Presenting Tobias Lindholm

Beginning as one of Borgen’s main writers during the series’ first two years, Tobias Lindholm eventually branched out to feature films in 2012, co-authoring with director Thomas Vinterberg the stellar drama The Hunt / Jagden (easy to earn an Oscar Nomination for Best Foreign film), and writing / directing the low-key drama A Hijacking / Kapringen, where the negotiations to free hostages from Somali pirates is the focus instead of an action-packed rescue.

I’ve uploaded reviews of both films, released this past fall on DVD and Blu-ray in North America, plus Season 3 of Borgen (2013), of which Lindholm had no involvement – and it shows.

Fans of the series will be disappointed – I couldn’t help but outline its grievous failings in the review – but it isn’t an awful season, nor dud; it’s what emerges when a few of the key creative people leave a team, and there’s a scramble to keep the machine moving using other parts. Not everyone benefitted from the re-focusing, but at least the season finale sets up what could be a potentially solid Season 4 – if Borgen’s makers choose to go there with a full roster of key talent.

Season 3’s only been released in Europe, but it seems inevitable MHz Network, who hold the North American rights, will release a DVD set in 2014.

One piece of advice for the label: do not use the cheap, pliable plastic cases with coarse backing. A whole slew of Season 2 sets had badly scuffed DVDs due to the terrible quality of the plastic used for the hub insert. Often it’s the pressing plant that decides on the type of cases, so MHz is wise to be hawkish and make sure the replication house sticks to standard Amaray cases. Nothing worse than dropping cash and having half a set damaged from poor packaging elements.

.

.

.

.

Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

Tags: A Hijacking (2012), Borgen, Jagden, Kapringen, The Hunt (2012), Tobias Lindholm

Category: FILM REVIEWS