Under the Bridge is a rare series of true crime and based on real stories: it is deep, respectful, and balanced. It is a shame that it is so far under people’s radar because it is one of the best of the year.

The true story of Reena Virk, the teenager who was beaten to death by a group of teenagers, is the heart of the drama that features the excellent Riley Keogh and Lily Gladstone in precise performances, with Lily deserving of this year’s Emmy nomination. The series not only retells the tragedy step by step but also brings deeper perspectives into a story that is still relevant even almost 30 years later.

The origin: a crime that shocked Canada

The basis of the drama is the brutal murder of teenager Reena Virk, in 1997, years before the cultural change of the 2010s and when “bullying” was just an uncomfortable convention of a society that praised abusers as “winners” and those abused as “losers”. The popular class had the autonomy to morally harass anyone who did not meet the beauty standard (which practically made racism, sexism, homophobia, and fatphobia official) and with that, Reeva became a complex symbol of everything bad that this culture allowed and encouraged.

The daughter of Indian immigrants who converted to Jehovah’s Witnesses and were radically conservative, Reena did not fit the aesthetic standards of the time, she was not white, and she was not allowed at home to want or be able to act like a teenager of her time and so she was tragically attracted to the harmful outcasts of Saanich, a small community on the island of Victoria, on the British side of Canada. Had she survived, Reena would still be a traumatized woman, but she unfortunately died in one of the most horrific ways possible.

Reena was a troubled teenager who had suffered serious trauma from being the target of racism outside her home and religious repression inside. Even 27 years later, there is an unsolved mystery about her personality, described as “desperate for acceptance”.

She, like her killers, saw in the emerging “LA gang” culture, reinforced by hip-hop songs and stars of the time, an alternative group that aggressively protected gang members and thus gave her status and a shield for what afflicted her most: being “overweight”, not being Caucasian and wanting to have friends. In doing so, she became close to the young people who lived under the protection of the State, smoking marijuana, cigarettes, and drinking alcohol.

The tragic undertones of the drama were clear about a year before the crime when Reena did not measure the consequences and falsely reported her father for sexual abuse so she could be close to her friends and later be transferred to a foster home. When the truth came out, she dropped the charges and returned home, but it was clear that she was flirting with something deadly.

On the night of November 14, 1997, Reena received an unexpected invitation to a party under the bridge where the city’s teenagers met, without suspecting that it was a “murder party.” One of the alleged motives for the orchestrated attack would have been that Virk stole the phone book of her friend, Nicole Cook, and called everyone to defame the young woman after the two fought. In retaliation, Nicole arranged the beating, and the defendants say the violence got out of control.

Reena was publicly humiliated and attacked not only by Nicole, who put out a cigarette on her forehead but also by other young people who didn’t even know her. Among the killers, there were issues of racism against the victim, but in any case, the beating would have already led to her death (according to the coroner), but she was still beaten up more that same night, the victim of two teenagers from the group who chased her and drowned her.

The police initially ignored the requests of Reena’s family to look for her, especially given her history of problems, but at school the rumors of the macabre party under the bridge scared two Russian girls who reported the crime, changing the course of the whole story. In the series, these girls are excluded, but everything else matches the official accounts.

At the end of the investigation, six teenagers were arrested and convicted of the murder of Reena Virk, five girls and one boy. The sentences ranged from 60 days of probation to one year in prison and life, with some revisions along the way. None of them are behind bars today.

The difference between an empathetic account of all

The book by Rebecca Godfrey, who died in 2022 from lung cancer at the age of 54, was a bestseller in 2005 and she wrote more than one sequel on the subject. The author was directly involved with the adaptation until her death, so it is a work approved by her.

In the narrative established by Rebecca, following the school opened by Truman Capote in In Cold Blood, we have the voices of the killers in the spotlight, humanizing them with their trajectories to the crime, something that cynics may consider manipulative and others just human. In the case of the series Under The Bridge, it works refreshingly.

At no point does the story justify the atrocity committed by them, but it breaks our hearts even more because all the sadness and vulnerability of these young people, equally victims of rejection and abuse, puts them on an irreversible and inevitable path within the reality they lived. Rebecca (Keough) has a past of guilt and error that motivates her to seek redemption for the killers, something that sounds shocking to read but makes sense in the series. After all, Reena’s parents, as well as police officer Cam Bentland (Gladstone) confront her about it. To avoid spoilers, I will not mention the reason why it makes sense and helps Under The Bridge.

The only character without a greater dimension and treated without mercy is the murderer Kelly Marie Ellard, who obviously complained publicly about the series. Kelly, who plays a great role for Izzy G, was the person who drowned Reena even after the beating and, therefore the main killer of the teenager.

Soundtrack that reflects the story and the moment

Another great detail in which Under the Bridge stands out is the use of the soundtrack, with the insertion of songs from the time that have an undeniable narrative function. The use of Something in the Way, by the band Nirvana, in which Kurt Cobain reflects on the pain of his adolescence in an abusive home, which led him to sleep under a bridge in Seattle, is one of the grunge classics and reinforces the reality of the group that kills Reena. This is just one example, there are more throughout the story.

Another good moment is to bring back the cover of Siouxsie and The Banshees for the classic The Passenger, which highlights the feelings of a person who does not feel like they belong in the environment where they are. It’s worth paying attention!

The chances at the 2024 Emmys

Under The Bridge consolidates Reese Witherspoon‘s talent as a producer, once again managing to make a current and strong literary adaptation for the screen with incredible quality. From Big Little Lies to Daisy Jones and the Six, impeccable is the word that defines the actress’s talent for identifying good dramas.

The bad luck of Under the Bridge, in a year with less competition, was to deal with two phenomena like Baby Reindeer and Shogun, which reduced the chances of the only nomination – Lily Gladstone as supporting actress – because she shouldn’t take the statuette from Jessica Gunning. It’s annoying, but it doesn’t have much of a chance. The nomination is already a victory.

Under the Bridge is on Star Plus, within the Disney platform.

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