The Bridge

After a day spent writing, I like to unwind on the couch watching TV. In addition to loving fantasy and paranormal shows (is anyone surprised? :)) I’m also a fan of crime-related dramas like The Killing, Dexter, Longmire, and Justified, to name a few. From the premise and repeated trailers, that meant I was very interested in the new FX show called The Bridge. Here is a description according to Wikipedia:

“The Bridge follows two police detectives – one Mexican, one American – and their joint effort to investigate a serial killer menacing both nations along the Texas-Chihuahua border. Their investigation is complicated by the rampant corruption and general apathy among the Mexican authorities and the violence of the powerful borderland drug cartels. The show title refers to the Bridge of the Americas that serves as a border crossing between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Chihuahua, the setting of the series.”

The other night, I watched the first episode…and ended up yelling at the TV enough to alarm my husband.

I’ll start with what I enjoyed. The acting is good, and the first episode intersects the lives of several characters in intriguing ways. At the start of the show, a body is found along the Bridge of the Americas, one half on the Mexican side, one half on the American side. And by half, I mean literally since the killer cut the body in two at the waist. Even more intriguing, as the episode continues, is that the two halves don’t belong to the same person. The top half is a Caucasian American judge, and the bottom half is a young Mexican woman who’d been missing for almost two years.  The Mexican detective who’s sent to the bridge that night is the same one who’d investigated (after a fashion) her disappearance before.

I’m all over this premise, and Demián Nájera, the actor who plays detective Marco Ruiz, pulls off a believable combination of a jaded homicide investigator who still cares about doing the right thing despite overwhelming corruption in his department. Actors Annabeth Gish and Ted Levine also add depth and authenticity to their roles as side characters, making me curious about how their storylines will progress.

So, I like the premise, the setting, the acting, and most of the characters. Why, then, was I yelling at my TV? Because of the American detective, Sonya Cross, portrayed by actress Diane Kruger.

Let me clarify – it’s not Kruger’s acting I have a problem with. That’s fine. It’s also not the character’s at-this-point* baffling lack of empathy, either for the victims, their family members, or the man having a heart attack that she refuses to let cross the bridge to get to a hospital. It’s the character’s ignorance of events that are known to the average person, let alone someone who’s supposed to be a homicide detective right across the border from where those events are occurring.

Let’s start with Cross’s ignorance about the thousands of girls that have gone missing in and around Juarez, Mexico since the 1990’s. Hundreds have been confirmed as murdered. The lack of any real progress finding their abductors/killers has sparked an international outcry against the Mexican government. These murders and disappearances were also the backdrop of the 2006 movie Bordertown starring Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas. In my first novel, Halfway to the Grave, which I wrote ten years ago, I even referenced them, and let us not forget, they are also the basis for this TV show, so they’re hardly something few people know about.

With that in mind, for the American detective Cross, who works on the border of Juarez, Mexico, to have no knowledge of these killings/disappearances when Detective Ruiz mentions them made me scream at my TV. Then I screamed again when she also appeared dumbfounded to hear that drug cartels and corruption interfered with Ruiz’s ability to adequately investigate these occurrences.

She had no idea that Mexico had a problem with drug cartels or corruption, you see, even though most of you reading this know that and yet you are NOT detectives working right across the border. To that, cue more of me yelling at my TV.

I liked other things about the show enough that I’ll watch one or two more episodes to see if Cross’s character gets more realistic, but if not, I’ll pass on The Bridge. After all, it’s not healthy to keep yelling at an inanimate object,  as Clint Eastwood would probably agree ;). The Bridge has gotten several flattering reviews from The Huffington Post, USA Today, and The Hollywood Reporter, so your mileage, if you check it out, may vary.

And now, back to writing.

 

*::spoiler alert::: According to Wikipedia, Cross’s character has Asperger syndrome, which isn’t disclosed in the first episode.