As we reach the second half of The Red Road’s first season, I can’t help but be reminded of another show that had its freshman series last year, The Bridge. Both are about two culturally different regions in very close vicinity, with huge problems on both sides. Yet while The Bridge was for the most part successful in, well, bridging, these two regions, The Red Road still feels like two separate stories that just occasionally connect at times.
The main and potentially most interesting connection between these two areas comes with the interactions of cop Harold Jensen and drug thief Phillip Kopus. This relationship is much more brutal on Harold’s end, as he continues to protect his wife from going to jail by continuing to shield Kopus and his friends from incrimination. Already the rest of the department is getting highly suspicious about what seems like careless police work instead of a cover up. Yet this relationship doesn’t really have any negative effects for Phillip. He’s basically given a get-out-of-jail-free card, even having Harold race to Phillip’s house to save him from a DEA raid. Phillip has it made at this point.
The other connection between the two groups was the relationship between Rachel and Junior. But after Junior’s freak out and abandoning of Rachel, the two are now over. Rachel no longer wants to make her mother go any crazier than she seems to already be, but instead works towards understanding her mother and her family more clearly.