There are several grim and violent shows on TV, especially the cable networks, but “The Bridge” (9 p.m. Central Wednesdays on FX) started its second season with an hour so incredibly bleak that 1) it confirms that it’s still a top-10 show, and 2) I almost want to cancel it from my DVR queue.
Sure, “Fargo” was violent, but also darkly funny. “The Killing” is moody, but the Linden-Holder banter takes the edge off. “Bates Motel” is about a young man’s descent into being a nutball, but it has the fun, geeky hook of being a “Psycho” prequel. “Hannibal” has the most “Holy crap!” moments on TV, but it’s so extreme that I laugh even as I’m shocked by seeing a man eat his own face off.
But “The Bridge” is some dark f*****’ s***. I do not recommend it to anyone, as I don’t want to be responsible for their nightmares. There’s a scene in the Season 2 premiere where the drug cartel’s accountant (Franka Potente) has her henchman cut the ear off of a receptionist who accidentally spills tea on her. She makes the creepy head kingpin (Ramon Franco), who almost killed a guy for giving the eye to his wife on the street last season, look like a teddy bear. And we’re led to believe this is standard operating procedure: After the spilled tea, the henchman calmly asks “Ear, finger or hand?”
But that’s just one scene, you say. Well, to give you an idea of how relentless “The Bridge” is: The lightest arc follows barely functioning alcoholic reporter Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard). He tells his sponsor (Brian Baumgartner — Kevin from “The Office,” in a shockingly straight turn) that he has a system – two beers a day, as it gives him something to look forward to. Then he lightly makes fun of Kevin – wait, let me look up his name on IMDB … Gary — for liking Rush. The scene is set in Daniel’s squalorous apartment. If Daniel isn’t at rock bottom, that’s only because he’s not dead. Yet this is the lightest scene in the episode.
Unless you find Sonya (Diane Kruger) seducing the brother of the man who murdered her sister to be breezy fun. I found this arc fascinatingly twisted and bleak. Kruger was criticized early in the show for doing a rather narrow caricature of an Asperger’s-afflicted woman, but she’s gotten a lot better at it.
OK, but some good and decent things happen in the episode, right? Well, Lt. Wade (Ted Levine) delivers unofficial Mexican refugee Eva to a religious commune, overseen by two creepy dudes, because out of all of Juarez and El Paso, that’s the place where she’ll be safest from the various players in the Drug War. A small victory, I suppose.
While Season 1 had a murder mystery and a psychopathic killer, “The Bridge’s” second season is clearly going to explore the Drug War along the border, as it introduces players on every side, including Abraham Benrubi (Olaf the Troll on “Buffy!” Ah, a lighter moment to think of …) as a (corrupt, naturally) El Paso DEA agent.
“The Bridge” is gearing up to explore the real cost of the War on Drugs in a way that will make “Bates Motel” and “Breaking Bad” look quaint. That ear-cutting scene puts us in the terrified shoes of banker Mr. DeLarge (familiar character actor John Billingsley), who is part of the drug-delivery chain. His branch of the organization is responsible for the loss of millions of dollars of cash that we saw Daniel stumble upon last season. When the accountant’s assistant threatens his family if he reports their assault on his receptionist to the police, there is no doubt whatsoever in a viewer’s mind that they will back up their threat.
While “The Bridge” doesn’t spell out its subtext, it’s hard not to see that the Juarez drug cartel could not and would not exist without the governments of the United States and Mexico making drugs illegal and enforcing those laws viciously and capriciously. There are times when one could legitimately argue that citizens have two choices in the world: To be ruled by a government, or to be ruled by whatever crops up in anarchic society. But drug cartels exist only because of the multi-national Drug War, and while corruption can exist in any government agency, it’s guaranteed to happen when a policy is so misguided at the outset. The strategy of the War on Drugs is this: If someone is found with illegal drugs, they will be locked up. If the goal was truly to eliminate drugs (which is impossible, but still …), then the aim should be to destroy the drugs and to have robust drug-treatment facilities instead of prisons.
Mirroring reality but shining flashlights into corners so dark that Mulder and Scully would blanch, “The Bridge” explores a world so horrible that a viewer totally sympathizes with detective Marco Ruiz’s (Demian Bichir) reluctance to even peek into drug-related border cases. When the corrupt (of course) Chihuahua state police chief lines up some (most likely innocent) local miscreants for photos with stacks of drugs, weapons and cash from a previous bust to show how he’s winning the Drug War, Marco looks away, powerless and ashamed.
No, I don’t wish nightmares on anyone, but if you want a lesson on how banning things creates black markets, and how having serious prison time as a penalty for possessing a banned item creates the most violent and corruption-filled black market imaginable, “The Bridge” Season 2 is shaping up to be a master class.