After hearing a lot of positive things about FX’s new show “The Bridge”… I plunged thru the first two hours of the show and have not come to a decision on my commitment to the show.
The Backdrop
Without giving too much away… the show is set on the border of El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico.
The show doesn’t closely examine border violence… it sorta hangs out in the background as an unspeakable circumstance.
There are people on both sides of the border, whom are going about their lives knowing that things are going to happen beyond their control.
the Premise
The show is about two detectives that are investigating a homicide that involved a body on the Mexican/American bridge.
At the end of the pilot episode… we(the audience) are led to believe that a serial killer is at work.
I considered pulling the ripcord at that very moment, because I wasn’t really interested in seeing a Thriller - set on a border town.
I decided to watch episode 2, mainly because I’ve never seen so many latin american actors speaking spanish correctly on an American series.
Where it went kinda weird
I don’t really know the limitations of FX… I think I heard someone say “shit” in the second episode.
There were 4 or so words I wouldn’t go out of my way to say in front of my parents in Spanish…
There was also some on screen sex that didn’t really involve full nudity… but felt incredibly contrived.
The lead actress had a bizarre scene that involved masterbation… I say it was bizarre because it sorta lasted for 2 frames on the screen and they cut to her going to a bar to find a dick to sit on.
I didn’t really understand why they had to go out of their way to make her seek out sex… and why they had her obsess about work shortly after having sex.
It didn’t really round out her character… It had all the cartoony trappings of policeman sex. I guess they wanted to remind us that cops in El Paso are just as distant as cops in other cities after casual sex.
The show slowly recovers from this described stumble… there’s more bodies and a killer is at large.
Plan to tune in for a few more weeks… more to possibly follow.