season-3-195761/) - **The Independent**, Gerard Gilbert (80/100, inferred): The preview highlights Borgen as a compelling political thriller from the makers of The Killing, centering on a trailblazing female prime minister played by Sidse Babett Knudsen, and notes its strong ensemble of female characters and focus on integrity amid coalition politics. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/hei-fi/entertainment/there-is-nothing-like-a-dane-6285203.html) - **The Times**, Andrew Billen (70/100, inferred): Borgen is The Killing with no killing—a political thriller with integrity that is frequently funny and examines idealism versus pragmatism. It features a sympathetic central performance by Sidse Babett Knudsen as an idealist prime minister. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/weekend-tv-borgen-2n0rfgcs0jg) - **Den of Geek**, Liam Macleod (4/5): The critic praises the series as an accessible political drama with strong performances, especially from Sidse Babett Knudsen and Pilou Asbæk, and universal political themes. They single out the episodic structure and overly simplified politics for complaint, noting it leans more toward personal drama than deep political insight. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/borgen-series-1-dvd-review/) - **Paste**, Kaitlin Thomas (8.9): The new season continues the series' strong exploration of women navigating power and politics, offering fresh takes on familiar themes like personal sacrifice and ambition. It singles out the show's handling of double standards for women in leadership and its prescient commentary on climate and international relations. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/borgen/borgen-power-and-glory-review) ## Details - **Created by:** Adam Price, Camilla Hammerich - **Creator:** Adam Price, Camilla Hammerich - **Director:** Louise Friedberg, Jesper W. Nielsen, Mikkel Nørgaard, Annette K. Olesen, Charlotte Sieling, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, Jannik Johansen, Rumle Hammerich, Henrik Ruben Genz - **Writer:** Adam Price, Jeppe Gjervig Gram, Tobias Lindholm, Maja Jul Larsen, Jannik Tai Mosholt, Maren Louise Käehne - **Story:** Adam Price, Jeppe Gjervig Gram, Tobias Lindholm, Maja Jul Larsen, Jannik Tai Mosholt, Maren Louise Käehne, Emilie Lebech Kaae - **Editor:** Janne Bjerg Sørensen, Henrik Vincent Thiesen, Gerd Tjur, Andri Steinn, Elin Pröjts, My Thordal, Martin Schade, Lars Therkelsen, Peter Brandt, Nicolaj Monberg, Morten Egholm, Kasper Leick, Per K. Kirkegaard - **Music:** Halfdan E - **Production design:** Dorte Knirke Madelung, Søren Gam - **Cast:** Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg; Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Katrine Fønsmark; Mikael Birkkjær as Philip Christensen; Lars Knutzon as Bent Sejrø; Søren Malling as Torben Friis; Benedikte Hansen as Hanne Holm; Lars Mikkelsen as Søren Ravn; Emil Poulsen as Magnus Christensen - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 26 September 2010 - **Genres:** Drama ## Where to watch in the US - Netflix: streaming *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The West Wing* (1999), Fi1m 86: The warmer American cousin: competent people walking fast and talking faster. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-west-wing.md) - *The Thick of It* (2005), Fi1m 89: British politics as panic and profanity; the same corridors, none of the dignity. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-thick-of-it.md) - *The Killing* (2007): The Danish series that came first, with a murder instead of a coalition. - *Baron Noir* (2016): French party politics played rougher and dirtier, with the idealism mostly gone. - *A Hijacking* (2012): Tobias Lindholm’s film about a negotiation, patient and unsentimental in the same way. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/borgen