Powerful Women and Forgotten Mothers in Danish Public Service Drama

Abstract

This chapter focuses on television dramas that depict how modern families negotiate contemporary issues and perennial conflicts. Both series—Borgen (Price 2010–present) and Arvingerne (The Legacy) (Ilsøe 2014–2017)—are modern-day family dramas where fractured relations and absent parents characterise the domestic landscape. While Borgen stages the contestation of cultural belonging and participation from the perspective of political agents and media gatekeepers, Arvingerne problematises familial and legal entitlement. The pervasive topics of citizenship, belonging and transgression again frame the way that the female characters interact with their surroundings. What it means to be a “good parent” remains at the heart of these stories, yet it is ultimately the mother’s role that is problematised.