Rita and Molly and Lillebeth

Borgen was my first Danish series, an excellent story about the female fictional prime minister of Denmark.

Rita, the one I'm watching now, is more light and humorous--a story about Rita, a teacher and a single mother of three.

What I'm noticing, for one thing, is that the Danes (if this series is an accurate representation) are far more open talking about sex.  But jumping to that conclusion is like someone characterizing all Americans based on one of our sitcoms, I guess.

Rita deals with an irresponsible ex-husband, the parents of her students, and her oldest son's in-laws (the father of which used to be Rita's boyfriend.)  She doesn't do so well with adults, but as a teacher she's strong.  Her youngest son at 15 just announced he's gay--which doesn't seem to bother Rita or anyone else in the family.  The daughter has just discovered that she's dyslexic--which seems to explain why she never did well in school.  In other words, this family has all the issues that American families, on screen and off, deal with.  The difference seems to be that they take things more in stride and talk quite openly about them--as compared to some American families.

When Rita's mother visits, it's clear that she and her daughter don't get along.  But Molly takes to her grandmother.  This conversation--after Molly's boyfriend breaks up with her--will give you a taste of this Danish family comedy-drama:

"Why did he break up with you?" the grandmother asks.

"I'm pretty enough and have a good body, but I'm just not the sort of girl a boy wants," Molly says.

"I see you have it," Lillebeth says.

"Have what?"

"What all the women in our family have--the belief in your head that you don't matter unless you have a man in your life.  It took me forty years to get rid of that belief and it ruined my relationship with your mother."