‘Under The Bridge’ Miniseries Review

This TV show streamed in 2024.

Under The Bridge is a Hulu drama miniseries consisting of eight episodes. It was based on the true crime book by Rebecca Godfrey and developed for streaming by showrunner Quinn Shephard.

Teenager Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) is tired of her Jehovah’s Witness parents, Manjit (Ezra Faroque Khan) and Suman (Archie Panjabi). She has a falling out with her friends Josephine Bell (Chloe Guidry), Kelly Ellard (Izzy G), and Dusty Pace (Aiyana Goodfellow), leading to a confrontation under a bridge in a small town in British Columbia, Canada. A few days later, she is found dead. Detective Cam Bentland (Lily Gladstone) investigates, but her old friend Rebecca Godfrey (Riley Keough) arrives in town, complicating things.

I cannot complain about the acting. Everyone does a decent job and performs their roles very well. You especially feel an incredible amount of empathy for Reena and her family. They were definitely the ones who stole the show.

The show was edited very chaotically. It followed four different timelines and did not always inform you when the change happened. They also decided to talk about the romance between Reena’s parents, which was completely unnecessary. That time could have been better spent showing the Virks going through the grief of losing their daughter in such a cruel manner.

There was a sinister undercurrent to this show. The plot is based on the actual murder of a teenager by a group of friends she trusted. That alone is compelling, but instead, the showrunner shoves in a bunch of drama nonsense that was largely fictional and had no bearing on the story. While it could have focused more on the criminals trying to cover up their deeds, the family’s grief, the police investigation with the actual police, and Godfrey’s search for answers, it would have made more sense. Instead, they chose to be politically correct.

This is not a critique of Gladstone herself, but it is so odd that they shoe-horned in her character. Of course, she is a lesbian and indigenous. They used this fictional character to virtue signal at the expense of the very real murder of Reena. Why? It is nothing more than woke nonsense. She dropped all of the lectures. Girl power. Racism. Queerness. Yep, she checked off all of the boxes. They could have used, you know, the actual detectives who worked on the case, but instead, they used the “put a chick in it and make her gay and lame” strategy.

They also went out of their way to try to make you feel sorry for the friend group that betrayed Reena. Their female, young, and a few come from troubled families. So what? These are murderers, and they took the life of someone who trusted them over some petty drama. The showrunner tries to justify this with a graphic informing you that the Virks forgive one of the killers. Okay. And? That is their prerogative, but not the job of the filmmakers to make this disgusting detour.

The most insulting change was made to Rebecca Godfrey. She was a hero whose book told the story of a horrific murder. In this show, she was written as a wannabe girl boss who wanted to get famous by writing a book about her hometown. And, they turned her gay, of course. Godfrey was married to a man and had a child with her husband. She was not a lesbian, and this woke urge to rewrite real people in their own image is insulting. Also, Keough was not the right choice to play her. I am not insulting her acting, but Christina Ricci looked more like the real Godfrey and would have fit the role better.

All of these detours from the true story. The crime against Reena should have been the primary focus and not the manufactured drama between a fictional cop and Godfrey. Even the poster features these two at the forefront instead of, you know, the victim. Hulu should be ashamed for using the murder of this girl and her family’s grief to push a political agenda. Hopefully, this trend in Hollywood will end soon.

Check out the trailer below:

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Some violence, Sexual content, Strong foul language, Disturbing scenes of abuse, Illegal substances

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Tell me if there is a comic book, anime, movie, or novel you would like me to review.