The Bridge - Season 2, Episode 1 "Yankee" Review

            The Bridge returned to television for its second season a few days ago, but I just got a chance to watch it now. I really enjoyed the first season of The Bridge and thought that it was a very intelligent show. Now the show is back, and “Yankee” is the first episode of this second season.

            Since it was several months ago that season one of The Bridge ended, I had actually forgotten many things that happened near the end of the season that were not resolved. Thanks to the “Previously on The Bridge” opening I was able to find these things out.

            I felt that this episode was not as good as the premiere episode of the series, but it did what it needed to do: it set up an intriguing and complicated case with many, many people involved. But it did more than that, too. It helped further the characters. It not only focuses on the sides of the characters that further the plot, but it also focuses on the personal side of them. In Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger), we see part of her past used to further her character. And we have the same with Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir), although the past that is affecting him is much more recent than Sonya’s.

            In this episode of The Bridge, we see the building up of a case with new characters, but we also have our old characters. Ariana Mendez (Emily Rios) and Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard) are investigating this “money house” thing that was left off at the end of season one and I had forgotten about. Hank Wade (Ted Levine) is still holding Eva (Stephanie Sigman), but police officers from Juarez are coming after her. Marco Ruiz finds out that other police officers in Juarez are targeting him because of the Eva situation. Sonya Cross’s sister’s killer is dying, and she meets up with his brother. They get to know each other. And for the new characters: there are several. They seem to be caught up in some narcotics deal of some sort and some are ruthless. Some are cops. There is one scene in particular with some of them that left jaw hanging after it ended and the show cut to commercial. It was powerful.

            The script not only does what it needs to for the plot of show and the characters, but it is also simply very well written. The dialogue is realistic and compelling. The order of scenes is mixed well. The characters are introduced well. It is a very good script.

            This episode is also very well made. The acting is beyond suitable in it. Diane Kruger is great here. She real sells the fact the character has asperger syndrome. Demian Bichir is very good here. He seems very natural in presenting his lines. I could go on and an about every actor that was in this show. My point was that the acting was very good. And the director also does a very good job. The look of every scene really sold me. It did look like El Paso when the scene was in El Paso and Juarez when the scene was in Juarez. The framing for the shots is also very good, and the director’s style worked really well.

            What a season premiere should do is done and more in this episode. I enjoyed this episode, but it’s the aspects of how well-made and well-written that make me thing very positively about the episode.