The Bridge: Pilot Review New FX Drama is off to a solid, if formulaic start.

[rating=4]

This review contains mild spoilers.

Dexter. The Killing. Hannibal. Does the world really need another grim and gritty serial killer show?

FX apparently thinks so, and they’ve made a convincing argument with The Bridge (a remake of the Scandinavian drama Bron/Broen).  It’s a story about a serial killer who slays on both sides of the Mexican/U.S. Border.

It seems that this show has lots of twists and turns in store, as the pilot episode sets-up a multitude of plot elements. It’s shot artfully, and paced well.

The show opens with a body smack dab in-between the border, cut neatly in half. We later learn that it’s not one, but two bodies; one for each country.

El Paso Detective Sonia Cross (Diane Kruger) is the show’s heroine, and her character proves a difficult entry point.  While it’s not mentioned, her awkward demeanor and inappropriate impulsivity suggests Asperger’s syndrome. This would be intriguing, except this condition has already been exploited too much for this genre,  in both Hannibal and BBC’s Sherlock.

She definitely brings the wounded warrior vibe of Carrie Matheson in Homeland. But Kruger doesn’t have the gift for subtlety. At least not yet.

She doesn’t warm to the other lead character, Chihuahua state police officer Marco Ruiz (Demián Bichir), and feels he’s encroaching her turf. But he’s eminently likeable, and makes the story more engaging.

Ted Levine is Sonia’s paternal superior. The fact the he played serial killer Jame Gumb in Silence Of The Lamb’s is both a nice homage while playing against type. He talks about retiring soon, which is always a bad sign for a TV/movie cop’s mortality. Hopefully he can buck that cliché.

Other characters of note include a seedy man who dumped the two bodies. While it first appears he’s the killer, sneak previews for upcoming episodes cast some doubt.

And Annabeth Gish plays a woman whose husband has a heart attack while crossing the border. As he’s about to go into surgery he tells her he doesn’t love her anymore and wants a divorce. He dies shortly afterwards.

We later see her at her large ranch estate, where she gets a call from a woman on his cell phone and then finds a key to an ominous room on her property. It certainly appears he had a hand in some criminal element that will play a major part of the show.

The Bridge encompasses a lot of button-pushing topics; immigration reform, drug trafficking, the sex trade, and corrupt law enforcement. All of which make for compelling story elements and social commentary. I’m curious to see where it’s headed.

The Bridge airs Wednesdays at 9:00pm central time on FX.