Edward Burns’ second TV series may be very relaxed and archetypal for some, but it opens up broad questions about personal and professional priorities with purpose, vigor and charm.
With the intention of living up to the name immediately, “Bridge and Tunnel”, it starts with a young couple bursting into a dirty bar bathroom to have reunion sex at the sink. Jimmy (Sam Vartholomeos) and Jill (Caitlin Stasey) split up long ago in their short lives, after she identified that they were going in opposite directions. Jimmy has a one-way ticket out of town after getting a coveted photo job at National Geographic, while Jill is happy to come and go between her small hometown on Long Island and big city life in Manhattan while she patiently imagines what comes next. But, as young love tends to do, their attraction brings them back for another night in the local tavern’s self-contained bathroom.
Will they be together? Will they split up again? They will harbor minor or major regrets about any decision they make, only to look back at 20 years and ask themselves, “What if …?”
Stop me if you’ve heard this before – not really. Yes, “Bridge and Tunnel” focuses heavily on the common choice of adulthood between professional dreams and personal happiness; the first four episodes repeatedly consider whether it is better to continue with what is working and live a happy and simple life, or to run blindly towards your unexplored passions, without knowing where you will end up (or with whom). But writer, director, producer and co-star Edward Burns evokes sufficient gravity in this choice, and argues both sides with sufficient conviction and from quite different perspectives, to make it worthwhile to ponder everything again.
Set in 1980, the first season of six episodes focuses on six main characters, all recently graduated looking for work in the real world. In addition to Jimmy and Jill, whose relationship is a kind of vortex in a group of friends who pull each member to their problems, there are also Stacey (Isabella Farrell) and Mikey (Jan Luis Castellanos). While the union of the bathroom reconcilers is based on pure romantic happiness, Stacey and Mikey are driven by innate attraction and self-indulgent drama – they may have gone to the dance together, but each went out with different people. Years later, they are repeating the same cycle: Stacey is living with a guy in Manhattan, but that only increases Mikey’s interest in her (and her interest in him).
Waiting backstage is Tammy (Gigi Zumbado), a waitress who has always had a crush on Mikey, but doesn’t want to break the friendship code by chasing Stacey’s ex. If she simply chose Nick “Pags” Pagnetti (Brian Muller), then the whole group would be together, but he is a little too desperate to be desirable. Pags is on the waiting list for law school, out of luck with women, and upset that his guitarist sister and single mother are happier in their lives on Long Island than he is.
Caitlin Stasey and Sam Vartholomeos in “Bridge and Tunnel”
Myles Aronowitz / Epix
These friends from school are all waiting for something. Jimmy is waiting to leave to work in Alaska; Jill is waiting to find her true calling; Mikey is waiting for an answer from his job interviews, and Tammy is waiting for him to realize that accounting is not what he really wants to do. Stacey is waiting for a reason to change, and Pags, well, he’s on the waiting list. The question is, are they waiting for something that is better than what is already right in front of them?
Admittedly, “Bridge and Tunnel” spends more time in the mentality of men than in women, but a) it is early, so a change of focus can still happen and b) none of these characters are fully autonomous. The series is a hanging group, from end to end, made even more enjoyable by good music, subtly evocative scenes from the 80’s and a cast formed exclusively by protagonists. (In fact, there is no villain here other than the arrow of time.) To those who are not on their wavelength, the series may seem like a super-inflated film script, with few consequences. But his general friendliness mostly makes up for the redundancies, and saying that not much happens with each efficient half-hour entry is an understatement and largely irrelevant. The scenario is purposefully purgatory, in the sense that not only are everyone waiting for something, but they are all torn between committing to a future elsewhere and enjoying the last time that everyone will be living in the same city, on the same block, with same trivial responsibilities.
Edward Burns in “Bridge and Tunnel”
Myles Aronowitz / Epix
Despite being a period piece, recent generations should have no problem identifying themselves with these paralyzed characters, all of whom are on the verge of a decision, but are unable to commit themselves. For Gen Y and Gen Z viewers, this must be deeply identifiable. Not only did we delay the start date in “real life” by about a decade, but a plethora of options, whether which food to eat for dinner or which potential partner deserves a blow to the right, left many of the decision averse. Call it prolonged adolescence, interrupted development, or simply a shift in priorities, but these children’s reluctance to commit should only make them more identifiable to the modern public.
Still, Burns does not let the show fall into childish jokes. Announced as a “dramatic comedy” by Epix, the longtime filmmaker’s second TV series (after TNT’s 2015 drama, “Public Moral”) is not trying to be funny, but thought provoking. To this end, the role of the quadruple-hyphenate on the screen runs in parallel to its off-screen function: as Jimmy’s father, Artie is constantly yelling at his son to stay focused. He’s adamant about Jimmy not being stuck on Long Island and yet Artie is in a happy marriage, with a steady job, and even though he’s a long-suffering Mets fan, he carries a stubbornly optimistic attitude. Jimmy hears what his father is telling him (“Take the National Geographic job! Go to Alaska! Don’t come back!”), But he also sees how his father’s life ended and wonders if he could have the same with Jill .
Is it just sex in the bathroom or is there something real here? Is it real enough to last or is it just real in the moment? Even if it lasts, can a life-long romance make up for unfulfilled career aspirations? These are difficult questions for a romantic young man to answer, but they are equally understandable to anyone lucky enough to have already answered them. Asking “What if …” at Artie’s age is the cause of many midlife crises – often misguided, when it comes to men – so it’s encouraging to see Burns exploring them with healthy, open-minded acceptance and firm control over the consequences.
“Bridge and Tunnel” may be asking familiar questions, but it still made me very curious to see how they are resolved.
Serie B-
“Bridge and Tunnel” opens on Sunday, January 24 at 9 pm ET on Epix.
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