Many predicted FX’s new drama series The Bridge (their first new drama series since Justified premiered four years ago) would be the next great TV drama. It had all the classic elements: a soulful protagonist (Damian Birchir’s Juarez cop Marco), a slightly off-center protagonist (Diane Kruger’s autism-afflicted El Paso detective), a culture clash, societal issues, a specific locale, and sure-fire suspense.
So what happened? Although many swear by The Bridge, and the show does have a small but devoted fan base (enough to get it a season 2) I can’t help but feel that something never quite connected early on, and went dangerously off the rails around the mid-point of the season.
[Spoilers]
I thought it shredded plausibility that the killer had such a direct connection to Marco, and beyond cliched that the last few episodes before he was caught saw the killer pursue a single-minded quest of vengeance against Marco’s family. “The Bridge” was supposed to be a show about a first-world-meets-third-world border and how El Paso doesn’t care about issues in Juarez. But you’d be hard-pressed to know it when the killer is outed only about halfway through the season, then abandons most of his presumed politics to stalk Marco’s family, and then is caught (bafflingly) in episode 11 so that there’s still two full episodes left where the series is stumbling around for a direction.
The season finale didn’t bother to wrap up any existing plot-lines (the killer is alive, and Marco is beyond pissed at him) and instead focused on setting up things entirely for season 2. Nearly every scene brought some major development for a second season. Not the most satisfying thing when it’ll be at least 9 months before fans get any new episodes.
In the end, Diane Kruger’s autistic detective never became a compelling character (kudos to her for not even attempting a Texan accent), the series never dug deep enough into societal issues, and even as more of a straight thriller than a great drama, the show relied too much on flimsy coincidences and cliches. [The whole world of El Paso/Juarez is made to look like it has 30 people in it, tops.]
I do think that the missing girls of Juarez case that the second season will apparently tackle could be a good one (I’d put money down that Ted Levine’s Captain Hank is somehow a very shady bad guy who may be connected to the missing girls and perhaps even the murder of Kruger’s sister…it’s that kind of soap-opera-posing-as-drama show), but I’m not convinced the show will really live up to the potential of it. Grade for season: C…Grade for season finale: C+