Come Monday...The Bridge on FX

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of, or commentary about,  websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time.  Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.”  This is subject to change, however.  In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while.  For rants promote change, and change can be good—right?  Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

Arlynda and I finally took the time to watch the first episode of [The Bridge] on FX yesterday afternoon, and it left us rather frustrated.  For there were several elements to the show that has us quite intrigued, but there is one glaring error in judgment that made us both want to never see another episode.

Yeah, I am about to upset a fair amount of people.  For what we considered to be a glaring error in judgment about The Bridge has to do with them having one of the lead characters (arguably THE lead character) be a not all that high-functioning (in our opinion) autistic lady.

The character I speak of is the lead detective on the American side, Sonya Cross, who has [Asperger Syndrome], which makes much about the show all the more edgier.  For she has absolutely no empathy for victims, nor time for anything other than what she is focused upon.

No, I am not one who would have such people locked away in institutions, but there are all sorts of important stuff they could be doing without having to interact all that much with others.  In a real-life situation, a Det. Sonya Cross would better serve as a valued member of the forensics team.  For one of the basic skills to being a good detective in the field is knowing how to interact with people, and a detective with a cold demeanor can make an adversary out of someone who would be very cooperative with someone much more likable.

Alas, methinks what is going on with Det. Cross may harken back to the attitude of a former police chief in Los Angeles.  For when confronted during a press conference with a question about why so many police officers under his command are so rude in the execution of their duties, he explained that a police officer is on the street to keep the peace—not make friends.  By the way, this was around the same time as the [Rodney King riots].  Pure coincidence—right?

Okay, maybe some filler on The Bridge may now be in order.  For it is basically about the tensions between America and Mexico at the border crossing between [El Paso, Texas] and [Ciudad Juarez,Chihuahua].

It is an area that I am personally very familiar with.  In fact, my dad even worked out of El Paso for a little while during the middle 60s, but it is mostly from my trucking days that I remember the most about the El Paso side of the border.

Nonetheless, there are a couple of distinct memories from around 50 years ago that are worth noting.  For it was on the trip to El Paso from wherever we had been before that I learned that it is not wise to go kicking around on fire ant hills while wearing sandals.  Later on, I learned that a bowl of something that looked like sweet relish may actually be really hot/spicy on the Mexican side of the border.

Be assured that there is a lot of spice on both sides of the border on The Bridge.  For the very first scene involved a body dump on the bridge over the Rio Grande, and it was later revealed that it was actually the dumping of two half-bodies, made to look like a whole person.

Liberally stirred into the mix are the side-stories to Det. Cross and her Mexican counterpart, Det. Marco Ruiz.  Along with stabs at Mexican corruption, American indifference, international politics, inter-agency dysfunctions, marital infidelity, journalistic fraud and longsuffering Lt. Hank Wade, played by [Ted Levine], who must have proven something to the producers of The Bridge on [Monk].

Now, Arlynda has announced that we will be watching the second episode, which will first air at 9:00 pm on Wednesday, July 17, 2013.  For she wants to find out what is in that locked room, but that’s as far as is it going with us.  For she already has enough that she can swear that she was having a bad dream about when she starts beating me about the head and the shoulders in the middle of the night.

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