Last time we cross THE BRIDGE

The wonderful Saga Noren

Well that was it - this weekend the BBC completed screening the final episode of what is reportedly the end for the wonderful Scandi-crime drama, The Bridge - AND IF YOU'VE NOT SEEN THE END OF THE SERIES YET THEN DON'T READ ON BECAUSE THERE ARE SPOILERS COMING - with a scene that could have been lifted from the climax of Dirty Harry, Saga Noren (Man, how will we live without her) stood on the bridge where it all started and tossed her police badge away.

And everything goes back to the beginning.....

Of course the thing that bothered me about the final episode was the twist where Brian/Kevin was revealed to have been able- bodied all along. It's not that  fact that bothers me so much but rather the way it was discovered, because certain photographs could have only been taken by someone very short - a child perhaps, or someone in a wheelchair. Why the hell didn't Kevin/Brian simply stand to take the photohraphs? Everything else was so meticulously planned so I call bullshit on this.

Fucked up people - Henrik and Saga

And of course when his accomplice in all the carnage throughout the season where revealed it was also commonplace given the clever way they had both  operated throughout the season. Suzanne Winter for example was identified by leaving her fingerprints on the steering wheel of a stolen digger – an  elementary schoolgirl error. This was the same woman  who had pulled off the  elaborate, evil, scheme of manipulating gangster, William Ramburg into administering his sick daughter with a lethal injection. Not just any old poison either but neuro-toxins produced by a rare breed of snail. And of course as noted Kevin/Brian was revealed at the last moment by the wheelchair photography thing.

Despite these niggles The Bridge still rocked. Right from the first gruesome scene of the politician being stoned to death, it didn't let up.

This time the relationship between Saga and Henrik seemed more established; and Martin's absence wasn't felt as much as it had been in the previous season. Henrik was really likeable; this time out I actually warmed to him. Too late I suppose because it was all over far too quickly. I guess at the end of the day the characters were far more important than the plot which when examined closely just didn't hold water. Though in fairness the plots have always been elaborate - take for instance the first season in which the storyline came perilously close to a 1970's James Bond plot. It didn't matter because we had such great acting, wonderful characters and in Saga Noren a truly original creation. Her relationship with Martin and later Henrik was what stopped it all falling apart.

'Shall we have sex?'

The definitive teaming - Martin and Saga

I like it that the final scene had Saga answer her phone, no longer in the way that has become iconic throughout the series but with a simple - 'Saga Noren.'

And so after four seasons, 29 episodes The Bridge, one of the best crime dramas broadcast anywhere, came to an end, but you know I've got the entire run on my hard drive so I think I'll go back to the beginning. After all that's where everything goes.

Back to the beginning.