The Bridge

Matthew Lilliard makes this series worth watching. Not since the character Jeff Spiccoli has there been a more hilarious druggie. Aside from the tons of humor created by Lilliard, the story itself is riveting and gives a close-up look at Mexican cartels and American corruption. The many death scenes are not for the weak-minded, reminding one of Criminal Minds (but not as weird).

A woman's body is found on the bridge between El Paso and Juarez on top of the border. Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) is a cop from the American side and Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) is from the Mexican side. They are forced to work together. Lieutenant Hank Wade (Ted Levine) is her supervising officer. Charlotte Millwright (Annabeth Gish) owns a ranch at the border and finds a tunnel on her property. Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard) is an American investigative reporter on the edge.

The first season is mostly about one serial killer investigation. It's somewhat boring. I don't buy Kruger's performance. I like Bichir's performance much more. It moved fairly slowly and unconvincingly. Millwright's storyline never really connected. Then the show changed right before the end of season 1. It added quite a few weird characters. The best one is Eleanor Nacht (Franka Potente) as the unemotional disturbed hired killer. The second season is definitely crazier, and weirder. It feels almost random as the show gets wilder. At least, it gets more interesting. With the show changing over the two seasons, it feels unstable and never really settled down. I do find some of it very interesting.

I watched the Danish version of the bridge and am a big fan. The premise of the American version HAD me really excited. The fact that they tried to copy exactly the Danish version was a complete disaster. Diane Kruger is horrible in this role. I don't doubt she has talent but they should have allowed for her to play the role in her own way instead of copying an unforgettable role that was already done (and done well).I had a hard time sitting through the 1st episode. Demian Bichir is the only redeeming quality in this show and might be the only reason I continue to watch. The female lead in the Danish version is extremely hard to pull off, so they shouldn't have even tried. I'm seriously saddened since I had high hopes for this show. Did no one watch the reels before putting them out for human consumption? Was there not a test audience?

While in the original TV series Sofia Helin gives an outstanding, sometimes funny, always compelling portrait of a police detective challenged with Asperger syndrome, her US counterpart takes out most of the fun by making her personality quite unbelievable.

The same goes for Demian Bichir. His complex character of the Danish Cop in personal troubles becomes the caricature of Latino clichés similar to the perception the US has about their southern neighbor as a whole.

The crisp design of this former superb Scandinavian TV series turns into a the the kind of blunt, boring, mediocre, dark mash of cop series that swamp TV sets world wide.

If you have the possibility, see the superb original to appreciate what TV can do.

SPOILER: Being intimately familiar with Asperger Syndrome (AS), I think it would be extremely difficult for an actor to play. Kruger did a reasonably good job in the first episode and I think that's actually why some people were turned off by her performance; AS is often characterized by the flat affect that she is exhibiting and it doesn't make for the kind of dynamic character that people are usually drawn to.

This show should spark a lot of discussion and raise awareness of AS. The plot piqued my interest and I'll definitely continue to watch.

(Note to director: Shot of victim's eyes fading into headlights was cool!)