The Bridge Flashcards
Semiotic Codes - Barthes
Enigma Codes - The opening murder, the identity of the bearded man, why Morten rigged his house to explode
Action Codes - The explosion that almost kills Hanne, Henrik being reassigned.
Narrative Structure
Episode 1 - Establishes that there is a wider series arch rather than standalone episodes
Multiple Narrative Threads - The Opening Murder, Sagas past, Henrik’s adultery, The mysterious man.
Binary Oppositions - Strauss
- Sweden’s Political Correctness Vs Denmark
- Saga Vs Hanne
Producers
Produced by SVT1 (Sweden) and DR (Denmark)
Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory
Preferred Reading - A quality crime drama, driven by mystery and a classic investigation narrative.
Oppositional Readings - Might struggle to find Saga a sympathetic character as she is so cold. A less politically correct audience will respond negatively to Swedish attitudes towards gayness and gender.
Political Leaning
SVT1 and DR are both left leaning
Funding
Initially funded by Swedish and Danish Tv licenses but later was given 1M Euros from the EU’s creative media program.
Demographic
The Bridge is aimed at a middle aged, middle class
Van Zoonen Fememist Perspective
The show has a female protagonist but she is not objectified
Motive for the murder
The victim was a lesbian who ran a gender neutral pre school
Countries which Netflix has the Bridge
Austria, Canada, Switzerland, Germany.
Useful as it reaches a global audience
Marketing
- Interviews (main actress on this morning)
- ## Magazine articles about strong female characters (Fememist audience)
Denmark - Representation
Denmark is represented as less politically correct than Sweden, represented through Hanne not accepting Saga’s political correctness
bell hooks - Is “patriarchal oppression evident in the Bridge” or does this Bridge challenge the idea
The Bridge challenges the ideology of domination. Saga and Hanne highlight the lack of Patriarchal Oppression as they are both strong and independent woman. As well as this Lillian is the leader of the Danish police force.
Lise is also an independent woman with a strong ideology that she believes in, the teaches her daughter to punch the other girls bullying her and also has a male cleaner which flips the stereotype.
The victim of the crime is a lesbian and strong right wing beliefs are a key theme of the episode. However the fact that the killer ends up being a male is a rare example of males being framed as stronger than females.
Van Zoonen fememist theory applied to the Bridge
Socialist Femenism - The “superwoman” figure is evident in Lise, wife of a rich man - shows that woman may still be reliant on men financially. Her attitudes are right wing and represented as negative
Radical Femenism - Gender roles are challenged and characters reject them, but when the patriarchy is challenged by Helle Anker’s promotion of gender neutrality and lesbian marriage it get her killed
Liberal Femenism - Representation of woman has improved as Ideology has changed, woman are not marginalised but are central to the narrative and hold positions of authority
