I couldn’t help but think about how we sometimes look at people in another age group with a mixture of envy and jealousy. Maybe there is some pity in there, too, but if we are older we can long for another chance to relive that exuberant adolescence that normally belongs to someone younger. Maybe we could make different choices if we could go back in time? When you’re a kid or a teen, though, all you can think about is getting out of your hometown or getting to that next landmark age that will, undoubtedly, bring experience and freedom.
Hulu’s almost overwhelming limited series, Under the Bridge, looks back at a heinous crime that rocked a small town in British Columbia in the late 90s, but it never uses these lives as pawns to sensationalize the story or make it fodder for the true crime canon. Under the Bridge is an eye-opening and harrowing series that forces the viewer to stare back at the ugly truths of prejudice, anger, and those who feel like they were left behind.
Reena Virk, played by Vritika Gupta, feels like she is drowning in the town of Victoria, but she manages to keep her head up. Her parents, Manjit and Suman, are deeply rooted in their Jehovah’s Witness beliefs, and the careless cruelty of some in her class at school only enhance her feelings of isolation. She bounds her way into a small group of girls living at Seven Oaks, a government-funded youth home for runaway girls, but some don’t make it easy to become part of the circle. Dusty (Aiyana Goodfellow) is the most accepting despite her quiet demeanor, a haze of cigarette smoke wafting in her wake. Reena wants to impress Josephine Bell, a blonde, face-as-white-as-snow leader who oozes confidence and charisma and who has an unhealthy obsession with the mob and meeting John Gotti. She gloats that she wants to be a woman in the mob because they never do time.
When Josephine rebuffs Reena one time too harshly, Reena steals Josephine’s address book and spouts rumors to everyone who will listen. After Josephine finds out, she tells Reena that all is forgiven and invites her to a party. Upon arrival, Josephine unleashes her minions on Reena, and they yank her down under a nearby bridge and attack her. Under the Bridge isn’t your standard re-telling, though. By the end of the first episode, we think we know where the story is going, but the creative force of Quinn Shephard and Samir Mehta rips the rug out from under us again and again.
Enter the adults.
Rebecca Godfrey wrote about Reena’s story in Vice and then wrote a longer account of the story that was published in 2005. Embodied in the Hulu series by Emmy-nominee Riley Keough, Rebecca returns to her hometown to write about her own experiences of loss in Victoria right before the crime begins to make headlines. It is easy for her to blend in with a younger crowd to ask questions or gain the trust of the girls of Seven Oaks. Lily Gladstone’s Cam Bentland is a familiar face to Rebecca (they grew up together), but she faces her own feelings of being singled out. Her adoptive father, Roy (Matt Craven), is the chief of police and her brother, Scott (Daniel Diemer), is also on the force, but she doesn’t look like them. Her nametag reads C. Bentland, so people will always associate her with her father and brother as she continually fights for respect to be heard and seen.
Over the course of eight episodes, Under the Bridge never falters in its eagerness to make you understand. Even when the series flashes back several times to show the histories of how characters met, it never feels like it’s taking too much on to expand the story. The theme of family, no matter found or blood, poisonous or virtuous, is never squandered throughout.
Keough’s Rebecca slides between allegiances like water, but she never makes us second guess her curiosity. When Cam reconnects with her in talks of the investigation, Rebecca can then infiltrate the lives of the girls of Seven Oaks with aplomb not because she is playing a part but because of her genuine interest in people. She helps these teenagers because of her own confrontations of loss, anger, and loneliness. Gladstone’s face is exquisite as we see her need to harden herself continue as the series progresses. Her loneliness is different than Rebecca’s and any of the younger people she eventually questions. As Reena’s frustrated, heartbroken mother, Archie Panjabi carries the weight of the world. It’s a beautiful performance full of aching grief.
Gupta gives a star-making performance. Her eyes never waver when it comes to that light of wanting love and acceptance, and she has paid enormous tribute to a young girl whose life was violently cut short. This is a performance that we will be thinking about for a long time. Chloe Guidrey, as Josephine, exudes charisma as a pissed off hellion, but her moments of vulnerability and fear are some of her best. When that façade cracks, she draws us in closer. Anoop Desai, as Reena’s uncle, hits the right notes in every scene as a young man who wants to give Reena freedom but protect her at all costs.
Is our innocence taken away from us or do we abandon it? Some young people are forced to grow up and believe that they don’t deserve the kind of love the world has to offer. That void can mutate into something ugly. There are a lot of us who didn’t know Reena Virk’s story before Under the Bridge, but this unspeakable crime is retold with unflinching grit and tireless, endless sympathy. It will absolutely floor you.
Under the Bridge debuts its first two episodes on Hulu on March 17. New episodes drop every week.
