Reykjavík Grapevine - nóv. 2020, Blaðsíða 22

Yes Minister
The "surreally entertainin!" TV series
captures the audience and our interns
Words: Iona Rangeley-Wilson & Jess Distill Photo: RÚV
‘Rá!herrann’ (‘The Minister’) tells
the story of Benedikt Ríkhar!s-
son, a populist MP who is elected
Prime Minister following a radi-
cal attempt to re-engage the Ice-
landic public with democracy. His
unconventional approach to poli-
tics divides Parliament whilst his
bipolar disorder slowly begins to
destabilise his personal life and
the nation. The whole eight-ep-
isode season is now available to
stream (with English subtitles!)
on RÚV.is.
Grapevine interns Iona and
Jess—who don’t speak Icelandic
and have absolutely no under-
standing of Icelandic politics—
took it upon themselves to watch
and review the show, with a little
help from their good friend, Pinot
Grigio.
Mr. Perfect?
One of our earliest criticisms of
‘The Minister’ was that Benedikt
Ríkhar!sson seemed a bit too per-
fect. Each scene goes something
along the lines of this: A politician
says something a bit old-fashioned
and close-minded and Benedikt
replies with whatever a politician
would say if he was constructed
from the collective imagination
of every frustrated Tumblr user
and Buzzfeed journalist, i.e. “We
politicians spend too much time
fighting about insignificant de-
tails. We agree on almost every-
thing. We just never show it.” As
Benedikt urges, ideas of Left and
Right are apparently obsolete;
we all just want the best for the
nation. It’s the sort of thing you
could photoshop over a pretty sun-
set or print on a tea towel. Pretty
difficult stuff to disagree with,
but we found it hard to see how a
huggable-looking man being “re-
freshingly genuine” was going to
create much drama across eight
episodes.
It was, perhaps, a premature
judgement—either that, or Pinot
Grigio started to help—because
‘The Minister’ definitely got more
gripping as the series unfolded.
Benedikt’s strengths turn out to
be his greatest weaknesses and we
start to suspect that the radical
and in-the-moment decisions that
make him such a political breath
of fresh air are intimately tied to
the bipolar disorder that can also
make him impulsive and, in his
most unstable moments, per-
haps even dangerous. It’s a classic
Shakespearean tragic flaw—and
it only gets better with every epi-
sode.
The series is beautifully shot,
with the dark and moody ambi-
ance we have come to expect from
Nordic television. So strong is the
aesthetic, that it is instantly rec-
ognisable as one of Iceland’s sig-
nature gritty dramas.
Retroactive change
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, the actor
who plays Benedikt, said in an in-
terview with Nordisk Film & TV
Fond that “‘The Minister’ ques-
tions the sanity of some people
in power.” One of the most rivet-
ing things about this show is how
scenes change retrospectively the
more we learn about this partic-
ular character. Benedikt’s early
speeches, which seemed—at least
to us—a little bit unrealistic and
maybe even kitsch, change com-
pletely when watched a second
time. His interruptions during the
debate in Episode One stop feel-
ing self-righteous as the viewer
learns to see his impulsiveness as
potentially symptomatic of a men-
tal illness. This in itself challenges
perceptions about people who suf-
fer with bipolar disorder: If deci-
sions can be explained away with
a diagnosis, does that take away
their value?
Scriptwriter Birkir Blær In-
gólfsson explained the idea behind
having a bipolar protagonist. “It’s
such a great embodiment of the
Icelandic nation and the national
soul,” he says, “because we keep
going up into a manic episode and
down into a depression and back
up again.”
Certainly from the perspec-
tive of two British viewers, the
show’s dark humour seems to cap-
ture this “national soul” well as
it swings between the depressing
and the surreally entertaining.
Final thoughts: should
we watch it?
Iona: I can’t say political dramas
are usually my thing, but ‘The
Minister’ definitely manages to
cross genres in a way that can keep
even chick-flick obsessives like me
interested. So I think it’s probably
safe to say that if political dramas
are your thing, you will absolutely
love it.
Jess: Even if you don’t have much
knowledge of or interest in poli-
tics, the mental health storyline
is gripping and intriguing. ‘The
Minister’ is a beautiful example
of ‘Scandi Noir’ that kept me en-
thralled throughout. Definitely
one to watch if you’re a fan of po-
litical dramas, stories about the
human condition, or just fantastic
cinematography.
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Film
Ólafur Darri can't stop winning
"If decisions can be
explained away with
a diagnosis, does
that take away their
value?"
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