Price says his goal has always been to create "a fiction close to real life, but never just like real life." That slight distance allows for an aspirational element. Throughout the seasons, Borgen"s bedrock of idealism is challenged and corrupted, but never completely disappears. Saunders says, "It"s interesting for me, as someone from the United States who sees how caustic our political system is, to see a political system on display where it"s not that way. This is reflective of Danish society. People may disagree, but often they come to an agreement, however begrudging it is, and move forward."