After the pilot which featured a large time skip, essentially telling us the show would not proceed with the awesomeness of the first hour and a half, The Bridge settled into more or less what it will be like--never too exciting or intense, but solid enough keep me interested.
This week, Frank dealt with a cop acting as a hitman, a cop in prison after killing his wife, and got really close to cheating on Abby with Jill. I'm curious to see how many threads continue on, and it seems like all could. Canadian television is iffy to say the least, but I like the ambition.
What sets The Bridge apart from the cookie cutter police procedurals rolled out this summer (Rookie Blue, The Good Guys, Memphis Beat, Rizzoli & Isles, The Glades, etc, etc...) is the moral ambiguity. Frank Leo is no Vic Mackey--yet--but it's hard not to see a resemblance. Already, Frank is cutting deals, not necessarily to uphold the law, as he is no longer as cop, but to help officers. His role as head of the union is to help cops--which means the city is not his first interest.
My huge complaint, which took up the majority of my review last week, that Frank no longer is the underdog and in any danger is an even bigger problem in the third episode. While the random characters are at risk a few times, the main characters are never at risk, going about their business with relative ease.
I'm not sold on the series yet, but the start has been promising and I'll be watching a few more episodes.
Score: 8.4/10
Showing posts with label The Bridge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Bridge. Show all posts
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Review - The Bridge Season 1 Episode 1/2 Red Door/Paint it Black
The first hour and a half, I was thinking The Bridge was The Wire-lite--a Canadian counterpart with worse acting, worse dialogue, worse directing, but with a somewhat similar premise of corruption infesting the body politic, sans the criminal drug side. I was liking it a lot more than the other new shows the broadcast networks were putting out.
Then, the show went back to the present, when Frank Leo (Aaron Douglas) is already union boss and has tons of support. Just like that, a mountain of potential is sucked out and we're left with a less compelling show.
In my mind, the way the pilot was being paced, I thought Frank would make the decision to run for union president at the end of the episode, and the entire first season would chronicle the election as he battles adversaries from every corner. Instead, that is resolved instantly.
Far too quickly, Frank rises to the top, overcoming every obstacle in a few brief scenes. The struggles he faces--whether from Internal Affairs, the top brass, or even those close to him--are touched on one or two times before he is unanimously elected. Now, he is in a far more advantageous position than before.
What I enjoyed most about the middle section was how enemies were around him, and wasn't much he could do. As soon as the other cops rally around him, he was an aura of invulnerability. When the police, en masse, huddles around an individual, it's hard to feel anything about this guy.
Aaron Douglas, as he did in Battlestar Galactica, portrays the everyday working man who wants to make a difference with believability and passion. The other characters, however, aren't developed and are basically props for Frank to use--clearly not the intent, since Frank is working to help them.
Mostly, this review dealt with my disappointment in how far the show could have gone versus where the writers took it. Clearly, they weren't as ambitious or skilled as I hoped. Aside from that, the episode had plenty of great scenes and a uneasy tension riding behind it, dispelled only by the final act of the episode.
Score: 8.7/10
Then, the show went back to the present, when Frank Leo (Aaron Douglas) is already union boss and has tons of support. Just like that, a mountain of potential is sucked out and we're left with a less compelling show.
In my mind, the way the pilot was being paced, I thought Frank would make the decision to run for union president at the end of the episode, and the entire first season would chronicle the election as he battles adversaries from every corner. Instead, that is resolved instantly.
Far too quickly, Frank rises to the top, overcoming every obstacle in a few brief scenes. The struggles he faces--whether from Internal Affairs, the top brass, or even those close to him--are touched on one or two times before he is unanimously elected. Now, he is in a far more advantageous position than before.
What I enjoyed most about the middle section was how enemies were around him, and wasn't much he could do. As soon as the other cops rally around him, he was an aura of invulnerability. When the police, en masse, huddles around an individual, it's hard to feel anything about this guy.
Aaron Douglas, as he did in Battlestar Galactica, portrays the everyday working man who wants to make a difference with believability and passion. The other characters, however, aren't developed and are basically props for Frank to use--clearly not the intent, since Frank is working to help them.
Mostly, this review dealt with my disappointment in how far the show could have gone versus where the writers took it. Clearly, they weren't as ambitious or skilled as I hoped. Aside from that, the episode had plenty of great scenes and a uneasy tension riding behind it, dispelled only by the final act of the episode.
Score: 8.7/10
