Pilot

Diane Kruger's character's OCD is not endearing. Her clumsy interview with a homicide victim's husband makes it clear that her superior would never send her to do that kind of thing. A young Mexican woman is kidnapped by being tossed into the trunk of a man's car. When her kidnapper has to stop at the border crossing back into the US, she makes no attempt to get the border guard's attention by pounding on the trunk, nor does she manage to find the inside trunk release, a requirement on all American cars of the time. There are just too many stereotypes here, from the OCD cop to her world weary boss to the sardonic Mexican detective. Adios.

This pilot was, by chance, the 10,000th title I've rated on IMDb, so I was obliged to mark the occasion with a review. I only later noticed the series (or at least season 1) is a remake of a Swedish/Danish series "Bron" *and* that the original was airing on another channel. I had already missed the airings of the first episodes, but it does not matter: if a remake is done well enough, it does *not* matter how faithful it is to the original - or, even how similar the remake is. Some of the best remakes or "re-imaginings" aren't even in the same genre as the original, be they films or TV series.

The Bridge, however, appears to be in the same genre - crime - as the original and at least starts with the same genius of an idea. It's actually ironical that Americans *haven't* made a series about a murder on the USA-Mexico border - *literally* on the actual border, as it is such an obvious idea, at least in hindsight.

The first thing that is noticeable - or unnoticeable, as it may seem to some - is how confident The Bridge is. It does not pull out any special "style", "flair" or CGI-dazzle - just plain old good writing, acting and film-making (the technical aspects). That confidence pays of in the rarest of qualities in film & TV: total believability.

One will definitely have questions after the pilot, but those questions will most likely be of the speculative type, such as "Why *is* Sonya so odd?" - not of the accusatory type, such as "Why should we take any of this seriously?" Because we will take The Bridge seriously. It feels real. Sure, it has some restrictions (such as no nudity and no swearing) placed on it that would not exist in an HBO show, but like The Walking Dead, for example, it circumvents those restrictions. This is not a show in which nude sex or swearing are needed to make the viewer buy the story.

In hindsight, it is easy to say that while the pilot raises questions, it is entirely intentional on part of the makers: the answers *will* come, be they about the plot or the characters. Speaking of which: while the plot is not even at half-point at the time of writing this review, its progression has remained intriguing and utterly addictive. One should beware of making assumptions - they *may* crumble in any of the following episodes, as the multiple plot strands *may* at an unexpected moment take a surprise turn or meeting that is still entirely plausible. One simply *must* know where this will end up.

Then there are the characters. Diane "Bridget von Hammersmark" Kruger takes a difficult, oddball character not unlike Dr. Temperance 'Bones' Brennan or Jessi XX of "Kyle XY" and makes her completely believable. Whereas the implausibly over-rational yet exactly because of that so entertaining 'Bones' feels a bit of a stretch, Sonya Cross somehow feels like someone who may exist somewhere in our world - and at this point we know her only by *some* of her eccentricities. Kruger, like the underrated Jaimie Alexander in her phenomenal role as Jessi XX, uses little expressions and subtle body language that speak volumes about the character. Alexander had the benefit that the viewers knew her character's back-story when she made her appearance in Kyle XY, but Kruger has to act without that safety net.

Demian Bichir as the other main character, Marco Ruiz, is only slightly less impressive, and that is because for the dynamic to work, his role needs to be the "average man". We learn more about his character in the pilot, but its the insight we get that matters, not the secrets withheld as in Sonya's case.

The attention to supporting characters is impressive, too. None of them comes across as a stockpile character, thanks to both good writing and excellent, experienced actors such as Annabeth Gish, the legendary Ted Levine, the fantastic Thomas M. Wright or Matthew Lillard (has it already been 17 years since Scream?), to name but a few.

There is much to praise, but A Very Special Mention goes to the show-makers for the courage of having the Mexicans actually speaking Spanish among themselves, often even while in the presence of American characters who cannot understand them, whereas the viewer can, thanks to the subtitles. And some poor subtitle-hater somewhere probably thought that because The Bridge is an American remake of a foreign show, they would not have to bear any subtitles. An impressive 9/10, one of the 942 I've given out of 10,000 (the remaining 234 are 10/10s).

If you're in need for a new TV series to get caught on, sign-on "The Bridge": Juarez City is the infamous world epicenter of femicides, a town outgrown between the desert and the border were Det. Marco Ruiz (Oscar nominated for Best Actor for "A better life" in 2011, Demian Bichir) found a way to survive his career among policemen more than cozy with cartel bosses (one scene depicts his boss playing cards with a drug-lord surrounded by caged white tigers and plenty of bodyguards); Det. Sonya Cross (played by Diane Kruger as an awkward and slightly emotionally autistic character which fogs her amazing beauty) is the El Paso-by-the- book-cop. One dialogue between the two characters sums it all: (Ruiz) "She's one of them…the dead girls of Juarez…" (Cross) "…and no one tried to find out?"

'The Bridge', adapted from a Scandinavian T.V. crime series, 'Bron\Broen', follows two detectives, one from the US and one from Mexico, who follow a serial killer working on both sides of the Mexican\American border and kicks off with the pilot episode.

When I watched a pilot episode, I couldn't find any problems with it. There was nothing that I thought what unrealistic or stupid or didn't fit in. It also wasn't boring. It was a very interesting opening to the series. It's also not just about the detectives. There are several other characters who I believe all have something to do with this. Those characters aren't explained yet, but I think they'll serve a purpose. The acting is good, I believe that all of these people are the characters they play. Ones that work together have chemistry between each other. The characters are also very strange, which would be hard to pull off for the writing... But it was pulled off. The events that happen in this episode build up intensity and trauma that show that this is "real". You feel people's reactions to the things that happen to them. Also, there's a very unique story line and events with the serial killer that I've never seen before. Those aspects are really really good in the story: they fit well, they add interests, and they make it better.

The reason this episode isn't excellent is because even though, basically the whole episode was enjoyable, I didn't enjoy every second of it and I didn't think it was excellent as a whole. That's not saying anything bad about it. It's a 90 minute T.V. episode (including commercials), it's going to have parts that aren't as good as others. Not every part of it will be enjoyable. 'The Bridge' has it's 9/10 rating because there was nothing wrong with it, it was very interesting, it had good acting, writing and characters, I've never seen some of the aspects in it before, those aspects worked well, and it was very enjoyable.

The pilot episode of 'The Bridge' set the bar very high for the rest of the season, or even the rest of the series. It was a great opening to 'The Bridge', and I will continue to watch 'The Bridge' as it comes on weekly. I very much recommend this episode to anyone who is thinking about seeing it, and I recommend watching the series as it goes on. My 9/10 rating means 'Pilot', episode one of season one of the 'The Bridge' is great.

Diane Kruger is no Sofia Helin (the Swedish original); she is young and her attempts at a unique personality disorder are forced and self-conscious. But the other actors do carry the story well.