German actress Franka Potente (“The Bourne Identity”) is the new bad-ass on “The Bridge,” FX’s acclaimed crime drama.
And, by the end of the second hour, it’s diabolically clear why she’s this season’s most-wanted woman.
Potente plays Eleanor Nacht, a Mennonite who acts as liaison between drug cartel leader Fausto Galvan (Ramon Franco) and the people who owe him money in the US. Clad in “church lady” chic and a ten-dollar shag haircut, she crosses the border from Juarez to El Paso, with a henchman who carries a bag of tools to cut off the body parts of those who prove uncooperative.
When two teenage boys discover a nearly naked Nacht hosing off some “man blood” in a garage, you sensethat she’s the kind of killer too dangerous even for the felons on “Orange Is the New Black.”
Drug cartels, a room of shrink-wrapped bills (worth $60 million), body bags and buckets of blood are just some of the intriguing elements in this uniquely Mexican-American drama, where the layers of corruption on both sides of the border seem impenetrable.
In Season 1, Mexican detective Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) and American detective Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) joined forces when a dead body was found on the bridge connecting El Paso and Juarez. What looked like a serial killing motivated by political considerations ended up a tragic story of revenge taken against Ruiz by a former FBI agent with a personal vendetta. Ruiz’s son Gus was murdered, his marriage fell apart and he has been unraveling ever since.
In Season 2, Ruiz and Cross are brought together again when a member of Galvan’s drug cartel is murdered and the corpse is found in El Paso. Galvan wants Ruiz to find Nacht and the package that he says belongs to him. Cross, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, is several steps ahead, having already put out on APB on the oddly dressed woman.
They are not the only ones on the case. Also investigating the “Quintana money house” are two journalists from the El Paso Times, Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard) and Adriana Mendez (Emily Rios). Lillard plays Frye, a unrepentant boozehound who just happens to be a great reporter, with such skeevy relish that you can’t help laughing when he sees a six-foot-four drag queen in a Nancy Sinatra wig at a Juarez bar and admits to being turned on.
“The Bridge” has a rich tapestry of unpredictable characters, from Lyle Lovett’s shady lawyer to Ted Levine’s compassionate Lt. Hank Wade. This season, they are joined by Abraham Benrubi (“ER”) as an overeager DEA agent, Bechir’s brother, Bruno, as a police department investigator and Nathan Phillips as Jack Hobbs, the brother of a man who killed Cross’ sister.
One rare false note is the extremely stiff—but not in a good way — sex scene between Hobbs and Cross after they meet in the hospital where Hobbs’ brother wastes away. It’s too reminiscent of all those “Homeland” scenes of Carrie Mathison picking up strangers at the mini-mart.
“The Bridge” underwent some personnel changes between Seasons 1 and 2, when executive producer Meredith Stiehm returned to “Homeland” in a last-ditch effort to save that show from totally going down the drain (she did not succeed). Executive producer Elwood Reid, who helped develop the show from the Danish original “Broen,” seems to be opting for a moodier narrative than last season. He’s done a great job casting Potente as the latest in a truly impressive line (Kate Mulgrew and Lorraine Toussaint on “OITNB”) of dangerous women on TV.