Originally published on Screen Rant on April 16, 2024.
While Hulu has found success with scripted murder mysteries that center on young adults, like the two-season Cruel Summer, Under the Bridge takes a somewhat different approach to true crime-inspired storytelling. Namely, Under the Bridge isn’t just influenced by a real-life case — it painstakingly depicts one that unfolded in November 1997 on a quiet island in British Columbia, Canada. In the wake of her Emmy-nominated starring turn in Daisy Jones & the Six, Riley Keough plays one of the miniseries’ main characters, writer Rebecca Godfrey.
Godfrey’s book of the same name serves as the show’s primary source material, but it does more than just inform the themes, characters, and plot points at play. Before penning books, Godfrey worked as a journalist. Later, she became known for writing The Torn Skirt, a novel that Electric Lit dubbed “an antidote to the sad boy lit of David Foster Wallace.” Under the Bridge, Godfrey’s second book, may be a detailed investigation into the beating and death of teenager Reena Virk (played by Vritika Gupta), but it borrows some of fiction’s best elements.
Like Its Source Material, Under The Bridge Borrows From Fiction To Create A Lived-In Feel
For over two years, Godfrey collaborated with fellow executive producer Quinn Shepard (Blame) to translate Under the Bridge to the small screen. The writer’s fingerprints are all over the series, though she passed away a few months before production on the miniseries began. Liz Tigelaar, who helmed Little Fires Everywhere, one of Hulu’s best series to date, also executive produces here.
At first, Keough’s Rebecca isn’t quite sure why she’s returned home. Like many hometowns, Victoria is a haunted place. Long, uninterrupted shots of the area’s forested vistas and dark waters drive home this feeling. Somehow, in its vastness, Victoria feels like it’s closing in around its characters. “On its face, this story is the opposite of a fairy tale,” Keough narrates over the series’ opening moments, before asking viewers to consider what fairy tales are actually about. More often than not, they are rooted in horror and violence. Often, young girls are punished.
But what’s perhaps most compelling about Under the Bridge is the way it subverts true-crime expectations. Not only are Reena Virk’s peers the case’s suspects, but they navigate the fallout of their alleged actions with very little remorse. Across a tightly written eight-episode season, Rebecca falls deeper into the hidden world of small-town teens — their brutal secrets and their secret brutality.
Reena, who befriends a group of girls from the local foster home, tries to get back at the ringleader for leaving her out. Dangling the promise of friendship and acceptance like a carrot, the girls retaliate, chasing Reena from a smoke-laden party and into the glassy waters that cut through town. Under the Bridge’s first episode is called “Looking Glass,” and there probably isn’t a more apt way to describe the show. More than a mirror, the story’s surface is like the warped glass of a fun house, inviting Rebecca to fall deeper into her investigation.
After lying her way past the group home’s adult in charge, Rebecca smokes cigarettes with the girls who will become suspects in Reena’s death. While they chat, Dusty (Aiyana Goodfellow) informs Rebecca that they’re nothing more than “BIC girls” to the police — disposable, like the brand’s lighters. The rivalries, jealousies, and acute loneliness that permeate the bands of teenage girls in Victoria are deeply felt. Even when it’s clear that a group of them brutally beat and drowned their peer, Rebecca remains at an observant distance.
Under The Bridge Hits Familiar Beats But Takes A Different Approach To Its Subject
Like the source material, Under the Bridge isn’t so much passing judgments as it is presenting a story — albeit an incredibly troubling one. While the miniseries incorporates all the familiar beats of a genre show, from the slow-burn reveal of information to the inevitable trial, Rebecca’s chronicling of events serves as a way into her hometown. The crime says something about the community, about Victoria, and about how people who live under its particular storm of circumstances are pushed and shaped.
True-crime stories are often sensationalized, so Under the Bridge feels starkly different. The whole cast of Under the Bridge, including the young ensemble of mostly newcomers, paints a believable portrait of the dynamics at play. While it’s reasonable that the show would incorporate voice-overs from its main character, those moments might feel the strangest. In a miniseries that asks us to be drawn in, like Rebecca, the sudden reminder that we’re watching a show can be jarring. Nonetheless, Keough gives another nuanced, compelling performance in a role that could have easily just been an audience stand-in character.
Fresh off their Oscar-nominated role in Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone plays Officer Cam Bentland, which reaffirms the actor’s impressive range as well as Gladstone’s ability to convey so much even in the silence. In fact, Gladstone’s Cam feels like an officer who’d fit right into the True Detective mold. For those who relished True Detective: Night Country’s distinct setting and atmosphere, but felt less sure about the season’s commitment to the surreal and fantastic, Under the Bridge might just fill the void, especially since the miniseries favors meandering conversations and pointed interrogations over set-pieces.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
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