Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Series / Borgen

Go To

1%%
2%%
3%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
4%%
5%%
6[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/borgen.jpg]]
7
8Creator/{{DR}}, the broadcaster who brought you ''Series/{{Forbrydelsen}}'', now bring you ''Series/TheWestWing''... in Denmark.
9
10"Borgen" [[note]]/bɒwən/[[/note]] is Danish for "The Castle", a nickname for the Christiansborg Palace, the centre of the Danish government. The actual Danish pronunciation is more like "Bauwen". (DR marketed the series with the overseas title ''Government'', but Creator/TheBBC and Link TV chose to use the UntranslatedTitle when transmitting it in English.) The show is a Danish GovernmentProcedural by Adam Price, running from 2010 to 2013. It has been critically acclaimed for its realistic [[FictionalPoliticalParty fictional parties]] and its lack of [[StrawmanPolitical strawman stereotypes]], getting very high ratings in Denmark. The main character is Prime Minister [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent Birgitte Nyborg Christensen]] (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a minor centrist politician who becomes the first female Prime Minister of Denmark against all odds, and who is trying to balance politics, personal problems and her two kids.
11
12The supporting characters are Katrine Fønsmark (Creator/BirgitteHjortSorensen), a surprisingly intelligent journalist with a job at the public broadcaster [=TV1=]; her fellow journalist Hanne Holm (Benedikte Hansen), an equally bright, but [[LadyDrunk alcoholic]] TeamMom; Kasper Juul (Creator/PilouAsbaek), Birgitte's brilliant media consultant/spin doctor and Katrine's ex-boyfriend, who still carries a torch for her; Bent Sejrø (Lars Knutzon), Birgitte's mentor and TeamDad; and Michael Laugesen (Peter Mygind), the former Labour Party leader turned editor of the tabloid ''Ekspres'' (think ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Sun]]'') and ManipulativeBastard. Creator/LarsMikkelsen appears in Seasons 3 and 4 as Soren Ravn, an ex-communist professor who joins Birgitte's party; in Season 4 he's in a relationship with Katrine.
13
14The third and final season was shown in Denmark in late 2012, and abroad in Britain and Australia in 2013. In 2020, it was announced that the series will revived for a fourth season in 2022, after a deal was struck between DR and Creator/{{Netflix}}. The fourth season, called ''Borgen: Power & Glory'', ran in Denmark from February to April, 2022.
15----
16!!Tropes:
17
18* TenMinuteRetirement:
19** Shortly after leaving due to persistent media attention to his past as a card-carrying communist, Søren Ravn is recruited back into the New Democrats to help hash out their economic policy the following episode.
20** Katrine walks back on her sacking of [[spoiler: Narciza]] after receiving heavy backlash of it.
21** Magnus drops out of political science after seeing [[spoiler: his mother turn into the dark side.]] He returns once [[spoiler: Birgitte arranges to get herself transferred to Brussels.]]
22* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler:Kasper]] was sexually abused by his father.
23* AgainstMyReligion: Subverted. After [[spoiler:successfully pulling off the peace treaty in Africa]], Bent and Amir celebrate modestly with a bottle of fine brandy:
24-->'''Bent:''' Does your god allow you to drink it?
25-->'''Amir:''' [[SubvertedTrope Depends how good the brandy is.]]
26* TheAlcoholic: Hanne Holm, at least in the first two episodes of the first series and again in the first episode of the second.
27* AlternateUniverse: Not only does ''Borgen'' exist in a universe where Denmark's political parties are different, but its media catalogue and, in the case of Turgisia and Kharun, its international geography are alien to reality.
28* AmbitionIsEvil: Maybe not evil, but certainly not good. The show has a rogues gallery of careerist backstabbers, particularly Höxenhaven. And from the second series, [[spoiler: Jakob Kruse]], who compromises the principles of the party and creates a split for it.
29* AmericaSavesTheDay: Well, Denmark, but part of the reason Nyborg resolves the Kharun conflict is to improve upon Denmark's reputation as a xenophobic country.
30* AmicablyDivorced: By season 3, [[spoiler:the Nyborgs]]; by mid-season 3, [[spoiler:Kasper and Katrine]]. All of them are very civil and friendly to their respective exes.
31* AnimalWrongsGroup: Season 4 finds Birgitte's son Magnus having aged into an extremely irritating, politically strident college student. He's part of an animal rights group that steals a truck full of pigs and sets the pigs free. The pigs wander out onto a highway and half of them have to be euthanized.
32%%* ArmouredClosetGay: [[spoiler:Höxenhaven]].
33* AsYouKnow:
34** A question to Birgitte from someone at one of her lectures, in the first episode of the third season, mentions how she lost the general election to Hesselboe and retired from politics. This imparts the necessary information to the audience.
35** Some back and forth between Birgitte and her staffer in the first episode of Season 4 reveals that 1) she is Foreign Minister, 2) serving in the government of PM Signe Kragh, and 3) she and Kragh don't like each other even as they are serving together.
36* BadBoss: Laugesen as ''Ekspres'' editor-in-chief, often gets into loggerheads with Katrine and Hanne over editorial decisions, with him forcing the two into chasing angles they are uncomfortable with.
37* BittersweetEnding: In the third-season finale, [[spoiler:Birgitte's coalition narrowly loses the election and the previous right-wing governing coalition ends up up back in power, but Birgitte joins the coalition after the elections, gets them to tone down the policies she disagrees with, and becomes the Minister of Foreign Affairs, a job she is apparently very well-suited for, having an excellent command of English and French and having worked in business abroad]].
38* BlondeRepublicanSexKitten: Benedikte Nedergaard, Saltum's {{Starscream}} in the third season, is this, although (ironically given she's a Danish racial nationalist) she isn't blonde. When Ulrik asks point blank how much she trades on her looks, she retorts "As much as you do."
39* BookEnds: In the first episode, Birgitte and her family enter Christiansborg in triumph after an unexpectedly successful election - and then again in the last one.
40* BoomerangBigot: Nadia Suleiman, a Pakistani woman who starts out as a financial commentator for [=TV1=] but is fired because its director sees her as a "Palestinian [sic] end-days prophet". Later she goes on to be integration spokesperson at the New Democrats, where it is eventually revealed that she didn't want people from lesser developed countries (with radical ideas like Salafism) in Denmark - even some of her family. She says this in a way that sounds like a coded race appeal. To be fair, she did tell them.
41* BreakTheCutie: The job nearly does this to Nyborg on a few occasions.
42* BreakingSpeech: By Saltum, when Kasper and Nyborg are successively forced to come to his office and apologize for antagonizing him.
43* {{Bulungi}}: Two Season 2 episodes deal with Birgitte negotiating a peace agreement between the central government and the separatist southern region of a fictitious East African nation called Kharun, which is definitely not Sudan. (Just like Sudan, the northern region has Arabic-looking people who are mostly Muslim, and the southern region has sub-Saharan-looking people who are mostly Christian.)
44* TheBusCameBack:
45** In a stressful moment in Season 4 Birgitte drops by to visit Bent, her old political mentor, now retired. She's saddened to discover that Bent is being tested for dementia.
46** Niels Erik, the ''Statsministeriet's'' permanent secretary, doesn't appear for most of Season 3 except for a bit in the season finale where he welcomes Birgitte outside of the PM's office.
47* BusinessTripAdultery: A secondary plot of season 4 centers on Asger's affair with the married Emmy Rasmussen.
48* ButNowIMustGo: Having made one too many soul-killing compromises in Season 4, mostly flip-flopping on the Greenland oil issue, and having some dark personal moments like when she insults her own son on live television, Birgitte decides she needs to get out of politics. She surprises everyone by resigning her posts, although PM Kragh is apparently going to appoint her to a non-political role as Denmark's representative to the European Commission.
49* ButtMonkey: Bjørn Marrot is this to his own party, in particular Laugesen.
50* TheCasanova: Laugesen according to himself. To the point where he assures [[spoiler: Birgitte that one of the New Democrats' senior members is loyal to her]] because he slept with her.
51* CastingGag: Emil Poulsen (Magnus) played Sidse Babett Knudsen's son before in the 2009 movie Film/OverGadenUnderVandet (released internationally as ''Above the Street, Below The Water'').
52* {{Catchphrase}}:
53** Birgitte to Bent when she needs his advice on a thorny situation:
54---> ''What are my options?''
55** Asger to Birgitte when she also needs his advice. This one shows how cynical the latter had become by season 4:
56---> ''Are we for or against oil today?''
57* ChekhovsGun: Magnus' drawing of whales as a grade schooler will come in handy towards the end of season 4.
58* TheChessmaster: Kasper, in his role as Nyborg's spin doctor.
59* ChildrenAreInnocent: A firmly-held belief by Kasper. Not so with Saltum.
60* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The Labour party in season 1, aimed both at Birgitte and at each other. Lampshaded by Marrot, who admits they have a reputation for infighting.
61* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Several prominent political characters from the first two seasons disappear after the TimeSkip between Seasons 2 and 3 and Season 3 and 4. [[note]]This can be considered TruthInTelevision: elections took place, some characters lost their seat or didn't stand for election at all, and disappeared from the political arena as a result[[/note]]
62** Lars Hesselboe, who was the Liberal prime minister (and Brigitte's boss) at the end of Season 3, doesn't return in Season 4, most likely due to Søren Spanning (the actor who played Hesselboe) passing away in 2020. No mention of his fate is given in-universe, but the fact that the prime minister (Kragh) in Season 4 is from the Labour party, implies that his party lost the last election, and he stepped down as party leader.
63** Both Hanne Holm and Ulrik (one of the news anchors and Katrine's former [[FriendlyRivalry rival]] in the newsroom) seem to have left [=TV1=] before the start Season 4. While this can probably be explained as both having moved on to different jobs, the former isn't mentioned at all, even though Katrine and Hanne were [[TeamMom quite]] [[TheMentor close]]. Ulrik is at least mentioned in Episode 7, where his salary is used as a bargaining chip so Narciza could get a raise.
64%%* CigaretteOfAnxiety: Amir.
65* ClingyJealousGirl: Nyborg, when her ex starts seeing another woman that her children like.
66* CondescendingCompassion: Basically Saltum’s attitude towards delinquent Muslim teens living in poverty and Pernille Madsen’s towards sex workers in [=S03E05=].
67* ContemplativeBoss: Birgitte is shown with her back to the viewer while looking out of a window and with her arms folded behind her at the end of the credit sequence.
68* CorruptPolitician: Labor party leader Laugesen explicitly acknowledges that Denmark is run by a tiny circle of industrialists, media men and politicians. He has no problem with that, as long as he is among them.
69* CreatorProvincialism: The government is shown mostly dealing with the country's internal affairs rather than international ones. Aversions include:
70** Season 1 has plots dealing with {{UsefulNotes/CIA}} operations in Greenland and a state visit from the fictional post-Soviet country of Turgisia.
71** Season 2 with the Afghanistan and Kharun storylines.
72** Season 4 goes back to Greenland, but the great powers get involved this time around.
73* TheCynic: Kasper. In the first season finale Katrine marvels at how cynical he is even when writing speeches that connect with the hearts of the people, and she remembers how Kasper once said he could sell anyone's political platform.
74* DaEditor: Laugesen for ''Ekspres'' and Torben for [=TV1=] in the original trilogy. Katrine becomes this for the latter in season 4.
75* DarkerAndEdgier: Season 4 is considerably more cynical than the original trilogy, showing Birgitte holding to her power as foreign minister and Katrine navigating through editorial differences with star anchor Narciza Aydin; both set within the backdrop of an oil find in Greenland, where Arctic geopolitics, climate change, and Greenland's relations with Denmark are featured front and center.
76* DarkSecret: Kasper's childhood. [[spoiler:He was sexually abused by his father, who also let other pedophiles have their way with him. Kasper eventually snapped and stabbed his father, leading him to be sent in a juvenile institution with his identity changed.]] Kasper remains haunted by his past, and tries to keep it hidden from Katrine through pathological lies, until he eventually sends her [[spoiler:a recording of the news story reporting his father's arrest]]. It is also the reason why Kasper [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech rips into]] Saltum when he moves to lower Denmark's legal age of criminal responsibility to 12.
77* DeckOfWildCards: The Labour Party goes through a revolving door of leaders up until halfway into season 2.
78* DecoyProtagonist: Laugesen is introduced as the leader of the Labour party, which would make him the principal antagonist of the heroine. But he is immediately removed from office and turns to journalism, which makes him more of a minor annoyance.
79* DeskSweepOfRage: In episode 1-10 Birgitte freaks out and sweeps everything off her desk, including a glass vase that smashes, after simultaneously she 1) has to fire Bent and 2) has found out her husband wants a divorce.
80* DrivenToSuicide:
81** [[spoiler: Troels]] is involuntarily outed after a sting operation involving a male escort posing as a photographer. Birgitte tries to convince him that it doesn't have to end his political career, but he is clearly shattered by it and ends up committing suicide.
82** [[spoiler: Katrine's source in episode 1-4]] kills himself after he receives a threat that an old criminal case of his will be divulged.
83** [[spoiler: Malik Johansen in season 4]] is implied to have committed suicide after a botched attempt at bugging a meeting on behalf of the [[BigBrotherIsWatchingThisIndex PET]]. Asger and Tanja believe he didn't.
84* DrunkWithPower:
85** Averted in the first three seasons. Nyborg keeps a good head on her shoulders where her job is concerned, despite the havoc it wreaks on her personal life.
86** Season 4 has Birgitte's descent into this shown front and center.
87* EpisodeTitleCard: Each episode gets two: one with an apposite quote at the very beginning, and one with the actual title right after the credits.
88* ExecutiveMeddling: InUniverse.
89** Not as prominent in the first two seasons, as season 3 shows that Torben had a sympathetic direct superior. All hell breaks loose once Alex Hjort comes in though.
90** [=TV1=] happens to be in the middle of funding negotiations with the government in season 4. Cue Frederik "suggesting" Birgitte [[spoiler: to kill off a feature on the Kragh government and refraining from criticizing the administration.]]
91* FanDisservice: The actor playing him is handsome, but Kasper's ass isn't.
92* FeedTheMole: Nyborg realizes the New Democrats have a high-ranking mole when the Moderates start copying all their policies (and also book the hall they want for a rally). There's a party leader debate happening the next night, so Katrine leaks different versions of Birgitte's debate prep to each suspect, to see whose lead Kruse ends up following.
93* {{Frenemy}}: Nyborg and Hesselboe. On a different level, Nyborg and ''Saltum'' have hints of this.
94** In the last episode Juul and Saltum are having a friendly chat.
95* {{Foreshadowing}}: Emmy, Asger, and Malik climb Nakkaavik, a cliff where the elderly used to jumped from during famines. At the end of the episode, [[spoiler: we see a shot of Malik's corpse on the same location.]]
96* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler: Kasper]] was abused as a child, leading to his present-day cynicism and intimacy issues.
97* FictionalPoliticalParty: The seven parties are not the real-life ones in Denmark, but some mirror the actual ones to a degree. They also seem to represent a simplified left-right "sliding scale" that's easier for the viewer to understand.
98** Nyborg's centre-left coalition consists of:
99*** The Solidarisk Samling/Solidarity Party (hard-left with Muslims like Aicha Nagrawi, led by Anna-Sophie Linderkrone, resembling the real-life Red-Green Coalition)
100*** The Miljøpartiet/Green Party (left-wing & green like the Socialist People's Party, led by Amir Diwan)
101*** The Arbejderpartiet/Labour Party (centre-left, like the real-life Social Democrats, and modernising under Laugesen)
102*** The De Moderate/Moderate Party (centre-left/centre, like the Social Liberal Party in real-life).
103** On the right, meanwhile, are:
104*** The De Liberale/Liberals (centre-right, clearly based on the real-life Venstre)
105*** The Ny Højre/New Right (right-wing conservative, led by Yvonne Kjær, similar to the Conservative People's Party)
106*** The Frihedspartiet/Freedom Party (hard-right and stated to be descended from Glistrup's Progress, just like the real-life Danish People's Party).
107** In the third season, we get the Nye Demokrater/New Democrats, another centre-left party, as the Moderates move centre-right.
108* FieryRedhead: Nete Buch in the third series combines her brilliance on the debate floor with childlike enthusiasm.
109* FootDraggingDivorcee: Nyborg doesn't really want to divorce Philipp in season 2, and delays signing the papers for a while. Even after she agrees to the divorce, she keeps trying to win him back until he accuses her of being in denial about how far apart they've grown.
110* GlassesPull: Katrine's editor at [=TV1=] whips off his glasses a lot, like when Katrine produces her previously anonymous source from military intelligence at the station, or when he's screaming with rage after Katrine broke an agreement and asked a personal question of PM Nyborg during an interview.
111* GoodCopBadCop: Asger tells his boss Birgitte that they need to lean on the American ambassador to help Birgitte out, now that she is in a difficult position because she did the ambassador a favor. He suggests they use the good cop, bad cop routine.
112-->'''Birgitte''': Are you the bad cop?\
113'''Asger''': No, you're just the more important cop.
114* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Zig Zagged. In the first series, Katrine finds out she is pregnant as the result of an affair with a married (dead) man, but decides to keep the baby regardless. When her mother finds out, she puts Katrine under considerable pressure to have an abortion, and Katrine, hurt at her mother's lack of support, relents. Though she clearly didn't want to have the termination, she recovers and moves on with her life.
115* GreenEyedMonster:
116** Kasper doesn't take Katrine's relationship with Benjamin well.
117** Birgitte, who becomes suspicious of Phillip's (innocent) relationship with one of his female students.
118* HappyMarriageCharade: The Hesselboes. And by the end of series 1, [[spoiler: the Nyborgs]]. The latter narrowly avert it by [[spoiler: divorcing]].
119* HoldingTheFloor: Essentially what Saltum tries to do when he arranges to have Nyborg questioned before parliament over her government's approach to juvenile offenders.
120* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Episodes 5 of season 3 revolves around the issue of protection and rights of sex workers, featuring the head of the Danish sex workers’ union, Helene, who is very pleased with her work. This trope is [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] in depth, and Helene says [[DefiedTrope she is opposed to this term]], as ‘you never hear about a happy real estate agent’.
121* HeteronormativeCrusader: One scene in season 2 has Birgitte warned in advance that South Kharun's leader holds strongly homophobic views.
122* HeWhoFightsMonsters:
123** Amir's attitude when Nyborg's concessions to polluters causes him to resign from both the Ministry of the Environment and the Green Party.
124** Birgitte in season 4 betrays her principles to stay in Kragh's good graces to the point that [[spoiler: Magnus quits political science and her party suffers from defections, up to and including co-founder Nadia, the Climate and Energy minister.]]
125* HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier: Subverted. A touchy moment in Season 4 has Birgitte negotiating with the Chinese ambassador, about Greenland, with each of them speaking in English. Birgitte's deputy leans into her ear and mutters in Danish about how she should be careful when discussing "telecommunications and rare earth metals." Soon after the staffer leaves, the Chinese ambassador catches Birgitte by surprise by switching to Danish, in which he is fluent.
126* HighClassCallGirl: A High-Class Call ''Boy'' becomes the source of Höxenhaven's demise.
127* HollywoodHeartAttack: [[spoiler:Bent's stroke in the second season.]]
128* {{Homage}}: Birgitte Hjort Sørensen was influenced by ''The West Wing'', specifically CJ Cregg, in her portrayal of Katrine; her line delivery is done in a way that makes her sound like CJ... especially when she speaks English.
129* HypocriticalHumor: Courtesy of Birgitte: "I've never asked for a man's approval in my entire life! How do I look?"
130* HouseHusband: Phillip. Denmark having a different view of gender roles than in the Americas, of course no-one bats an eyelid.
131* IAteWhat: Birgitte is thoroughly enjoying a dinner in Hong Kong in the Season 3 premiere. When her boyfriend tells her it's snake, she gets sick.
132* IHaveNoSon: An odd "I Have No Justice Minister" example is Birgitte's reaction when she discovers that [[spoiler:Höx leaked a recording of Anne Sophie contemplating abduction in order to save his job]].
133* InformedAbility: Birgitte is supposedly an experienced politician, yet seems to be unaware of even the most elementary aspects of politics. She needs people to explain to her that government positions such as minister of education and minister of health care are liabilities rather than assets for a political party since they require large budgets but confer no bargaining power. Similarly, the leader of the extreme right party has to explain to her that negotiations between them are a waste of time because the two parties have no common ground and cannot form a government together and even has to point out to her that when negotiating from strength one should sit at the head of the table.
134** Even her family joins in this. Neither her husband nor her children appear to have any idea of the amount of time and energy that her job as prime-minister will require.
135** Bent, who is considered a veteran of Danish politics gives up after less than one day of negotiations, whereas in reality such negotiations commonly take weeks or months.
136** Tore Gudme is an in-universe example. Supposedly skilled in rhetoric he falls well short of the mark and is fired from his position as spin-doctor.
137* InformedFlaw: Kasper has a reputation as a heart-breaker, but on-screen he shows interest in a grand total of three women, only one of whom he ever actually had a relationship with. Less so in series 2, when we start to see more of Kasper's dysfunctional dealings with women.
138* IntergenerationalFriendship: Birgitte and Bent. He's old enough to be her father but they are close personal friends, she goes to him for personal advice when she's stressed, and of all the sacrifices she makes in Season 1, firing Bent is the worst.
139* IntrepidReporter:
140** In the first two seasons, Katrine and Hanne's muckraked on whatever issue the government was dealing with. And their investigations don't stop at political matters - they even dug deep on [[spoiler: Höx's death]] after Laugesen tried to browbeat the two into [[spoiler: outing the guy.]]
141** Torben in season 4 as a political commentator is shown to be no slouch either where he helps Katrine with material on the dynamics of Kragh's government. He, after all, has a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavling_Prize Cavling prize]] to his name.
142* IWasYoungAndNeededTheMoney: What one minister basically says when it's revealed she was a lingerie model when younger.
143* JerkassHasAPoint: several examples
144** Alex Hjort, Torben's boss in season 3. He’s smug, condescending and only cares about the ratings, but Torben’s serious high standards are of little interest to the viewers, who are paying for [=TV1=] with their tax money, and his suggestion to liven up the first debate turns out to be a success. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] towards the end of the season when he goes too far with the third debate.
145** Saltum, when he points out Birgitte's poor negotiation techniques and tthe fact that she's wasting time talking to him.
146* KickTheDog: Saltum does permanent damage to his own career by chopping off a piglet's tail during a live TV interview. (ItMakesSenseInContext.)
147* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: In the first debate in season 3, Ulrik is made to do this to [[spoiler:Birgitte]], revealing that she had little understanding of her own political platform. What makes this extra harsh is that it’s due to [[spoiler:her cancer treatments damaging her ability to stay alert and focused]].
148* KickedUpstairs:
149** Nyborg ejects Jacob Kruse from her inner circle and appoints him as Denmark's EU Commissioner when he betrays her and Bent by [[spoiler:deliberately endangering Bent by not sharing that he'd had a stroke and should cut back on work]], all to lay groundwork for his own future campaign for prime minister. To make it worse, because he is assigned late, he is given a very minor position.
150** Birgitte herself in Season 4, which finds her as Foreign Minister in PM Kragh's government. This ''should'' be a pretty powerful position, but Kragh regards Birgitte as a political rival, and she has put Birgitte in charge of foreign affairs to ice her out of domestic Danish politics. She also does petty things like scheduling her own press conferences at the same time as Birgitte's in order to rob Birgitte of publicity. At the end of the season, [[spoiler: Birgitte arranges for herself to be kicked upstairs even further, getting appointed as EU Commissioner!]]
151** Katrine has Torben promoted to [=TV1=]'s political editor in exchange for [[spoiler: refraining from criticism of Signe Kragh's government, as the network is in the middle of funding negotiations. [[LoopholeAbuse He decides to blast the government on air]] '''[[LoopholeAbuse as political editor]]''']].
152* LaserGuidedKarma:
153** [[spoiler:Kasper and Birgitte try to damage Amir by accusing him of hypocrisy for promoting environmentalism while owning a gas-guzzling classic car, and the resulting press persecution of him and his family drives him out of politics. By the end of the series, the same thing has (temporarily) happened to Birgitte and her family after the row over her daughter being sent to a private mental hospital.]]
154** Josva tells Birgitte that his recent whaling difficulties may have been the Mother of the Sea's way of getting back at him for accepting said boat as a bribe from the Chinese.
155* LateArrivalSpoiler: [[spoiler:The Nyborgs are divorced by season 2.]]
156* LonelyFuneral: The funeral of Kasper's [[spoiler: abusive]] father is attended only by himself and Katrine.
157* LoveTriangle: Series 3 flirts with the idea with, on the one hand, Nyborg, [[spoiler: her ex-husband Philip, and her new English boyfriend Jeremy]], and, on the other hand, Katrine, [[spoiler: her ex Kasper, and new lover Soren Ravn.]] For the most part it's averted though, and both women [[spoiler: are still with their new partners by the time the series ends]].
158* LoyalToThePosition:
159** Niels Erik remains the Prime Minister's permanent secretary by season 4.
160** Discussed in season 4 where Oliver asks Rasmus whether he should remain loyal to Birgitte or the ministry. The latter tells him to be loyal to both, but that he should preferably pick the ministry over the minister.
161* MaidenNameDebate: Birgitte Nyborg Christensen reverts to her maiden name of Birgitte Nyborg at the end of the first season.
162* MandatoryUnretirement:
163** After giving up politics, Amir gets dragged in again when Birgitte picks him as her necessary Arabic-speaking and Islamic representative in the Kharun peace talks.
164** Happens to Birgitte herself when she [[spoiler:loses the general election announced at the end of Season 2, and subsequently leaves office]]. Two years later, Birgitte [[spoiler:has no plans to resume a political career until she sees how Jacob Kruse is toeing the line to Hesselboe's agenda and making the Moderate Party increasingly right-wing.]]
165* ManipulativeBastard: Laugesen is the most consistent example, though Kasper definitely has shades of this too. The entire Labour Party becomes a collective Manipulative Bastard when it tricks its own leader, Bjørn Marrot, into making a series of public gaffes in order to discredit and fire him. Jacob Kruse in the second series, until he badly over-reaches himself.
166* MarriedToTheJob:
167** As Bent reveals at the end of series 1, virtually everyone in Christiansborg suffers from this to some extent. Divorces and open marriages are common among the politicians.
168** Hanne Holm, which led to her ex-husband gaining sole custody of their daughter.
169** Then of course there's Birgitte herself, who got divorced and was a semi-absentee mother for much of her children's lives. In the 2022 revival series she says she's glad that she's got an empty nest now and she can devote herself completely to politics--but she also regards the possibility of resignation with horror, observing that she lives alone and sends herself flowers and wondering who she is if she's not working 19-hour days as the Foreign Minister.
170* MentorArchetype:
171** Bent to Nyborg; Friis and Hanne Holm to Katrine.
172** It is also heavily implied that Nyborg was this to Lindekrone.
173* MissingMom: As stated above, Hanne Holm is herself one, having been absent for most of her daughter's childhood and all but loosing contact with her after her divorce, after which custody of the then five-year-old was granted to her ex-husband.
174* TheMole: [[spoiler:Nete becomes Kruse's mole in the New Democrats after she loses faith in their ability to succeed.]]
175* TheMutiny: Hanne and Ulrik stage one of these in season 3 [[spoiler: when Alex has Torben fired for scrapping Alex's plan to stage the final debate like a cheesy game show]].
176* NaiveNewcomer: Nyborg, to an extent. She didn't expect being elected prime minister prior to the election.
177* NewMediaAreEvil:
178** As the editor of the tabloid ''Ekspres'', Laugesen uses vitriolic viral video editorials to constantly criticize Nyborg and her coalition allies. DR runs a fake website for ''Ekspres'' which features videos by both Laugesen and Saltum.
179** In season 3, [=TV1's=] Torben Friis is asked by his boss to sex up political coverage with game show-style political debates, etc.
180* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
181** [[spoiler:Kasper's attempt to damage Amir's image to make the Greens more co-operative leads to Amir getting monstered by the press so badly that he gives up politics completely, the Greens leave the coalition, and Birgitte is left leading a minority government.]]
182** [[spoiler:Nyborg's idea to call a new general election leads to the end of her government; her resignation as prime minister; the return of Hesselboe to office; and the return of Kruse, who proceeds to make the Moderates as right-wing as Hesselboe's party.]]
183* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Laugesen's attempt to discredit Hesselboe during a televised debate spectacularly backfires when the voters reject both him and Hesselboe in favor of Nyborg.
184* NoBisexuals: The reaction to [[spoiler: Troels Hoxenhaven's]] affair with a rent boy reeks of this.
185* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
186** Saltum bears a major physical resemblance to the late [[http://www.jyskeslaegter.dk/Uploads/3659/2012-06-02-04-28-20-970-171a1191-db8c-4d39-8253-a12e992e33c7.jpg Mogens Glistrup]], a far-right party leader.
187** The backgrounds of the two Kharunese leaders greatly resemble the leaders of Sudan and South Sudan around the time Season 2 was aired:
188*** North Kharunese leader Omar al-Jawhar is said to have a pending ICC arrest warrant, not unlike [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_al-Bashir Omar al-Bashir]].
189*** Jakob Lokoya of South Kharun has a line seemingly drawn from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salva_Kiir_Mayardit Salva Kiir Mayardit's]] interview with Dutch radio where he discussed his homophobic views.
190%%
191%%
192%% OK, someone has to say who these two characters mentioned below are similar to in real life, because the description given for the first one is way too vague, and the second one doesn't have a description at all.
193%%
194%%
195%% ** Balding strong-man president of a former Soviet state with a questionable human rights record and Soviet significant clout on the future of Danish energy production, anyone?
196%% ** Not to mention the Danish captain of industry.
197* NonIndicativeName: The Liberals are right-wing, which makes them this trope for American viewers. However, note that in Denmark and most of the rest of Europe, the term is used exactly for the type of politics the Liberals stand for.
198* OffTheWagon: Inevitably, Hanne Holm. In one episode Kasper and Katrine have to work together to sneak Hanne out of the building, after she comes stumbling out of a bathroom stall, falling-down drunk. Out of a mens' room stall.
199* OpenMouthInsertFoot: Saltum realizes an instant too late that he has shot himself in the foot, when he blurts out on TV that pig farmers, including himself, raise "garbage" because it is what the consumers want.
200* TheOphelia: Nyborg's daughter Laura has a complete mental breakdown in Season 2. Her parents have to commit her to a sanitarium for therapy, something that gets weaponized against Birgitte.
201* OutOfFocus:
202** Kasper in Season 3, which is surprising since he was one of the three protagonists in the first two seasons. But in the third season it's Katrine that's the spin doctor for Birgitte, and Torben that gets the storylines from the [=TV1=] newsroom (an affair, a combative relationship with his new boss). Creator/PilouAsbaek has little to do in the third season other than a brief storyline where he and Katrine are arguing about taking care of their son. He is PutOnABus in Season 4, with Katrine briefly mentioning he works in London now.
203** Laugesen is mostly absent in the third season, replaced by Alex as a more subtle evil media person. He returns to a more prominent role in the fourth season as a political commentator and [[spoiler: Brigittes unofficial spin doctor]].
204* OverlyNervousFlopSweat: In episode 3-4 Svend Age makes a political blunder by chopping off a pig's tail live on TV. It's a thing that pig farmers do to stop pigs from biting each other, but it looks super-bad on TV. The next day he is desperately mopping his huge bald forehead in front of the press, while his spin doctor attempts to contain the damage.
205* {{Paparazzi}}: A particularly unspeakable case, [[spoiler:persecuting mentally fragile psychiatric patients.]]
206* PhotoOpWithTheDog: Laugesen suggests [[spoiler: Birgitte model her Instagram profile to be similar to Signe Kragh's.]] It kinda works.
207* PlatonicProstitution: Laugesen hires an escort to seduce Höxenhaven. Katrine and Hanne find out and hire the same escort to tell them about it.
208* PlayingTheVictimCard: Both Birgitte and Kasper accuse Saltum of this, with good reason: his political tactics are usually based on saying disgusting things in public and claiming to be the victim of Political Correctness when people get angry.
209* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
210** Saltum, who is incredibly racist, and can come to an American viewer as quite redneck-ish.
211** Laugesen at first professes to be left-wing, but he's later shown to be homophobic, sexist towards Nyborg, bigoted towards immigrants, basically completely unprincipled in the pursuit of power, and Islamophobic e-mails eventually bring down his political career. Once his political career is over and he takes over as editor of the ''Ekspres'' he becomes an anti-PC populist, and when Nyborg goes after the Moderates in Season 3 the ''Ekspres'' starts running muck-raking headlines about what a bitch she is, suggesting that Laugesen ends up in bed with the Moderates.
212* PompousPoliticalPundit: Laugesen on screen is just as much of an asshole as he is on print.
213* PopUpTexting: Lots of this in Season 4. Birgitte tends to get into tense text exchanged with PM Kragh. One of these becomes a ChekhovsGun, when a text sent by one of Birgitte's underlings, one with some incriminating info, gets her into a lot of trouble.
214* PutOnABus: Kasper, who went OutOfFocus in Season 3, is simply absent from the 2022 revival. There's a throwaway mention of him that explains he now works in London.
215* TheResenter: Ulrik occasionally resented Katrine being assigned to report on the major (plot-relevant) news items in [=TV1=].
216* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Birgitte herself, and also Torben Friis (mostly).
217* ReassignedToAntarctica:
218** In episode 2-2, being assigned to the EU as a commissioner is described as this since it apparently has been used to get rid of politicians who were too troublesome on the homefront; the discussion provides the episode title, "In Brussels, No One Can Hear You Scream".
219** Episode 4-1 has Birgitte transfer Arctic ambassador Kaare Mathiesen to a consular post in Manila after leaking news of the Greenland oil find to ''Ekspres''.
220* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
221** Kasper gives one to Saltum in Episode 16, calling him a "political parasite".
222** In the second episode, Hanne Holm gives a particularly vocal one about Katrine's shallow understanding of journalism.
223** In the fourth season finale, we get a literal example. [[spoiler: Bent makes a speech at the emergency New Democrat congress where he says he no long recognises Birgitte and endorses her leadership rival. It proves effective and Birgitte realises she has gone too far. She gets Kragh to reverse the decision to exploit the oil find in Denmark, before coming out to resign as party leader.]]
224* RejectedApology: In the third season, Laugesen tries to apologise to Birgitte privately for his persecution of Laura when she was mentally ill, but Birgitte refuses to accept any apology unless it's in the paper as prominently as the original stories.
225* RightBehindMe: In the second episode, Birgitte is summoned to see the Queen of Denmark so she can be appointed "Royal Investigator" (which means she can start negotiating a coalition). There's a delay and Birgitte wonders how long the... certain word for a woman... is going to be, as a footman arrives to tell her that Her Majesty is ready.
226%%* TheRival: Hesselboe to Nyborg.
227* RightForTheWrongReasons: Hanne is sharp enough to catch on that Katrine is sexually involved with ''someone'' powerful. Unfortunately, she's too self-involved with her own sacking and assumes Katrine slept with the news editor.
228* {{Ruritania}}: One episode revolves around the visit of the president of the former Soviet republic of Turgisia.
229* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Nadia Barazani quits on [[spoiler: her Climate and Energy ministerial post, and the New Democrats over Birgitte's U-turn on the Greenland oil issue.]]
230* ShownTheirWork: Inverted in-universe. Nyborg usually relies on having hard facts to back up her arguments, but in season 3 she's preparing for a crucial TV debate and because she's distracted [[spoiler: by, among other things, pre-cancerous cells that have been found in her breast which she hasn't told anyone else about]], she fails to pay attention to an explanation of the tricky details of her party's economic policy. As a result, she flubs it live on TV, which makes it easy for her opponents to paint her as someone who doesn't know what she's talking about. [[spoiler: She doesn't make the same mistake twice.]]
231* SlapSlapKiss: Kasper and Katrine have this dynamic in the first two seasons.
232* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Kind of in limbo between the two, actually. Becomes especially apparent in comparison with its [[Series/TheWestWing highly idealistic American]] and [[Series/TheThickOfIt incredibly cynical British]] [[TransAtlanticEquivalent counterparts]]. The show partly focuses on Nyborg's struggles to reach her goals and make her premiership a success without compromising her integrity. Bent slides towards idealism, while Kasper slides towards cynicism. With the latter, so does Amir, eventually.
233** In ''Power and Glory'', Nyborg [[spoiler: moves progressively in the cynical direction, starting by changing her position on the oil in Greenland to keep her job as Foreign Minister and hiring Laugesen as a spin doctor. By the end of the season, she's realised she has gone too far and moves back down the scale.]]
234* SorryThatImDying: So writes Jørgen Hedegård's son, serving in Afghanistan, in his last letter to his father.
235* StartMyOwn: Kruse refuses to let Birgitte back into the Moderate Party at the beginning of Season 3. She challenges him for Moderate Party leadership and fails. So she's left out in the political wilderness... until she decides to form her own new party, the New Democrats.
236* StrawmanNewsMedia: In season 3, Alex Hjort, the Head of Programmes for [=TV1=], persistently attempts to dumb-down the channel's news coverage in relentless pursuit of ratings, which wouldn't be so bad except that he seems to believe that there's no conflict between this and the station's reputation for 'integrity', and he treats the people who work under him as morons. Witness his CatchPhrase: whenever people try to argue that he's wrecking the show and is acting like a {{Jerkass}}, he gets a call on his mobile, turns his back on his discontented employees, says to the person on the other end 'Oh, nothing, it's just a staff issue' and walks away. [[spoiler: Eventually he goes too far, provokes a mutiny among the anchors, and gets fired.]]
237* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: The credits contain a not-quite-standard disclaimer, declaring (paraphrased) "no similarity is intended or should be inferred to real persons or events ''after 1982''".
238* ThisIsThePartWhere: As Birgitte leans on the American ambassador in a fateful Season 4 meeting, he says "I guess this is the point where I ask how I can scratch your back?"
239* TimeSkip: A startling one between Seasons 2 and 3. Season 2 ends with a couple of big sequel hooks, namely Birgitte calling an election, and Kasper agreeing to have a child with Katrine. Season 3 skips forward 2 1/2 years to reveal that the election happened, Birgitte lost, and she is out of politics; and Kasper and Katrine got married, had their baby, and divorced.
240* TitleDrop
241** Almost every episode has the title mentioned somewhere in the dialogue.
242** The 2022 revival season has one in the season (and apparently series) finale. As Birgitte is off to the climactic New Democrats leadership conference, a TV news anchor says "this is all about the power and the glory."
243* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: Birgitte is interviewed on [=TV1=], and Katrine is horrified to watch 1) Birgitte doing a 180 on drilling for oil live on the air, 2) Katrine's interviewer refusing to press Birgitte. Immediately afterward they both wind up on the same elevator downstairs. Katrine says that if she'd been asking the questions she would have nailed Birgitte, and Birgitte essentially answers that she wasn't, so too bad.
244* UntranslatedTitle: ''Borgen'' means "The Castle" in Danish, but is often used as a slang expression for the government similar to "The Kremlin." DR marketed the series in English-speaking countries as ''Government'', but the BBC decided to go with the untranslated original.
245* ViewersAreMorons: Invoked in Alex's attempts to reshape [=TV1's=] news broadcasts.
246* ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: After speaking with representatives of Afghan non-governmental organisations, who thank her for her country's aid in fighting the Taliban and urge her to keep the troops on the ground until the Afghans are ready to fend for themselves, Nyborg begins to rethink her position on Denmark's presence in Afghanistan.
247--> '''Bent:''' I wanted the Taliban removed, yes, but through democratic means.
248--> '''Nyborg:''' How, Bent? How can you remove a dictatorship democratically?
249* WalkAndTalk: Usually averted, but employed deliberately in the finale of series 2, to express the different style of running government while Thorsen is in charge.
250* TheWarRoom: During the Somali hostage crisis.
251* WhenYouComingHomeDad: Birgitte and her kids constantly, and [[spoiler:Katrine and her son in the final season]].
252* WildCard: In the second debate, [[spoiler:Birgitte reveals that her party will become this and refuse to declare anyone as their preferred candidate for Prime Minister]].
253* WillTheyOrWontThey:
254** Katrine and Kasper. [[spoiler:By season 2 they finally get back together, between season 2 and 3 they have a child and get divorced, and by mid-season 3 they are finally AmicablyDivorced.]]
255** Asger and Emmy in season 4, which ends in [[spoiler: NoResolution. It's implied he'll go after her though, once Birgitte tells him that she "may not be a mistake."]]
256* WhatDidIDoLastNight: In Season 2, Nyborg, drunken and emotionally destitute, impulsively sleeps with her driver. When she wakes up the next morning and sees her clothes strewn on the floor, you can tell this is what she is asking herself in her head.
257* WhatIfTheBabyIsLikeMe: Kasper's extreme unwillingness to have children, [[spoiler:due to not wanting to continue the line of his abusive father, and/or fearing that he'll become abusive once he has a child]].
258%%* WomenAreWiser: Played with.
259* {{Workaholic}}: Birgitte morphs into one of these over the course of the series. In her defence, she is the Prime Minister. Also Katrine, although not to the same extent.
260* WoundedGazelleGambit: Saltum tries this when he is mugged by hoodlums, using his ordeal to force the issue of enacting tougher penalties for juvenile offenders.
261* WrongNameOutburst: Kasper calls Lotte "Katrine", right when they drink to moving in together.
262%%* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: According to Bayanov.

Top