Big Sky 1.10-11: Rocky Mountain High, Somewhat Twisted

Big Sky was back last night after its long break with a double episode, and what felt a lot like a new season, not just the second part of the first.  That's because Legarski is gone and Pergman looks like a bit like a demented John Denver, or a Denver holding in his homicidal urges and instincts.  He has a girlfriend who seems to love or at least really care about him, with a child that Pergman seems to be a good father to.  He tells his girlfriend he's sorry every time he blurts out something from his twisted, angry inner self.

But there's no shortage of bad guys who are evil and dangerous both inside and out.  In fact, a whole new family, with  Horst Kleinsasser (played by Monk's Ted Levine as the patriarch) who are up to no good and worse.   The net effect is a tableau of dangers Cassie and Jenny have to face, even with Pergman out of that picture.  But I have a feeling he won't be out of it too long.

The dialogue, as in the first part of the season, is snappy, sarcastic, and refreshing.  And peril lurks at every turn.   Cassie doesn't like a young cop, and remarks to Jenny that he's an "asshole".  That's a good call -- he kidnaps Cassie at the end of the second episode, to do who knows what to and/or with her.

My guess is this cop is Legarski's successor, or connected to the same young women trafficking ring as the departed bald guy.  That part of the first part of the season's story -- the full extent of the trafficking ring -- was never addressed last season.  In addition to Cassie's fate, the big question now about that ring is when Pergman will reconnect with it.

All in all, Big Sky remains an attractively quirky show, with those wide Montana vistas still being so well welcome to look at as we slowly come out of our lockdown.

See also Big Sky 1.1: A Pretty Big Deal ... Big Sky 1.2: The "Goods" and the Ruined Plan ... Big Sky 1.3: "You Kidnapped the Wrong Girl" ... Big Sky 1.4: Controls on Psychos ... Big Sky 1.5: Winter Finale Indeed! ... Big Sky 1.6: "Sweet Psycho" ... Big Sky 1.7: The Montana State Trooper ... Big Sky 1.9: Crafty Ronald

The Report: The Not-So-Good Old Days

My wife and I saw The Report last night on Amazon Prime.  Even more so than its superb star-studded cast - Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Michael C. Hall, Maura Tierney, Ted Levine, you get the picture - the story of  how our government, before Trump, lied and otherwise did its utmost to keep the public from knowing that we tortured prisoners via water-bordering after September 11, makes The Report an absolute necessity for anyone who cares about democracy and human decency to see.

I say the government, but Senator Diane Feinstein, brilliantly portrayed by Bening, sticks with Daniel Jones (powerfully played by Driver) and is ultimately instrumental in seeing his report published.  Not so much just about everyone else, other than a few of Feinstein's colleagues on her Senate committee.

That George W. Bush would have wanted to keep this secret is not surprising - the torture took place on his watch.  But Obama was in no hurry to make it publicly known, either.   And since the government was regularly denying that it ever took place, including when Obama was in office, well, he doesn't come across the greatest in this narrative, either.

But the most disconcerting was CIA Director John Brennan (2013-2017, i.e,, under Obama) perfectly played by Ted Levine, whom I first noticed as a good guy in Monk.   Here, in The Report, Levine plays pretty much the complete antithesis of a good guy.  I've seen Brennan many times on MSNBC.  He's understandably a favorite critic of Trump to have on the air, seeing as how Trump took away his security clearance after Brennan dared to criticize Trump.  But the way he behaved in regard to Jones, coming this close to getting him thrown in prison for years for daring to uncover the truth, well, I'll never look at Brennan the same again.

The point here is the degradations of democracy and humane conduct on which we pride ourselves here in the United States were bipartisan, with many Democrats, at least in the Administration, more than willing to do whatever it took to cover up what the Bush Administration had done and denied doing.  All in the name of national security.

To be clear, I'm a New Yorker, and was terribly traumatized by what happened on September 11.  Although I wasn't in favor of torturing prisoners, I might have at least understood it though not supported it, if it had really worked.  But as The Report makes clear, it did not.  And the attempt to keep it from the public, to lie about its effectiveness, represents a low day for all Americans.

The only heroes here are Driver, Feinstein, and The New York Times for going public at a crucial time with what it knew of the story, which kept Jones from being ruined.   And now, this crucial movie is heroic for being made (written and directed) by Scott Z. Burns and shown on Amazon right now.  Kudos to all, and, once again, our First Amendment.

The Bridge 1.6: Revelations

A pivotal Bridge 1.6 on FX last night, in which we learn a crucial piece of the puzzle that is Sonya.

Why, given Sonya's condition, has Hank taken her under his wing?  The kindly performance given by Ted Levine as Hank explained only so much - he's a good cop in an administrative position, after all, and although Sonya is also a good cop, an excellent cop in many ways, she's also always on the verge of saying something that could throw a case off course, or shut down an otherwise talkative suspect. So why does Hank not only put up with her, but allow her to be a leading investigator on a crucial case?

It's because, as Hank explains to Marco, he years ago shot the rapist and killer of Sonya's sister in the head, rather than taking him into custody, and the bullet left the killer alive but unable to communicate. This created a situation of maximum frustration for Sonya, in which her sister's killer continues to be just beyond her reach and ability to find out any answers about her sister's killing.  Rather than the cold closure of her sister's murder,  Sonya has been left with an open wound, thanks to Hank.

And there's something else about Hank, which I don't really think is the case, but my wife brought up as we watched the end-of-Gina scene - after she bolts from the bar -  so I'll put out here anyway.   With Sonya and Hank running after Gina separately, that leaves open the long possibility that maybe Hank shot Gina.  Now, I can't recall every seen in which we've heard from the killer in The Bridge so far, and exactly where Hank was at all of those times, or the expression on his face every time the killer comes to his attention - which is most of the time - but I would say there is an ever so slight possibility that, though Hank is not the killer, he is working with rather than against the killer in some way, and towards that end killed Gina.  And, if you want to be really diabolical about it, you could reason that Hank put Sonya on the case so that he could better control its outcome (to cover up his involvement) or even in the expectation that she would wreck the case.

Nah - I don't think I believe that - but the very fact that it could be a long-shot option shows what a complex, excellent, mind-bender of a story The Bridge is giving us.

See also The Bridge Opens Brooding and Valent ... The Bridge 1.2: A Tale of Two Beds

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Bridge 1.2: A Tale of Two Beds

An excellent second episode of The Bridge last night, in which we get a vivid rendition of just how different Sonya and Marco are, which is a large part of what makes this such a compelling drama.

Sonya's in the mood for love.  So she goes to a bar and picks up a guy - in her own inimitable, awkward and socially clueless way.   More of this continues back in her bed, where she sleeps with the confused guy, promptly falls asleep herself, then awakens and gets promptly back to work - which in her case entails looking at the gruesome images from the case.  The guy leaves, understandably uneasy and not quite getting that she has Asperger's or whatever equivalent syndrome.   But we get it, and can see that the syndrome has the dual quality of making her a uniquely focused detective as well as someone who sails through her personal life largely oblivious to the subtleties that go on all around her - in other words, a refreshingly unusual and interesting character, the likes of which we haven't encountered before on television, except perhaps in Monk (which I should have realized in last week's review, when I said how good it was to see Ted Levine back on television).

And Sonya is well complemented by Marco, who is her opposite in crucial respects.  He's as hard working as Sonya, but is enmeshed in the social matrix of his police work, which therefore makes him an astute worker of political angles to get the job done.   And his bed is very different.  He's thoroughly tuned into his wife, and celebrates the news that they're having another baby, surprising but apparently not impossible in view of his recent vasectomy.

This unlikely detective team will need all the complementary qualities they can muster to solve the murders before them, which in effect are increasing daily as Mexicans are murdered by some group as they make it over the border.   The Bridge thus combines high political relevance with unconventional characters, and is much welcome.

See also The Bridge Opens Brooding and Valent

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The Bridge Opens Brooding and Valent

A good opening of The Bridge on FX tonight, with its story of a body stretched out dead across the Juarez - El Paso border on the bridge between Mexico and the US, making it a case in the jurisdiction of both countries and their police, except it turns out to be two bodies - the upper torso of one woman and the lower torso of another - which makes the murder case even more interesting.

Demian Bichir - of Esteban fame on Weeds - plays the Mexican detective Marco Ruiz, and he does it with customary style.  When an El Paso detective wishes him "buenos dias," he responds with "howdy partner" in a perfect Texan accent.   He has hands full not only with his lethargic boss in Juarez but his Amercian counterpart Sonya North, played by Diane Kruger.

Sonya's a strange piece of work for a detective - by the book, wound tight, but with the same kind of irrepressible energy as Barbara Havers on the British Inspector Linley Mysteries (how's that for a stretch).   I'm not sure if I like her, but based on the first episode she may be the most memorably peculiar female detective to come along on television since Sarah Linden in The Killing.

Speaking of which, The Bridge feels to some extent like a southern version of The Killing, which takes place in Seattle.   But what The Bridge also has going for it is its Mexican component, and the obvious relevance of this series to the immigration issues that currently beset our country (because of Republican intransigence, but I'll try to keep politics out of this).

Ted Levine of the late great Monk is back as police lieutenant (ok, he was a captain on Monk), and Annabeth Gish from Brotherhood lends her appeal and intensity as someone whose husband drops dead after he tells her he wants out of their marriage and who must have something to do with the murders.

Brooding, smoky, philosophic, politically valent - The Bridge may be just the thing for a hot summer's evening.

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