The Bridge S3:EP1 Analysis

The Bridge S3:EP1 Analysis:

What genre conventions of crime drama did the episode include?

• Crime Scene - Scene at the beginning with dolls
• Low-key lighting - used throughout the majority of the episode eg police office, crime scene etc
• Forensic lab
• Weapons - guns used by detectives
• Blood
• Police office
• Detectives
• Costumes - Nice Suits of some of the detectives
• Urban Locations - abandoned building, trailer where Morton lives

What genre conventions of  the sub-genre of Nordic Noir did the episode include?

• Low key lighting - commonly used in Nordic noir as well as film noir and crime dramas in general, significant areas of the shot are shadow with one key lighting point alongside Chiaroscuro lighting (used to describe the dramatic contrast between darkness and light when it comes to setting and lighting).
• The episode explore dark and unsettling themes eg murder, discussion of gender/sexuality etc 
• Visual codes - relate to the low key lighting 
• Multi layered story lines - aside from the main murder story line, we see a lot of other storylines that aren't explained or wrapped up by the end of the episode 
• Slow and melancholic pace - Nothing major really happens aside from the murder till the end of the lesson when the trailer gets blown up. Aside from that there is no real action throughout the episode its just full of slow paced revelations
• Dimly lit aesthetic - refer back to the low key lighting used throughout the episode 
• Interest of uncovering dark secrets - throughout trying to work out the killers motive, they work out the reasons why the Helle Anker was killed, they discover a lot of people heavily disliked her due to her more open and accepting approach to gender and sexuality, finding out that most people aren't as accepting as she is in Denmark
• Unconventional female characters - Saga doesn't conform to the crime drama format for women, but she does for nordic noir 

Summarise the main character  of Saga (the lead investigator)

• Socially challenged- her character isn't always able to be empathetic and read social clues accurately, this is shown through when she is talking to Helle Ankers wife after she has been murdered, where she almost shows the crime scene and her wife did body to her before she is stopped. Another example is also shown through how she talks to her coworkers sometimes, she can be very blunt with her explanations and how she talks to people, and it's sometimes been shown as her coming across as rude. Another example of this is when she is talking to Helle's wife over the phone after she accidentally admits that her heart was cut out when she was murdered and doesn't provide any kind of comfort over the phone as she crying, and just abruptly hangs up the phone. This makes her seem blunt as a character, however it could also be viewed as Saga struggling to be empathetic. 
• Extremely good investigator - Saga is very smart, as she is able to infer most of the leads by herself with little help, proving that she has a more professional mindset than a personal one, as she is very work focused.
• Dedicated - As previously mentioned, she has more of a professional mindset than a personal one, and not only is this shown through her lack of family connection that we are shown towards the end of the episode, but also through the fact that she decided to stay at work overnight instead of going home. This is also shown through the fact after the trailer blast that injured Hanne (the other investigator), she wanted to go straight back to work instead of taking time off to go home after the traumatic experience she was put through. 

Would you define the narrative and plot as single strand or multi strand? Restricted or unrestricted narrative?

• The narrative of the episode is multi-strand, as not only do we have the main murder storyline going on, but we also have many other storylines going on that we don't have much context for, for example the storyline of the girl being bullied, the guy losing his money and running away, the guy who sleeps with women to find out information about them etc. None of these storylines get resolved by the end of the episode, however they're all going on at the same time. As stated before we have little information about any of these other storylines.
• The episode follows a restricted narrative because as previously stated, we don't really know much about the multiple storylines that are going on throughout the episode. This is similar to the main narrative, as we mostly find out information at the same time Saga and Hanne do, we never find out any information before they do. 

Which narrative elements, plot strands and enigmas were resolved by the end of the episode and which were unresolved ?

• Although the episode has a multi-strand narrative to it, none of the epodes narratives were resolved by the end.