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Previously on The Bridge: Marco feels like he is all alone in the world, Marco & Sonya have found Eva, Frye and Adrianna hit the jackpot, so to speak, and Marco is seeking help on a revenge scheme against David Tate from Fausto Galvan.
When The Bridge returns for its second season on FX, fans of the original series are going to be as much in the dark about the series as those who are barely tuning in. After finding its strengths and weaknesses last season, the writers decided to expound upon the strengths of this iteration of The Bridge, rather than stick to the template of the Scandinavian drama. As a result, the show is going into completely unchartered territory. That being said, I don't think it will take fans long to realize that FX's version of The Bridge can do just fine on its own.
When we start off this season, we find Lyle Lovett's Monte P. Flagman inspecting the handiwork of an entirely new character. Within the first few minutes it is obvious that this scene will be vital to the story line this season. As such, I don't want to say too much about it, but I will say that it reminded me of the peculiar ambiance of parts of FX's recent hit Fargo. To be honest, I did not expect Monte to survive last season, so it will be interesting to see what the writers do with his character this season.
Meanwhile, rather than take a break and relax at the beach after the events of last season, Sonya is focused on her sister's killer more than ever. All the same, I can reveal that Sonya finds other ways to occupy her time... ways that are very much "related" to her sister's killer. While many will view the awkward manner that she attempts this as another unfortunate symptom of her condition, it would not shock me if this turns out to be an instance where Sonya's condition allows her to focus and read people better than anyone else. More on this in the next few episodes.
While Sonya mixes business with pleasure, the other story lines seem to take the backseat in writing. Marco struggles at work with a bureaucrat while Adrianna has lunch with Frye and her girlfriend. These were my least favorite parts of this episode simply because nothing seemed to happen. It's unfortunate that I have to say that they were my least favorite segments because there was nothing wrong with them necessarily, but they were so uneventful that I lost interest at points.
Overall, I can't say that the season premiere was phenomenal, but I also can't say I didn't like it. I see the direction that the show is going in and while I like the overall direction, this episode seemed to take a little too long to get to anything of interest. I hope that episode 2 is able to find room for more developments and less of the worthless small talk that seemed to plague pieces of this episode.
Rating: 8.4/10
Tune in to The Bridge on Wednesdays @ 10/9c on FX. Be sure to come back here to SpoilerTV to let everyone else know what you thought of the episode. Also, if you're a fan of anything The Bridge, keep an eye out for Brandon Rowe & Tonya Papanikolas's set tour and interview posts which should be coming around in the next few weeks.
