The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

Posted:

New drama thriller The Bridge keeps viewers guessing from one border city to another.

IN the dead of night, the lights suddenly go off on the Bridge of the Americas, a heavily utilised bridge that connects the United States and Mexico border cities of El Paso in Texas and Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua. The entire border crossing is plunged into complete darkness.

Before border patrol officers can determine what's going on, the power comes back on, revealing a dead body lying right on the border line – half on American soil, and the other half in Mexico.

This is the gambit for The Bridge, a brand new drama thriller based on a Swedish/Norwegian drama series also called The Bridge (or Bron in Swedish and Broen in Danish).

Things get interesting real fast in the show. El Paso detective Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) and Chihuahua detective Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) both go down to the crime scene as the murder falls under both their jurisdictions.

The detectives discover that the body is severed at the waist and that the dismembered body actually belongs to two different people – the top half belongs to American judge Lorraine Gates while the lower torso belongs to a young Hispanic girl named Christina Fuentes. Ruiz recognises Christina's name and connects her to a previous case he was working on in which 23 dismembered bodies were discovered in a "death house".

Whoa.

There is a serial killer at large and Cross and Ruiz are forced to work together to solve the case. Cross is a socially awkward, by-the-book cop suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. She finds herself drawn into an unfamiliar world of drugs, prostitution and human trafficking – things are just not so cut-and-dry as she is used to.

However, even though she's blunt and direct to a fault, Cross is an ace detective who is used to being in control. In Mexico, though, she's forced to relinquish that control because things are done a little differently there.

The Mexican police fix their investigations to protect their families from the dangerous drug lords whose involvement in the case isn't clear but is, at the same time, obvious.

Things start moving once the killer makes contact. For some reason, the murderer chooses arrogant journalist Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard) as his point of contact, using him to get his messages across to the authorities. The serial killer, it would seem, has a political agenda, namely calling to question the cultural wars between the two countries. His first message – through Frye – is this: why should the death of one white woman be more important than that of so many Mexicans across the bridge?

The killer strikes again soon after the incident on the bridge. When the killer asks for ransom for his latest victim, a Hispanic woman hoping to make her way across the border, Cross and Ruiz smell a red herring: serial killers don't ask for ransom.

Are they being played? Is there even a serial killer?

The case is intriguing enough but it isn't the most interesting thing about the show. Quite soon into the first episode, you realise that this isn't your typical whodunit series. The murders uncover a greater, much darker mystery involving a host of other characters who are directly or indirectly connected to the central case.

We learn that you don't know who anyone is, completely. There are deep, dark secrets and we want to know what these secrets are more urgently than we want to know who the serial killer is.

This is what makes The Bridge possibly the best new series on television at the moment. There are layers of mystery and so far the show's writers (led by creators Elwood Reid and Meredith Stiehm, who also did Cold Case) seem to be playing things out cohesively.

If you like drama and intrigue and are craving a fresh take on the standard murder/detective tale, The Bridge will seem like a breath of fresh air. With each episode, just as the detectives seem to have made some headway into the case, a new twist is introduced and a whole new mystery is spun.

Add to that some really good acting, namely Bichir (who was previously in Weeds) as the flawed but likable Ruiz.

Here's my grouse, though. While I love the fact that Cross is nowhere near perfect – her inability to emote is evocative of another favourite TV detective, Adrian Monk (of Monk) – I am not completely convinced that I love Kruger's interpretation of the character. Monk was endearing, Cross ... not so much.

Still, there are brilliant performances by the supporting cast as well, like Australian actor Thomas M. Wright as shady social worker Steven Linder and Puerto Rican actor Ramon Franco who plays a drug lord named Fausto Galvan (he appears in Episode Four). I can't wait to see the story unfold.

> The Bridge airs on Fox (Astro Ch 710) every Monday at 9.50pm.

Embarking on a book tour

Posted:

CHAN Fong has kept listeners glued to the radio with his show City Heartbeat (Tai Seng Sam Si) which airs on 988. Now, his popularity has extended to the literary world. His first book, an adapation of 32 stories from his radio show, was launched recently at the BookFest@Malaysia 2013. It topped the bestselling chart the week it was released. The popular DJ will embark on a book tour soon. Tour details will be announced on 988 soon.

Also on 988 this week,

The Feature (Mon-Tues, 9am-10am)

Malaysia is a lovely country to live in, so it's not surprising that many foreigners are opting to stay here for the long term. The Feature takes a look at the requirements and procedures for foreigners who are interested to make Malaysia their second home.

Morning Up VIP (Wed-Fri, 9am-10am)

Anna Yau Hoi Man, the host of popular show You Are The Queen (Nu Huang Jia Dao) on Now TV, will share tips on beauty and fashion.

Music VIP (Mon-Fri, 2pm)

Huang Yida, the popular Singaporean singer and songwriter is set for a comeback with his new album Heart Disk.

For more information, log on to www.988.com.my

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Isnin, 12 Ogos 2013