‘The Bridge’ season 2: Matthew Lillard, Emily Rios score series regular promotions

It’s really about time this happened, given just how good these two were on “The Bridge.” According to a report from Deadline, Matthew Lillard and Emily Rios, who play the roles of journalists Daniel Frye and Ariana Mendez at the El Paso Times, have been promoted to series regulars for the show’s upcoming second season. They join a cast that includes Demian Bichir, Diane Kruger, and Ted Levine.

For Lillard, this has especially been a long time coming. He’s long been one of the more underrated actors in film / TV, and he strangely hasn’t been getting many meaty roles as of late prior to this one. Luckily, playing Daniel gave him the chance to take on a corrupt alcoholic who somehow still had a heart underneath all of his issues. Meanwhile, Rios’ Ariana has an equally-meaty part as a lesbian reporter in a family that shuns her for it.

For Rios, this gig means that she will continue to have an important role on a primetime TV series, given that she most-recently was known for playing Andrea on “Breaking Bad.” This is going to be a somewhat different second season at least in terms of the action behind the scenes, as Elwood Reid has stepped into the sole showrunner position after developing most of the first season with Meredith Stiehm. While Stiehm remains an executive producer on the show, she has since gone back to her other job working on “Homeland.” Both dramas are fairly well-received, but “The Bridge” has yet to really pull in the same sort of traction as the Showtime series when it comes to awards season. Maybe that will change over the coming months, and it will ultimately depend on just how much attention the show ends up receiving as more and more people discover it.

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Photo: FX