The second season of The Bridge picks up shortly after the events of the first season, starting with the investigation of last season’s discovery of a drug house full of cash.

While the first season was about tracking down a serial killer on both sides of the border, this season is all about the drug trade and the corruption on both sides of the border. The El Paso Police Department finds its investigation of some drug-related murders constantly being interrupted by the DEA and CIA. Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, new prosecutor Abelardo (Manuel Uriza) has his sights set on revealing the corruption in the Chihuahua police department—starting with chief and his ties to cartel leader Fausto Galvan (Ramón Franco). And El Paso Times reporters Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard) & Adriana Mendez (Emily Rios) are doing their own investigation on the corruption by following the money trail. Meanwhile, the creepy Eleanor (Franka Potente)—a former Mennonite-turned-accountant for the cartel—shows up to clean up the money situation for Fausto, but she is leaving a trail of bodies in her wake.

In addition to the ongoing mystery/conspiracy, the second season also delves into the backstories and challenges of the main characters. Marco (Demian Bichir) is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of his son, and he anxiously wants revenge on David Tate. While it would be easy to accept Fausto’s offer to take care of things, that would just make him part of the problem. He must decide whether to keep turning a blind eye to the corruption within his department. This struggle with whether to be good or bad drives him throughout the season.

Meanwhile, Sonya (Diane Kruger) is also struggling with loss—Jim Dobbs, the man who killed her sister, is dying and she hopes to get answers as to why he did what he did. She starts a relationship with Dobbs’ brother Jack (Nathan Phillips) as a way to cope with this. And over the course of the season her driving force is to find resolution surrounding her sister’s death.

This series is made for watching on DVD. Each episode picks up at the exact moment at which the previous one left off. So you are really watching one long 13-part story. It is so convenient to just continue watching from one episode to the next without having to wait a week inbetween.

I really enjoyed this second season overall. I found it a bit slow at the beginning, and there were a bit too many seemingly-disconnected storylines and characters to follow. However, the series really picks up halfway through and by episode 9, you are on the edge of your seat as things get really tense and suspenseful. Franka Potente is a great addition to the cast—Eleanor is a amazing villain. While she looks simple and unassuming, she is so creepy and lashes out at the most unexpected times.

While FX has decided to not renew the series for a third season, the second season does provide a somewhat-satisfying conclusion to the series. Unlike the first season where the main case was wrapped up with 2 episodes to go, the second season arc runs through all 13 episodes. And, fortunately, the writers have provided resolution to pretty much all of the season’s storylines, while still leaving room for a third season, had that happened.

The second season seems a lot more violent and bloody than the first, but not in an excessive way. The violence is used both to shock the viewer, but also move along the plot. There is also liberal use of humor to help temper the violence and drama.

 
It’s a shame that Fox has chosen not to release a Blu-ray version for the series this time around. I suspect the show would have been quite breathtaking in HD. As for the DVD, for the most part the picture looks fantastic. However, in some of the darker scenes it can get a bit grainy, especially when the series is doing a flashback scene. One example of this is the opening of episode 10, which looks downright horrible on the DVD—at first I thought it was supposed to be some kind of surveillance camera footage. I’m not sure how much better the picture looked when the show aired in HD, but on the DVD that sequence is almost unwatchable. That said, this was really the only poor quality thing I noted while watching the DVD, and I didn’t have any problems with the audio track, which presented dialogue clearly and brought the action sequences to life.

As for the bonus features, the DVDs include over an hour of behind-the-scenes featurettes and interviews with the cast/creators as well as almost 6 minutes of deleted scenes. The featuerettes are really well done and provide some interesting notes on the season.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (580 min)

• All 13 Episodes of the second season:
  Disc 1: “Yankee”, “Ghost of a Flea”, “Sorrowsworn”
  Disc 2: “The Acorn”, “Eye of the Deep”, “Harvest of Souls”
  Disc 3: “Lamia”, “Goliath”, “Rakshasa”, “Eidolon”
  Disc 4: “Beholder”, “Quetzalcoatl”, “Jubilex”
• 480p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
• Closed Captions

Extras:

• Building The Bridge (52:23)
  On each disc there is a 3-4 minute behind-the-scenes featurette for each episode contained on that disc (however, there is no Play All option). Some of the things the cast and crew talk about in these videos include the events of the episodes, the new characters this season, Eleanor’s tattoos, shooting the horse scene, and the relationship between Jack and Sonya. They also discuss the return of David Tate, Marco’s struggles, Linder and Eva’s relationship, and the ramifications of the characters revealing their secrets. They also talk about Fausto’s empire, Charlotte & Caesar’s journey, the filming the bloody shootout, the relationship between Sonya and Eleanor, the battle between the US agencies, the role of the journalists in the investigation, and the final confrontations.

  In addition to the episodic featurettes, there is also one additional 6-minute “Wrap-Up” edition of Building the Bridge in which the cast/creators discuss seasons 1 and 2 as a whole, the characters’ growth over the series and some of the specific decisions the writers made for season 2.

  Among those interviewed are executive producer Elwood Reid, co executive producer Dario Scardapane, consulting producers Mauricio Katz & Evan Wright, tattoo artist Freddy Negrete, head of makeup department Kris Evans, story editor Patrick Somerville, writers Anna Fishko, Dre Alvarez & Marisha Mukerjee, researcher/writer Adam Gaines, special effects coordinator Richard Stutsman, and actors Demian Bichir (“Marco Ruiz”), Diane Kruger (“Sonya Cross”), Franka Potente (“Eleanor”), Ted Levine (“Hank Wade”), Alejandro Patiño (“Cesar”), Nathan Phillips (“Jack Dobbs”), Eric Lange (“David Tate”), Thomas Wright (“Linder”), Stephanie Sigman (“Eva”), Ramon Franco (“Fausto Galvan”), Bruno Bichir (“Sebastian Cerisola”), Ian Hart (“Alex Buckley”), Matthew Lillard (“Daniel Frye”) & Emily Rios (“Adriana Mendez”).

• Blurring the Border Line (10:41)
  The creator talks about doing a wholly-original second season of the series rather than adapting the second season of the Danish series. The cast/EP also discuss how the lines between good and bad have been blurred this season, and how they used violence to tell the story. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with executive producer Elwood Reid, autism consultant Alex Plank, and stars Diane Kruger, Matthew Lillard, Demian Bichir, Ramon Franco & Franka Potente.
• Deleted Scenes (5:51)
  A trio of scenes (Ep 203, Sc 15, 19, 20) for a deleted subplot that finds Adriana and Daniel going to the morgue to identify a body that may be Adriana’s missing sister. There is also one additional short dialogue-less scene (Ep 205, Sc 33) of Marco at the prison.

Final Thoughts:

The second season of The Bridge takes a little while to ramp up, but culminates in an exciting, edge-of-your seat second half of the season. It provides a creepy new villain as well as a deeper look into the complicated struggles faced by the main characters. This season is also a bit bloodier and more violent than the first. While the series has been canceled by FX, this second season does provide a somewhat satisfying wrap-up to the series. I highly recommend those who watched the first season to check out the second.