The Bridge

I thought that maybe, just maybe, this would be different. Why, could you ask, why would this be different?

I projected credibility and honesty into the main character, because he played a similar role - dedicated to get his job done - as he did in Battlestar Galactica.

Now we are approaching the halfway mark for the series, and I am sorry to say... You've lost me. I will not follow the series anymore.

The reason? What began as an interesting story about a cop becoming head of the union of copes, not in uniform, not legally a cop, but still in soul and dedicated to both helping his many colleagues and do occasional police work... There is a lack of realism in the series. He doesn't grovel to anyone. This is realistic in any world. I have no faith in a union boss having ultimate say over anything - even if this is portrayed as very tough deals with his commissioner, to who he also loses once in a while. He is simply too strong, played, portrayed too strong. I would say it's a miscast.

I am fed up with the police world, talking about anybody as if they are citizens or scum, no in-between, or hero or coward... grow some hair on your chests, scriptwriters and watch some The Wire. But you had to accept the job that demanded action. Bang Bang, people dead, heroes here, witnesses her, victims here, and scumbag stupid motherfracker here. It is tedious, we want people. Feeling, not bleeding. No, I want - I want cost, consequences, real consequences, everything that interacts with a job like the one a policeman has. Like the one the criminal has. People.

The Bridge tries. It tries to be The WIre, and CSI and Heroes without superpowers at the same time. Strong man leading the flock. Strong man can admit his mistake Strong man has unbridled libido. It hints at feeling and human interaction, but is constantly interrupted by strategic talks, where the support actors feed the main character. ABit tiresome tiresome tiresome.

It's not even BG. It deserves new writers, or it deserves to die. It is beginning to stink of mediocrity. That is waste of bandwidth. And support.

I saw a CTV interview last week with Aaron Douglas promoting the show's premiere – they made a point of mentioning this was a Canadian show, shot in Toronto (and about Toronto cops), starring a Canadian. That was all good – I was looking forward to the premiere. Through the first hour I thought there was something missing – during the second hour it was clear ..... significant effort had been made to ensure this was NOT seen as Toronto (or Canada for that matter). Why is it so important that a Canadian cop show must allow for the possibility of being anywhere in America? Are US ratings THAT important that we have to mask the fact that the story is taking place in Canada (perhaps the more profound question is, why would US viewers be less likely to tune into a Toronto cop show vice, say, Denver?). I scanned back through my PVR recording of the show and, apart from a half second glimpse of the Toronto skyline, everything else had been de-Canadianified! I don't think I'm only on a post-Olympic patriotic bent – I simply don't understand why they have to blur out the "Ontario" on every licence plate shot, or even make up fictitious "Metropolitan" newspapers as they pan across headlines (vice simply using the Toronto "Star" or "Sun"). I recently rented "The Wire" as I hadn't seen it when it originally aired – the contrast is overwhelming. They spend the whole show talking about Baltimore PD, FD, Marine Unit, etc. etc. etc. – no shame there! But we can't mention the word Toronto once?! I guess the only consolation is that there are not fake US flags put up everywhere (as is normally the case with shows shot in Canada). Not a maple leaf or Canadian Flag visible for two hours of driving around Toronto? How about some Canuck pride, eh?! Canada has some truly amazing talent and fantastic potential (James Cameron comes to mind - you might have heard of him) - it is about time TV & movie execs had the courage to accept "Canada" on both sides of the camera. That all being said - I still think the premiere was somewhat mediocre. I'm not sure the audience was left caring enough about Aaron Douglas' character's plight. Hopefully this series will develop over time.

Sooooo...we see in the listings this title on a Saturday night on CBS here in the States...we assume (wrongly?) that this is either a summer replacement show or a tease at something coming in the fall. We realized 10 minutes in that it was one of the shows with an unnamed city, no name of city on police cars, fuzzed out license plates, etc. This, alone, made us suspicious. Then, as to the plot: we were frankly confused as to who we were supposed to root for. Yes, we GET it -- cops are sometimes portrayed wrongly by the press and public. But this seems to be out to make cops look incredibly whiny and pathetic. A walk out??? We honestly think that kind of action here in the states is illegal. We have heard of a "sick out" to protest something, but for cops to just walk off the job because they don't like something or they don't get their way is too weird. That's when I got up from the couch, came to computer, and checked out IMDb on this show. I needed a little background, and I got it. Not sure what CBS is going to do with this -- it just wasn't very appealing. Acting wasn't great, situations were just odd, and oh by the way, any woman in a uniformed service here in the states has to have her hair up off her collar. Being military, this irked me! Can't explain why -- it just looked so weird to see all your model-quality policewomen with their hair flowing down their uniforms. And when old cop died -- yeah, doubt if he would get a formal police funeral here in the states, no matter what the union did.

Bottom line -- we GET it -- we just didn't like it. Made cops look whiny, petulant, and controlled by their union.

I loved the show, Its SMART, exciting and touching, not at all your average cop show .. It also has a great cast that I am already attached to. In response to the comment on "de-Canadianization". TV shows actually need PERMISSION from the city they are filming in to depict it as that. It may very well be that Toronto denied that permission, as well as other major cities in Canada ... why? This show is a controversial one based on the life and experiences of a former Toronto Union Leader, who at times did exactly as the program shows ... ruffled the feathers and made waves in the political pool. There are still people in office who might not want it on the air at all so of course any roadblocks to detour production would be put in place ...Dont be quick to jump to the conclusion that we are ashamed to be Canadians if we are not flashing our national monuments and flags across the TV screen. Iv read so many articles about this show and every single one says loud and proud that this is a Canadian program based on the experiences of a Canadian police union leader .. lets knock the chip off our shoulders and support our Canadian talent, you want to be patriotic heres your chance. How about support talent in general because a lot of very talented people put their heart and soul into this show in the hopes that we the viewer might be entertained and enlightened, and I think they did a great job, I truly think this one of the best series Canada has ever produced .. WE SHOULD BE PROUD!!

Yes it's time for another cop show review, before we get into all the technicalities let me say that this show reminds me very much of the lighter side of "the shield".

So we have the main cop Frank Leo and he seems to be the voice of the cop community, now while most other shows focused on cleaning up the streets and then secondly on what goes wrong this show seems to focus on the exact opposite. That's right he's trying to clean up the police department from the ground floor all the way to the top, and of course we have our usual dirty cop clichés' like chiefs taking bribes, and your real estate schemes but mostly its just Frank doing his thing helping out his fellow street cops from getting in too deep when they do things a little beyond protocol and then get buried by the higher ups for only about a third of what they actually did.

Is this show fun, yup it's fun, entertaining, and there's some nice emotion/acting involved. It's off to a pretty decent start so far lets see if they can keep the momentum rolling.

8 out of 10.