Cowboy Afloat

I wanted to like Copenhagen Cowboy more than I did. In this golden age of television, in which series are said to be becoming more like cinema, generally that means dialogue and/or action. They're like a kind of film, very rarely do they show the sensuality film is capable of. Copenhagen Cowboy is a very sensual show. Unfortunately, it also feels like a show where the writers ran out of ideas early on,

After Miu's (Angela Bundalovic) experiences at the brothel in the first couple episodes, she ends up at a Chinese restaurant where she helps the proprietor, Mother Hulda (Li li Zhang). She uses her more overt supernatural powers, first to heal an infant, and then to heal the gang boss, Chiang (Jason Hendil-Forssell), who's keeping Mother Hulda's daughter prisoner.

She's also still trying to hunt down the vampire, Nicklas (Andreas Lykke Jørgensen). At one point, Miu shows herself to be a martial arts expert, easily able to dispatch anyone who tries to take her down. This leads to an effective showdown with Nicklas at a slaughterhouse.

We also learn she's able to kill practically just by looking at someone. Indeed, in one scene she seems to kill a guy with a needle. Which all begs the question, why did she let the people at the brothel push her around? It seems like Nicolas Winding Refn and his writers initially planned for her to be a character of more passive abilities but lost enthusiasm for it. So they decided to make her a more action oriented protagonist, more typical of Winding Refn's work.

She gets involved with a gang war that never quite manages to build up real tension. The vagueness about the extent of Miu's powers is a big part of the problem. But the visuals continue to be stunning. Zlatko Burić, the star of Winding Refn's famous Pusher series, joins the show as a major character halfway through and he gives a great performance. There are a lot of good parts here, I only wish there'd been a more solid idea behind everything.

Copenhagen Cowboy is available on Netflix.