Hulu’s latest true crime drama Under the Bridge is earning rave reviews for its tense atmosphere and strong performances from stars Riley Keough (Daisy Jones and the Six) and Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon).
The series is based on the 2005 nonfiction book of the same name by Rebecca Godfrey, which follows the horrific true events of the murder of Canadian teen Reena Virk. In 1997, 14-year-old Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) rebels against her Jehovah’s Witness parents, Indian immigrants Suman (Archie Panjabi) and Manjit (Ezra Faroque Khan), and falls in with a group of troubled teen girls. When Reena disappears, it’s up to author Rebecca Godfrey (Keough) and local cop Cam Bentland (Gladstone) to find out what really happened.
While Keough plays the book’s author (who passed away in 2022), Gladstone’s Bentland is a composite character that stands in for different investigators and police officers. The limited series is eight episodes long, with the final episode premiering on May 29 on Hulu. The series was developed by Quinn Shephard (Not Okay).
In a joint interview with The New York Times, Keough and Gladstone discussed the disturbing series and what drew them to the roles. Gladstone said,
“Having just come off another “true-crime” piece [“Killers of the Flower Moon”] that self-indicted sensationalism and looked at the people that were affected as well as unearthing some of the systemic issues that create these scenarios, I was really interested in this one because of how it indicts all of us in what was happening around Reena Virk.”
They added, “It was really clear to me that this was another opportunity to have a nuanced conversation about the systemic failures of law enforcement. When you’re making a true-crime story but being self-aware about it, you can go on a journey with your audience and have a conversation about these things in a way that didn’t happen at the time.”
Under the Bridge is currently streaming on Hulu.
(featured image: Hulu)
