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Thoughts: The Bridge "Yankee" - Hybrids, Drug Cartels, and Grief

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The various levels of duality found in the The Bridge could be enough to make some kind of meta-Community styled comedy: two showrunner, (ostensibly) two leads, settings and so on. As with its two settings - El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico – The Bridge season 1 was very much a two separate entities in the same body. On one hand you had the spine of the season yet another genius serial killer with a message plot (in a time when that was starting to really wear thin) headed up by Diane Kruger and Demian Bichir’s Sonya Cross and Marco Ruiz respectively. The other hand is what Grantland’s Andy Greenwald dubbed the “Weird Bridge” the stories set in the periphery with characters like odd Coyote Steven Linder(Thomas M. Wright), Charlotte Millwright(Annabeth Gish) and journalist odd couple Daniel Frye(Matthew Lillard) and Adriana Mendez(Emily Rios) both of whom are now regulars. These formless and introspective sections clashed with the very generically structured main plot. In between the production of season one and two co-showrunner Meredith Stiehm left to return to Homeland reportedly after disagreeing on the direction of the series going forward, leaving Elwood Reid in charge. In interviews Reid has affirmed an interest in the “Weird Bridge” and by the first episodes near center less and many threaded start, the “Weird Bridge” will be the focus of things.

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Television can never truly change until the moment before it ends. So, as with the first episode of the series, bodies are coming across the borders. Cartel lawyer, Monte P. Flagman(Lyle Lovette) is shown hazily, driving to a housing development and upon near slipping into the pool of blood just across the threshold, everything comes into focus. Observing the display of carnage, which is perhaps the most blood The Bridge has really shown, with a quite amusement. The practitioners of this and other violence in “Yankee” appear to be a pair of cartel workers, accountant and possible hitwoman Elanor Nacht (Run Lola Run’s Franka Potente) and her unnamed heavy, who was none too pleased about driving around in a hybrid car. At least they aren’t the typical serial killer ilk and their actions do reverberate in the end to Cross and her fellow El Paso lawmen. Discovering said hybrid car driving in circles, blood splattered window unnamed heavy dead at the wheel and dogs head sticking out the window.

As the stars of the series, Diane Kruger and Demian Bichir would normally be the center of the show and they largely are but “Yankee” has a lot of setup to get done with first. “Yankee” writer Elwood Reid sets Cross and Ruiz on paths forcing them to deal with past grief. Cross, who is more than likely somewhere on the autisms spectrum, understandably doesn’t deal with the idea that the man who killed her sister and in a mentally handicapped state thanks to Wade is dying. After having what is the equivalent of a meet cute in this world with his brother Jack Dobbs manages to find some physical relief and perhaps an equally wounded party to those murders. As Cross begins “foreplay” each party begins to wonder if this is “weird”. Yep, it’s pretty weird but not totally unique in terms of fictions ability to just have random sex occur. These sequences portend more than accomplish and are carrid by Kruger’s acting which has appears less overt and purposely mannered though this could be due to finally acclimating to her performance. Cross maybe more obviously incapable at expressing emotions but Marco Ruiz is just the same if not worse, unable to deal with the downward spiral his life has taken.

In the Shadowlands
In the Shadowlands

Cross’ quitter struggle pale to the very real danger Marco finds himself in. His comrades know they saved Eva, putting him in a precarious spot. During a drug raid (that appears to actually only turned up bodies) one of his own men tries to murder him. His would be assailant blends into the masked chaos of the raid, making one wonder if this wasn’t all in Marco’s head. Now officially divorced from his wife and seemingly cut out of his children’s lives, Marco is unmoored. This allows Bichir to continue to beautifully express the broken grief of his character but the note is beginning to wear a bit thin.

It isn’t all blood and gloom thanks largely to the Matthew Lillard as “functioning alcoholic” (now that is clearly all in his head) reporter Daniel Frye. Who when he isn’t poking fun at Brian Baumgartner (The Office’s Kevin) for being a Rush fan or interrupting Adriana’s lunch date continues the search for whomever Millie Quitana is.

“Yankee” appears to setup Cross’s driving plot at the end, the discovery of the hybrid, but largely the episode has to set things up and (re)introduce elements. It’s final images of the nude heavily tattooed body of Elanor Nacht asking two passers buy help is potent. I have no idea where this season will be going, except in a weird direction. Previews for the upcoming season include a band of cartel members donning zombie(?) masks and blowing people away, the return of Steven Linder and more. In terms of scale and structure it wouldn’t be far off to compare it to The Wire, if it manages to pull off half of what that series did we’ll be just fine. If The Bridge is going to be structured less generically hopefully it will find quality thematic through lines most good episodes of Game of Thrones have.

I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZM and at weekntv.com or comicweek.com

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