Under The Bridge: Review
By Sioph W. Leal
Based on Rebecca’s Godfrey’s book of the same name, Under the Bridge follows the true story about the murder of fourteen-year-old Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) at the hands of a group of teenagers. The series chooses to focus on the author's perspective, Rebecca Godfrey (Riley Keough), with support from local police officer Cam (Lily Gladstone), as she tries to immerse herself in the dark world of the young girls involved in Reena’s death. It is not only the motives of the motives of the suspects that are questioned throughout the series, but also Rebecca’s interest in their lives. The story itself does not paint any of the characters in a good light, allowing the complexities of both teenagers and adults to come through with every detail and revelation.
Heading the series is writer Rebecca Godfrey, who has a plan to write about the Saanich teenagers in a group home and their secret lives. She quickly becomes entangled in the teenagers' lives, not long after they have killed Reena Virk. The first part of the series sees Rebecca try her best to impress and make a connection with Josephine (Chloe Guidry) for her book, but their relationship quickly seems far more complicated. It is as if Rebecca, who seemingly comes from privilege, wants to have the aesthetic and trauma of Josephine for her book but also for herself to be interesting. When Rebeca isn’t staring vacantly or having relationships with teenagers that border on crossing a line, she speaks in cliches about fairytales and dolls as if to keep reminding the audience (and herself) that she is a writer. The adult cast, aside from the Virk family, is where the show becomes confusingly entangled. From the first episode, there are heavy hints that Rebecca and Cam have a past, but it is Rebecca’s attitude that she is an outsider when she isn’t that creates a frustrating mix that the writing never fixes. At first thought, there could be an argument made that she has created this identity for herself to connect with her desired source material, but so often she forgets her writing or the brutal crime in favour of being in the teenagers group, almost as if she is trying to live her teen years long after they are due and in a way that fits her book narrative. Often, it can be infuriating to watch Rebecca’s blasé attitude towards the brutal crime, as she forgets the victim and is accused of seeing too much of herself in the suspects or favouring her book over the crime and bringing justice to Reena and her family.
There are conflicts and teams that seem half-set up, as if an afterthought to the story. Unfortunately, one of them is a more interesting aspect for the adult characters. The trailers, promotional material, and even some of the writing seem to set up Cam and Rebecca as confidants. Rebecca claims she can get the teenagers to talk to someone, as they would not talk to Cam since she is a police officer, and feed that back. This does not happen because, again and again, Rebecca puts her own interests over helping solve a murder. It gets to the point where she becomes a hindrance who hides suspects because she is emotionally connected to them—even having one of the suspects dressing in her dead brothers’ clothes. Despite attempts to link the adults’ stories and the teenagers, they often feel totally separate and as if the adult plotline were an afterthought. Gladstone manages to hold her own despite the disconnected feel for the police section of the story, offering insight, pushing her Chief, and father into doing the right thing, and seeing aspects of the case that he wouldn’t normally notice.
The strength of the series is the teenage characters, whose lives are dark, complicated, and full of violence towards each other, as they take heavy influence from LA gang culture. The CMC (Crip Mafia Cartel) is something thought up by Josephine Bell, who leads Rebecca to believe that she killed Reena until the body is found, and she denies it. Also in the gang are Kelly Ellard (Izzy G) as the leader, Dusty Pace (Aiyana Goodfellow) as a lower-ranking member, and Reena Virk, who longs for acceptance with the group but is not officially a member. Bullied and isolated, a chance encounter with Josephine has Reena met with the chance of friendship for the first time. Even though Joesphine participates in the bullying, their friendship-enemy situation creates a nuanced dynamic to give some insight into the circumstances that led to Reena’s murder. As the leader, Joesphine holds no reservations about making life difficult for Reena, but there’s a jealousy underneath that Guidry portrays with excellence. The two come to a head when Reena steals some of her frenemy’s belongings and uses them to disparage her to their gang and drug community to show her that she is tough and should be accepted, which results in the brutal murder at the hands of Kelly. The back-and-forth timeline gives insight into who Reena is, who her family is, and allows her character to be known despite the murder.
Izzy G takes on the performance by effortlessly swapping the role of the dedicated friend for Josephine's dangerous servant. The series keeps an ambiguity with Kelly and Josephine's dynamic; sometimes they can be equals, and sometimes it seems as if one is the puppet master. Both actors are able to convey the complicated relationship with natural ease without giving away motivations. Although the series never outright says it, it is heavily implied that Kelly was acting on her friends’ orders when committing the crime. At the heart of the story is, at times, Reena herself. She is a lonely girl who wants to belong and feels trapped by her family, despite how much they so clearly love and want to protect her. Bullied for her appearance, for not being as strong as the others, and suffering racist abuse, Reena shows herself to be a strong character thanks to Gupta’s layers performance that makes Reena ever present in the story, even though the writing and Rebecca can, at times, forget this is a story about her and not just the people that killed her.
Outside of the lead characters, there is exceptional character development by Dusty and Warren G (Javon Walton), whose characters each wrestle with their own involvement in Reena’s murder. Dusty, like Reena, wants to belong to a family and finds that in her group home with Josephine and her friend Kelly. Despite their distaste for Reena, Dusty seems to care for her, and the remorse and deep shame of what happened is carried through exceptionally by Goodfellow, who conveys a myriad of complex emotions from regret, shame, and grief in different stages and circumstances.
Like Goodfellow, Walton exhibits similar character growth as Warren, who carries a heavier involvement in the murder than Dusty did. Halfway through the series, there is a small narrative change as Rebecca shifts from Josephine to Warren and grows close to him, but this bond prevents her from doing what is right regarding the case to bring justice to Reena. At one point, Warren shares a scene with Reena’s mother, Suman Virk (Archie Panjabi), that is the emotional pinnacle of the series and cements an emotional and raw performance that could be an award contender. It is truly the young cast that carry the series with expertise and an array of complex emotions that feel grounded and real and outshine all the adult cast.
Reena is, of course, an integral part of the story, but there are times when it feels like her story is second to the lives of the people who killed her. While this could be a narrative choice given that the series focuses on Rebecca’s perspective, at times it can become infuriating, much like the writer's character. At one point, after the trial, Cam laments how the trial result does not feel like justice, but Rebecca remarks how her “publishers will be thrilled.” While it could have been sarcastic, it borders on offensive to the victim. A lot of the time, there is a large amount of focus on the teenagers, all of whom are victims apart from Kelly. Much time is spent hinting at the abuses Josephine faced, but in the later half of the series, it is Warren who gets a sympathetic story that can often feel like it is overtaking and almost justifying his part in Reena’s death. It adds to the deliberate choice of framing the narrative in the eyes of the writer rather than the entire crime but can leave a bitter taste, especially when Rebecca vows to make sure Warren’s story is known but, at that point, she knows so little of Reena's—something she is called out for but doesn’t seem to land.
There are many complex themes and situations in this story, but outside of the teenagers' conflict in Reena’s murder, there isn’t much done beyond a surface level or hinting at it. The series attempts to touch on the racial aspect of Reena’s killing and how race may have been a factor in the police seemingly not doing their best, but too much time is spent on almost but not quite hinting at Rebecca’s trauma, something the series uses to deepen her bond with Warren. It seems there was some commentary at the end how trauma shapes people's reactions, but it never fully commits to that and almost shoe-horns that in by one line during Rebecca’s final talk with the Virk family. It toes the line at excusing some of the perpetrators for their actions because of trauma while also using it in an attempt to make the main character, Rebecca, more interesting.
Hulu’s Under the Bridge is a strong series with commentary on teenage mentality with layered characters matched with complex portrayals from the younger cast that captivate and propel the story forward. There are times when it can be frustrating but in ways that work with the narrative to create a compelling story of a brutal tragedy.
Under the Bridge premiers April 17, 2024, on Hulu.