Experienced detective wanted: Danish background necessary, Asperger’s, OCD, or highly functioning autism required.
Tomorrow night, FX brings us “The Bridge” a detective procedural adapted from a hit Danish series about an Asperger’s-afflicted homicide detective.
Yes, now that Hollywood has exhausted every single possible American cop scenario, they’ve gone to Denmark to steal, (“T
he Killing,”) while still milking the social-misfit-yet-brilliant-detective theme (“Monk,” “Sherlock,” “Elementary,” “Perception”).
Adapted from the original, about a killing that occurs between the borders of Denmark and Sweden (this is a high crime area?), the American version features a murder taking place on the border between Mexico and the US.
When a female judge is found severed at the waist directly on the borderline between Mexico and the US, American detective Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) must work with Mexican counterpart Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) to solve the crime.
We understand immediately that Cross (how many detectives have the same name, let alone the same disorder?) has Asperger’s, because they hit us over the head with it.
Right off, she won’t allow an ambulance with a man dying of a heart attack to cross the bridge because it will compromise the crime scene. What?
Turns out the dying man is a rich horse rancher and his wife, Charlotte Millwright (Annabeth Gish), is about to become a very wealthy widow.
But that’s another story — or make that a second scenario.
True to form, the two detectives are not just different from one another, but come from totally different places — literally and figuratively.
Into the mix is a truck-load of illegals stuffed into the bed of a cattle truck who get dumped in the middle of the desert.
But again, that’s another scenario — as is the fourth one about the serial killer who may be the rogue social worker (Thomas M. Wright).
“The Bridge” is, overall, a good show with some great performances — including Ted Levine as Lt. Wade, who’s a show stopper.
Bichir is simply spectacular as Ruiz and Matthew Lilard as a nasty, horrible reporter and Emily Rios as an earnest cub reporter are just terrific.
But there’s a big problem — and it’s with the main character.
Kruger is too bland, and the Cross dialogue is so over-the-top that the detective can’t even comprehend why Ruiz’s wife would call him if she has nothing important to impart.
She talks to the murdered woman’s distraught husband like she is there to tell him his bike was run over — instead of telling him his wife was severed in half.
It’s just incomprehensible that a detective speaks to everyone as though she were from Mars and has never before encountered a human.
I don’t buy it — even if I buy the rest of what they’re selling.
Check this one out.