Can you believe its March already? The year might be flying by, but for me life over the past week has been suspended in time between episodes of Scandinavian noir thriller The Bridge. Yes, I’ve binged – it’s that good. Even if you missed the first two series, it’s still worth getting on board this crime thriller. Psychology is also on my mind this week after watching Experimenter, the unique biopic of social psychologist Stanley Milgram. If you watched Hannah Arendt on Rialto Channel last year, or are at all curious about humans, obedience and our ability to inflict pain on each other, then this film is a must see. 

Here are my highlights for the week. 

Can you believe its March already? The year might be flying by, but for me life over the past week has been suspended in time between episodes of Scandinavian noir thriller The Bridge. Yes, I’ve binged – it’s that good. Even if you missed the first two series, it’s still worth getting on board this crime thriller. Psychology is also on my mind this week after watching Experimenter, the unique biopic of social psychologist Stanley Milgram. If you watched Hannah Arendt on Rialto Channel last year, or are at all curious about humans, obedience and our ability to inflict pain on each other, then this film is a must see. 

Here are my highlights for the week. 

The Bridge Series 3 … Tuesday 8^th March, 8.30pm 

I’m in trouble with my parents-in-law for neglecting to tell them the third series of the gripping Swedish / Danish co-production The Bridge kicked off last week. For all you other Scandinavian television thriller obsessives out there – apologies – it has begun. As I mentioned last year, actor Kim Bodnia who played Danish inspector Martin Rohde bowed out of this series unhappy with the direction his character was going in. So, in series 3, Rohde is imprisoned for murder, and Saga Noren, his emotionally challenged Swedish counterpart, is given a new partner Henrik (Thure Lindhardt), who also happens to be a troubled soul. Without giving too much away, Saga and Henrik investigate a macabre serial killer who displays his victims in creative ways, and Saga must deal with a new boss who doesn’t understand her, and the appearance of her estranged mother. Family is one of the main themes throughout series 3, but not the loving kind, instead exploring something much darker that goes beyond merely dysfunctional. I’m happy to say, The Bridge remains as gripping, stylish and dark without Rohde, however, Hans Rosenfeldt, the creator and writer of The Bridge, says that the current third series could be the last. Now that would be a shame. 

Fukushima: A Nuclear Story  …Thursday 10^th March, 8.30pm 

Last week it was announced three former Japanese executives from the Tokyo Electric Power Co had been formally charged for alleged negligence in the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The NZ Herald reported, “Experts say it may be difficult to prove criminal responsibility for failing to prevent the Fukushima meltdowns, but many people including the residents affected by the disaster say they hope that any trial would reveal more facts about the disaster and TEPCO's role that the utility has not disclosed.” Fukushima: A Nuclear Story goes some way to doing just that. The documentary follows Italian news reporter Pio d’Emilia who has lived in Japan for over thirty years, and traveled to Fukushima after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. Two years later, d’Emilia and other foreign journalists are finally granted access to the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant in an attempt to understand what really happened. The film was shot from March 11^th 2011 (the day of the earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima disaster) through March 2015. Director Matteo Gagliardi cleverly uses Japanese Manga to recreate events and clearly explains the science involved in nuclear power, but it’s the images and stories from locals that resonate. The film also features an interview with former Prime Minister Naoto Kan who explains how the rest of Japan was saved from catastrophe by chance. It really is an extraordinary story.

Experimenter…Saturday 12^th March, 8.30pm 

Experimenter is a biopic about social psychologist Stanley Milgram who is renown for his “obedience to authority” experiments conducted at Yale in the early Sixties. The controversial experiments involved asking people to administer increasingly powerful electric shocks to a stranger seated in a neighboring room if they were unable to answer a multi-choice question correctly. Much to Milgram’s surprise, 65% of all participants obliging administered the highest voltage of shock despite the stranger (an actor who was not really receiving the shocks) crying out in pain for them to stop. It’s a fascinating study and one that Milgram, the son of Jewish immigrants undertook in order to understand better the “banality of evil”. The film itself is very much inspired by Milgram’s own work, with the psychologist, played here by Peter Sarsgaard, often talks directly to camera like he did in his own films. It’s a cross between biopic and documentary and can be a little dry at times, in amongst the more playful moments. My favourite being, when there’s an elephant in the room, writer-director Michael Almereyda puts an actual elephant in the room. Delightful and thought provoking indeed.