The Bridge to a True Detective

The rise of television as an equal peer to film has been the big story of the past several years in the entertainment industry.  Shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and Mad Men have taken television to a whole new level.  The detective drama subgenre has also benefited from this trend.  In fact, it has produced the best television show of 2014.

True Detective stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as detectives with the Louisiana State Police investigating a serial killer who turns out to be connected with a group of men involved in child sex and ritual child murder.  Needless to say, this is not a subject for the easily disturbed.  I was so riveted during each episode that I found myself literally on the edge of my seat while watching the show.  The performances of the main actors and the supporting cast were so fantastic that I will never again look at those actors in the same way.  The wonderful Glenn Fleshler plays the bayou degenerate so well that I can't believe he won't be hitting it big very soon.  Then there's the haunting theme song:

I can only describe True Detective as hypnotic television...it draws you in and won't let go. 

Down the channel dial, on FX, you can find The Bridge, a show I just recently discovered.  Diane Kruger and Demian Bechir star, respectively, as El Paso and Chihuahua detectives brought together by a dead body found on the bridge between the two communities.  Kruger's character, Sonya Cross, is a detective with Asperger Syndrome, and is considered by her colleagues to be a bit weird due to her difficulty negotiating the emotional complexities of human interaction.  The outstanding (and Oscar-nominated) Bechir plays Mexican detective Marco Ruiz, an honest (except when it comes to his romantic relationships) policeman who has to negotiate the complex politics of a city run by drug cartels.

The political and social commentary in the show is often fascinating; a city split by a national border, with remarkably different experiences on each side.  However, what drives this show are the performances.  In particular, Tom Wright as Steven Linder, the oddball loner who travels to Juarez for reasons that are at first unclear, and Ted Levine (whom you might recognize), as Lt. Hank Wade, Cross' boss and the only human being she is close to.  

[Wright and Levine pictured below]

The first season is exclusively on Hulu Plus, which I didn't have.  However, they are currently offering a free 7-day trial, which I used to binge watch the entire first season (sorry, not sorry).  Season 2 premieres this Wednesday (July 9th) on FX.