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'The Bridge' vs real life


lobita

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He is trying to justify his time at the seedy bar. "Barely in Mexico", as he puts it. Juarez is one of the most hellish cities in Mexico, if not the most. And by any American standards, it's quite a shocker... and this show isn't aimed at a Mexican viewing audience. That doesn't mean everyone gets shot as soon as they step outside. Any more than the American press making out Mexico as a hellish country across the board. Still, I find it hard to digest these portrayals of my "home", true or not. Certainly ruins the real-estate business.

I live here, and I would never go to Juarez even on a bet. I applaud his efforts to change my mind, though.

TV and movies take great liberties to make the shows interesting. So what? Otherwise it would be boring. His problem here is he wants it to be like "The Wire"... but I can tell you that as realistic as that show was, it gave everyone else in the country the impression that every damn street corner in that fair city is crawling with pushers and addicts. I suggest those who haven't seen The Wire tale a look now at the first season. Since that show aired, we have been indundated with shows about cops, shady and otherwise, and every kind of black/chicano/white druggie and dealer, and now the wire is just a very-well-acted, boring bit of TV.

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Remember the movie 'Bordertown', with Jennifer López aka JLo? That movie was also a portrayal of Ciudad Juárez and focused on the murders of young women there. Since 1993, there have been about 400 young women murdered, and few if any of the murders have been solved. Here's an article about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_homicides_in_Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez

We watched the first several episodes of The Bridge and got tired of it. Too bad, it had a lot of promise but for us, it didn't come through.

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I watched a few episodes this year and liked it - then they started the romances and all that the subject entailed - and I really felt they were just trying to attract more viewers and had compromised what I thought was a good start on good story line ... I stopped watching it then........ just not enough interest

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Too bad... the 3rd last episode was absolute dynamite.

I can add that, once they have played out the "dead girls of Juarez" storyline, they will move on to much different stuff. That's just one aspect. The tunnel leading to Mexico is going to play a much larger part.

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Personally, I can only speak to the characterization and storytelling aspects, not the accuracy of cultural or place representation. From that perspective, I think the show is wildly uneven -- some really great stuff, and some that is very meh. Enough of the former, however, that I'll give it a couple of seasons to see if it finds its footing.

I find the Sonya character fascinating. Since at no point in the show (at least through the first ten episodes, which is as far as I've gotten) do they actually identify her condition, some viewers may be unaware of it. Being familiar with the symptoms, however, I guessed partway through the pilot that she has Asperger's, something that a quick Google search confirmed -- they actually have a consultant with Asperger's on staff.

This piqued my interest substantially. Asperger's characters are incredibly rare in popular media, and a female character with Asperger's is just unheard of. Kruger is, as far as I can tell, doing a bang-up job -- the fact that she gets on your nerves, Hiker, means she's doing it right. ;)

On the other hand, I'm still finding the Charlotte storyline rather tedious, partially because I can't actually bring myself to like any of the people in it. Sonya, for all her social awkwardness and lack of empathy, is more likable than Charlotte!

Super-impressed with Matthew Lillard, though. And I do enjoy Hank's character as well.

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The "Mexican/American" version of "The Bridge" is a take off on the 2011 Scandinavian/BBC production which opens on a modern, photogenic bridge linking Sweden and Denmark. The Swedish female detective lead is totally socially inept, unsympathetic and uncomprehending of societal conventions, while her Danish male counterpart is a flawed underachiever who has been around the block once too often, who falls victim to his own weaknesses time after time. Wonderful acting, marvelous cinematography and a wholly implausible plot that holds the viewers attention in spite of it's absurdity. This argument re: the exploitation of women needs to be re framed relative to it's origins, namely the exploitable underbelly of Nordic females.

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Ajijic_hiker, those lines are as nothing compared to the crossing at Tijuana. Tijuana is the busiest border crossing in the world--literally. The waits going from Mexico into the USA, in spite of the Tijuana crossing's 30 or so lanes, can be as long as 8 hours. A friend of mine lives in San Diego and often crosses the border; her custom these days is to go east to the Otay crossing, where the lines are usually much shorter: an hour or so, depending on the day. She now has a Sentry pass and can go to the head of the line. I once came back through Otay (maybe 20 years ago) at the end of the Memorial Day weekend and sat in the line for nearly 3 hours...

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I agree with Lobita, and yes, it is Asperger Syndrome from which she suffers. Since the show never states that (doesn't even come close when her childhood tragedy is revealed), her character irritates a lot of people. I think it's brilliant. Matthew Lillard has historically played weirdos or frat boys, but this time he's managed to get a roll that is quite memorable. And Hank (Ted Levine) has also played a LOT of bad guys, because of his voice and looks. He was fantastic as a super-loser in Crime Story, an old show about the vice squad in 60's Las Vegas (which was also notable for the theme song, a complete re-recording of Runaway, once again by Del Shannon).

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Read Emily Cruz's blog, TheRealHouswife of Ciudad Juarez for another take on that city. That young woman travels across that bridge to work on a daily bases. She makes you realize that, with all its terrible flaws, families still live in Ciudad Juarez and find ways to celebrate special occasions, picnic on holidays, enjoy tacos on the street, see movies etc, etc, etc. She has certainly seen her share of violence while there, and had some scary moments. She has also discovered that El Paso and Juarez are really connected, in a way that seem seamless at times. I would go to Ciudad Juarez. Heck, I am going to Michoacán for Day of the Dead.

"

Here is Emily's blog entry about The Bridge:

http://therealhousewifeofciudadjuarez.blogspot.mx/2013/09/my-thoughts-on-fxs-bridge.html

For fun, go and read her entry two later than this one, about learning English. Hilarious.

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