What is it? The Bridge, Season 1; 13 hour-long episodes on four discs from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
How much? $49.98
When? Now
Bridge over what? The Rio Grande -- and the much larger, metaphorical gulf between the United States and Mexico.
Late one night, there's a technical interruption in the cameras and monitors watching the bridge between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. When the lights and cameras come back on, there's a body lying right on the border, half in Mexico, half in the United States.
It's quickly discovered that it's not one body, but parts of two -- one white American, one Hispanic Mexican. The El Paso police homicide department and the Chihuahua State Police are going to have to cooperate.
Heading up the U.S. side is Detective Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger), who is brilliant and determined but also has Asperger's syndrome, and is awkward socially -- to put it mildly. Her boss, mentor and father figure, Hank Wade (Ted Levine), acts as a buffer and life coach.
Cross is teamed with Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir), a charming "people person" and family man. He's a rarity on the police force in Juarez: He's not corrupt. But he does know how to work the system when he needs to. He's not exactly innocent.
The two partners are opposites, but they gradually grow to accept, trust and even like each other as they dig into an increasingly dark and complicated case that involves human trafficking, serial murders and a psychotic genius.
The focus isn't entirely on the murders. There's also the matter of a recent widow named Charlotte Millwright (Annabeth Gish). Her rancher husband dies of a heart attack the night the bodies are found on the bridge. As she tries to get her bearings, she discovers that he was mixed up in some very shady trans-border activities.
And then there are the reporters and some desperate people trying to get across the border with some dubious help.
What's it like? Dark. Tense. This show explores weighty matters: poverty, drugs, international relations, immigration, people with special needs and institutional corruption. That's on top of some deeply twisted and disturbing crimes. But it's also occasionally funny and even touching, particularly in the relationships between Cross, Wade and Ruiz.
The relationship between the United States and Mexico is a focal point, and the differences between the two are highlighted pretty plainly. El Paso is relatively clean and efficient. Juarez is rundown and corrupt. While it's not quite that simplistic, the show does make a point of the United States' indifference to the plight of crime-ridden Juarez.
Despite their differences, the two cities and countries are not as divided as one might think. As this series shows, action (or inaction) on one side of the border can have big consequences on the other.
Are there extras? There's a 20-minute making-of documentary and a nine-minute explanation of Juarez's recent history and its personality with New York Times correspondent Damien Cave. The pilot episode has a commentary track, and there are deleted scenes.
New this week: The Big Valley, Season 3; Endeavour, Season 2; Vicious, Season 1.
Next week: Diff'rent Strokes, Seasons 1 and 2; Hell on Wheels, Season 3; How the West Was Won, Season 2; Orphan Black, Season 2.
Style on 07/06/2014