FX Drama "The Bridge" Is Groundbreaking, Just Not That Great
FX drama “The Bridge” is a first for Latinos on TV.
JULY 12, 2013— -- It may not have won over all of the critics, but FX broke new ground Wednesday with the premiere of The Bridge, a bold new series full of Spanish-language dialogue and themes familiar to many Latinos who live near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Developed by crime-show veterans Elwood Reed and Meredith Stiehm -- whose writing credits include Homeland, Cold Case and NYPD Blue -- and based on a European series, the hour long investigative drama tackles many real-to-life issues along the U.S.-Mexico border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez. The show explores human-trafficking, corruption, the arms trade and, of course, the homicides that disproportionately affect young women in Juarez. (With a population of 1.2 million, the city officially registered 2,086 murders in 2011.)
The Bridge is the first-ever U.S. “premium television show that’s substantially spoken in Spanish and has a specific thematic connection for the U.S. Hispanic audience,” an FX executive told the New York Times. A Spanish-dubbed version of the show will also air on MundoFox, Fox’s Spanish-language network.
Wednesday’s pilot, which was directed by the Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo, introduced detective Marco Ruiz of the Chihuahua State Police (played by Mexican actor Demián Bichir), who partners with El Paso homicide Detective Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) to investigate a murder along the U.S.-Mexico border.
But while the series may be the first of it’s kind, it’s getting mediocre reviews. The show tackles real issues, but at times it's noticeably contrived.
The pilot episode was most authentic during exchanges in which characters explored real social issues and race dynamics between Americans and Mexicans. At one point, viewers saw conflicting views on day laborers: a white male referred to day laborers as Mexicans and argued they were a traffic issue. Kruger's character shot back that day laborers have the “right to stand in a public street and to signal that your presence in that particular place that you’re looking for day work.”
Those short moments were when the show felt most titillating. There was a sense of finally seeing television that offered two real conflicting opinions on race issues in the U.S.
But everything else was less memorable.
The New York Times said “The Bridge” was “boring.” The LA Times opined that, "it has its good points and its less good points, but there's enough of the former to merit a look." Many others praised the pilot episode for not ignoring real issues happening in Juarez.
Regardless of how viewers feel about The Bridge, there’s one thing we should all agree on: Seeing Bichir in a leading role on television is a win.
Latinos remain one of the most underrepresented ethnic populations in U.S. media. Out of 701 series regulars on scripted broadcast television during the 2012-2013 TV season only 29 actors were of Latino/Hispanic descent, according to GLAAD’s “Where We Are on TV” report. That means about 4 percent of the choice roles went to Hispanics -- despite the fact that they make up roughly 17 percent of the U.S. population.
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