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       lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
       
       
       ARTICLE VIEW: 
       
       ‘Under the Bridge’ navigates the familiar true-crime waters of
       troubled teens
       
       Review by Brian Lowry, CNN
       
       Updated: 
       
       6:18 PM EDT, Tue April 16, 2024
       
       Source: CNN
       
       Despite being based on a grim true-crime yarn, “Under the Bridge”
       makes several poor choices in translating the book to the screen,
       beginning with inserting the author, , into the story. This bridge into
       the familiar waters of troubled teens thus proves most notable as ’s
       follow-up to albeit in a rather drab role as the local cop
       investigating the case.
       
       The heart of this eight-episode Hulu series deals with 14-year-old
       Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta), whose palpable longing to fit in with her
       peers unfolds against the backdrop of knowing some of them took part in
       beating and killing her. Those events shocked the Canadian town of
       Victoria in 1997, providing the foundation for Godfrey’s book.
       
       Like the controversial Netflix series, and before that fare like the
       1986 movie “River’s Edge,” the story traffics in the unsettling
       callousness of teens even before the modern era of social media.
       Reena’s disappearance, and eventual discovery, also serves as every
       parent’s nightmare, with Archie Panjabi (“The Good Wife”) and
       Ezra Faroque Khan as her understandably frantic and then devastated mom
       and dad.
       
       Told through flashbacks, “Under the Bridge” errs by creating a
       separate thread around Rebecca (Riley Keough, fresh off another
       streaming show in ), a writer returning to her hometown who experienced
       her own tragedy there years before. Almost immediately, she reconnects
       with the sheriff, Cam (Gladstone), with whom she shares history, while
       conducting what amounts to a parallel real-time investigation into what
       transpired.
       
       It’s an awkward, not-very-convincing construct, as are most of the
       details surrounding Rebecca and Cam, which feel strained or simply
       tired. The former almost immediately feels sympathy for those who might
       have been responsible, while the latter grapples with working for her
       dad (Matt Craven).
       
       Those elements represent distractions from the fundamental issues of
       what happened to Reena, what motivated her attackers and the collective
       silence from her peers that followed the tragedy.
       
       Indeed, the series fares considerably better when its focus shifts to
       the teens, including Chloe Guidry as the cruel ringleader of the girl
       gang – known dismissively in police circles as “Bic girls,” a
       reference to the disposability of Victoria’s troubled youths – and
       Javon “Wanna” Walton () as one of the boys involved.
       
       Adapted by writer-producer Quinn Shephard (), “Under the Bridge”
       builds modest suspense around the specific details regarding who killed
       Reena, but that can’t entirely offset its questionable structural
       decisions. The flaws don’t diminish the heartbreaking nature of the
       story at its core, but they do make wading through eight episodes of
       this limited series at times feel like a bridge too far.
       
       “Under the Bridge” premieres April 17 on Hulu.
       
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