‘The Bridge’ spans the troubles of U.S./Mexico border

By Jacqueline Cutler © Zap2it

There’s nothing subtle about the dark drama “The Bridge,” premiering on FX Wednesday, July 10. It tackles complex issues and insists that viewers at least ponder the crisis on the United States/Mexico border.

And it does that so incredibly well that days after watching, scenes linger, the message reverberating.

Set in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the show opens with a woman’s body left in the middle of the bridge. Each country could legally claim half the corpse. Early on it’s hideously apparent how accurate that is.

The surgically divided body is actually from two separate women. The top half was a judge from Texas, famous for her hard stance against immigrants. The bottom half was from, thus far, a nameless woman from Juarez.

Police from both countries investigate. Juarez Detective Marco Ruiz and El Paso Detective Sonya Cross (Demian Bichir, Oscar-nominated for “A Better Life,” and Diane Kruger, “Inglourious Basterds”) must work together.

For Bichir, who grew up in Mexico and became an American citizen, cooperation between the countries is critical.

“El Paso is considered the safest city in the United States, and Ciudad Juarez is one of the most dangerous in the world,” Bichir says. “They are only separated by a bridge, so just the fact that we are able to talk about the problems these two countries share is a very important issue. Nowadays everyone blames each other. When you are so close together you need to work together over every problem you have.”

His character, Marco, appears very easygoing, especially contrasted with the harshness of Kruger’s Sonya. At first glance, viewers could mistake Sonya for just being mean.

That happens when you forbid an ambulance to pass through from Mexico to the United States, even though the patient in the ambulance is American and having a heart attack.

“Personally I am very fond of her,” Kruger says of her character. “She is socially awkward. I definitely thought she falls on (the) spectrum of Asperger’s.

“Her condition alone is very complex,” Kruger says. “Because it affects a lot of people, I am always wary when characters have a condition that they become a tic or comic relief and just something you put in every episode. I didn’t want it to be something that was an affectation.”

There’s a gritty realism to the series, which was adapted for American television from the international hit “Bron” about the bridge between Denmark and Sweden.

That realism is felt when Marco is away from Sonya and speaks Spanish.

“The fact that we use a lot of Spanish making this makes the whole thing real,” Bichir says.

“Me and my wife are Mexican characters from Juarez. Speaking English at home does not exist. Many other elements make this something you can feel that is real.”

“It is fiction,” he says, but “you can get trapped because of the sense of reality.”

The pilot does precisely what it should by laying the groundwork for the rest of the series: This case will continue to unfold. We have a strong idea of who Marco and Sonya are, and the first hour also carefully weaves in two other plotlines bound to be important.

A man kidnaps a woman off the streets of Ciudad Juarez. If anyone reported her missing, she would be added to the growing count of vanished women from Juarez. This man talks trash about women with a border patrol agent, and when he returns to his trailer in the states — essentially a prison on wheels — we glean insight into his life that makes him much more vital to the story than a random kidnapper.

And there’s an arrogant newspaperman who is put in the most dangerous position. Anyone who has worked with a guy like this understands why someone would want to take him out, though a bomb does seem like overkill. He, though, has the power to ask the questions. And the main question the unidentified voice on a message asks is: “Why is one dead white woman so much more important than so many across the bridge?”

It’s a question the series will attempt to answer, and if viewers are lucky, it will take several seasons to do so .

Across

1. “Law & Order: SVU” role

4. 1974 best lead actor in a comedy series Emmy winner

8. “__ Did I Get Married?”; ’07 Janet Jackson film

11. “I’m Dancing as Fast __ __ Can”; 1982 film

12. Sara and Farrow

13. Color

14. Series for Lenny Venito (2)

17. “__ Air”; 1997 movie for Nicolas Cage

18. Diving danger

19. 1987 best actress Oscar winner

21. “Matt __” (1975-76)

24. “Rocky” production co.

25. Largest self-help group, for short

26. Initials for Lavin

27. Nolte’s initials

28. “__ ’n’ Tillie”; 1972 Walter Matthau/Carol Burnett movie

Down

1. “__ Actress”; ’05 sitcom

2. Suffix for child or self

3. Nessa, to Bernie Mac

4. Series about a deacon

5. George Clooney’s age

6. Former UN Secretary-General Hammarskjold

7. Arthur with a racket

8. “The __ Ten Yards”; 2004 Bruce Willis film

9. “Ben __”; Heston classic

10. “__, Dear”

15. “__ Exposure”

16. “Men __ Badly”

19. Actor Robert

20. “Gilligan’s Island” actor

22. “Promised __” (1996-99)

23. “The __ Loves of Dobie Gillis”

29. Bennett and Curtis

31. Beery and Wyle

33. “Jane __”; 2011 film remake

34. Actor Ken

35. Barker and Bell

36. “What Kind of Fool __ __?”

37. “American __”

38. Actress Plumb

39. “John __” (2002-03)

40. Run up a tab