Can the entire history of a country be told in 10 hours? Probably not. But
Historien om Danmark (2017) does a pretty good job.
In this 10 episode documentary, selective parts of Danish history is told through narration, reconstructions and interviews. The narration and reconstructions are mixed together in a very fluent way, which gives a sense of walking through history. In order to provide evidence and historical context, experts on specific time periods have been interviewed. A few times we see how the experts work, which I find strengthens their autority. I find the narration to be done very well, the interviews to be relevant and the reconstructions slightly overdramatic.
My main criticism on the documentary is that the process of selecting events leave out a lot of the transitions between periods. This leaves the documentary series with several continuity breaks at best. Some of the events chosen also seem to be chosen out of their importance today rather than their relevance to the past. The most obvious example of this is how pre-20th century women in general had very little individual impact on history but are heavily featured in the series.
Several people on the right side of the political spectrum in Denmark have found the last 2 episodes of the series to be left-leaning. Since these periods were the longest periods with the socialdemocrats in power it seems necessary to me that socialism was in focus. But I do agree to some extend that these episodes go to far in painting socialism as the most important factor in giving Danish peoople better lives and overlooking important progress from the other side of the politcal spectrum. However, this is a minor criticism that has little influence on my overall rating.
Altogether, I find that
Historien om Danmark (2017) takes on a near impossible challenge and manages to come out with an entertaining and informative product with unfortunate time-gaps, slightly over-dramatic reconstructions and some politically motivated cherry-picked events. My rating of 6 (almost 7) represents an experience of something that I enjoyed watching but am unlikely to return to.
