Danish Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) discovers that achieving "The Art of the Possible" can seem nigh impossible when her center-left coalition begins to dissolve into a no-confidence vote as the bold, intelligent political drama "Borgen" digs in for its extended term in this uneven yet finally convincing episode. Rumie Hammerich's reflective direction emphasizes the personal dynamics as much as backroom politics in a more character-centric script by Jeppe Gjervig Gram weighted as much to TV journalist Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) as to Birgitte.
When stonewalling by two Labour MPs threatens to derail Birgitte's proposed budget, spending Christmas with her family becomes impossible as she scrambles to hold her Moderate Party-led coalition together. However, ousted Labour leader Michael Laugesen (Peter Mygind), now editor-in-chief for a Rupert Murdoch-like tabloid, tries to throttle Birgitte's government in the crib. Strategizing with mentor Bent Sejrø (Lars Knutzon), Birgitte grasps at straws, including a possible deal with former center-right Prime Minister Lars Hesselboe (Søren Spanning) and his lapdog, New Right leader Yvonne Kjær (Jannie Faurschou), but when Birgitte's new spin doctor, smug academic Tore Gudme (Clæs Bang), self-destructs during a crucial TV-news debate with Laugesen, Birgitte must turn to disgraced former staffer Kasper Juul (Pilou Asbæk) for help.
Heavy-handedness drags "Art of the Possible" into conventional melodrama, particularly when Katrine discovers that she's pregnant with her now-dead married-lover's child, interspersed with flashbacks of her stormy relationship with Kasper as composer Halfdan E's piano plunks forlornly on the soundtrack, with Sørensen seemingly destined to be "Borgen"'s emotional sop. However, Knudsen's Birgitte is now ensconced as the series' solid center, and the hilarious resolution to seemingly-throwaway exposition about her new office art along with her own decisiveness at the close rescue "Borgen" from Scandinavian "West Wing" territory with fresh, edgy promises of the possible.
When stonewalling by two Labour MPs threatens to derail Birgitte's proposed budget, spending Christmas with her family becomes impossible as she scrambles to hold her Moderate Party-led coalition together. However, ousted Labour leader Michael Laugesen (Peter Mygind), now editor-in-chief for a Rupert Murdoch-like tabloid, tries to throttle Birgitte's government in the crib. Strategizing with mentor Bent Sejrø (Lars Knutzon), Birgitte grasps at straws, including a possible deal with former center-right Prime Minister Lars Hesselboe (Søren Spanning) and his lapdog, New Right leader Yvonne Kjær (Jannie Faurschou), but when Birgitte's new spin doctor, smug academic Tore Gudme (Clæs Bang), self-destructs during a crucial TV-news debate with Laugesen, Birgitte must turn to disgraced former staffer Kasper Juul (Pilou Asbæk) for help.
Heavy-handedness drags "Art of the Possible" into conventional melodrama, particularly when Katrine discovers that she's pregnant with her now-dead married-lover's child, interspersed with flashbacks of her stormy relationship with Kasper as composer Halfdan E's piano plunks forlornly on the soundtrack, with Sørensen seemingly destined to be "Borgen"'s emotional sop. However, Knudsen's Birgitte is now ensconced as the series' solid center, and the hilarious resolution to seemingly-throwaway exposition about her new office art along with her own decisiveness at the close rescue "Borgen" from Scandinavian "West Wing" territory with fresh, edgy promises of the possible.