Hulu’s “Underneath the Bridge,” which premiered on the streamer final month, could possibly be one other drop within the true-crime dead-girl tv canon of which there are a lot of various outings, till it swerves into one other course when telling the horrific true story of Reena Virk. Based mostly on Rebecca Godfrey’s e-book of the identical identify, in 1997 the 14-year-old Virk was murdered by a gaggle of youngsters in British Columbia, Canada, after beforehand being bullied in school.
The tv present, helmed by Quinn Shephard and Samir Mehta, delves into Godfrey’s e-book about Virk’s homicide with Riley Keough taking part in Godfrey and Lily Gladstone as Cam, a fictional character who’s a police officer and Godfrey’s estranged buddy from highschool, who each examine the Virk case.
In eager to create a fleshed out present, and to pay respects to Virk, Shephard and Mehta used Godfrey’s e-book as a leaping off level. To be able to develop the present and really feel like they had been telling as a lot of Virk’s story as they might, they reached out to the Virk household and likewise optioned her father Manjit Virk’s account of his daughter’s homicide “Reena: A Father’s Story.”
It was vital for Mehta to contextualize Virk’s place in her neighborhood and faculty as a first-generation Western teenage woman. Her father was an Indian immigrant and her mom an Indo-Canadian Jeovoah’s Witness — they had been already minorities inside one other minority group.
“One main side of the story that allowed it to not be concerning the crime, however about Reena as a person, as a primary technology Western-born woman with an immigrant dad or mum and that cultural divide and the necessity to then need to belong within the bulk white neighborhood that was one thing that I associated to as a primary technology American,” Mehta mentioned. “And from the teenage thoughts, there’s a reductiveness to it the place the ability dynamics at play are possibly not as in your consciousness as, ‘I don’t appear to be that. As a result of they appear to be that, that’s why they’re afforded so many of those alternatives’ that the best way that she perceived it.”
“Underneath the Bridge” does one thing seamlessly that different reveals battle to do: take a look at the insidious nature of white girlhood and womanhood. It’s one thing that abounds in our tradition however continues to be hardly ever dissected. A big a part of that comes from Shephard and Mehta establishing Reena’s story — getting the viewers contained in the Virk home, studying about their household dynamics, and placing collectively as a lot of Reena’s inside life as they probably may.
What we’re proven of Reena is a lady who is sort of too conscious of her environment and the ways in which she doesn’t match into them. She finds delight within the secret presents her uncle will get her, like a Infamous B.I.G. CD and Steven Madden boots. She loves her parakeet. Vritika Gupta, who performs Reena, reveals her desperation to slot in and be another person via lashing out at her mother and father and her friendships the place she’s tagging together with a relatable naiveté.
There are scenes with Reena and her household that present their tough dynamic, like Reena being enthusiastic about her birthday after which crestfallen when her mother and father, attributable to their faith, gained’t acknowledge it. We see the ins and outs of the home — how Reena has to sneak out to see associates, when her mother and father take her bed room door off of its hinges so she will’t have any privateness. It was vital for Mehta to get the viewers in the home with Reena, to see why the state of affairs escalates to her residing at Seven Oaks group house for some time.
“We needed to get inside the house and really feel what Reena’s house life should have been as a result of there was a purpose that she sought refuge in these ladies,” he says. Episode 4, which aired Might 1, seems to be on the ladies coming over for dinner on the Virk home whereas concurrently telling the Virk household story. Suman, Reena’s mom, (Archie Panjabi) and her household simply needed to belong and the one individuals who didn’t present them racist vitriol had been the Jehovah’s Witnesses who got here to their door. The episode capabilities as a solution to perceive the household dynamic that trickled all the way down to Reena but in addition the neighborhood context that an Indian household would have in British Columbia.
Studying the context of Reena’s household is crucial within the ways in which white girlhood is proven within the collection. We get Reena’s friendship with Jo, Kelly (Izzy G), and Dusty (Aiyana Goodfellow) advised in flashback. When she meets Jo for the primary time in Episode 2, at a retailer on the lookout for a razor after being made enjoyable of for physique hair within the locker room, Jo tells her to make use of a males’s razor as a result of the blades are sharper, calls herself a legend, and begins rapping her favourite music when it comes on the radio. You may see Reena’s face acknowledge, whether or not she’s cognizant of it or not, simply how a lot simpler it’s for her to exist on this world than it’s for Reena.
As she’s introduced into the fold of the Seven Oaks ladies, she will get extra examples of that, particularly with the rich Kelly, who can use her mother and father to get her out of nearly all the pieces. However the Reena and Jo relationship significantly — with its fixed push and pull — echoes the strain that may occur in teen woman friendships. Do you need to be them or be with them? For Mehta, that was vital to point out.
“The best way I actually like to put in writing is to give you a thematic backbone after which loop again to that. You may see that echoing within the Jo and Reena relationship in that Reena needs to be Jo actually in some ways, however she can also by no means be as a result of she’s an Indian woman. And so it’s like, nicely, if I can’t be you, near you is a solution to approximate that craving.”
That dichotomy can be explored within the relationship between Rebecca and Cam as nicely. Established as childhood associates, with Cam having frolicked at Seven Oaks, Rebecca is ready to flit out and in of investigating Reena’s homicide — having simpler entry to the youngsters on the middle of the crime. Being younger, fairly, and white permits Rebecca to each not be taken severely (getting info that the police couldn’t as a result of maybe she was seen as somebody who wouldn’t do something with it). There’s a stress between Rebecca and Cam as a result of regardless of Cam’s authority as a police officer, there are issues which are simply accessible to Rebecca that Cam can’t do, like go have some cigarettes and gossip with the Seven Oaks ladies.
Whereas the character of Cam is an amalgamation of various folks engaged on the case, they needed a relationship with Rebecca to point out her the opposite aspect, and to additionally echo the Reena and Jo relationship. “After I was having the primary concepts about bringing Rebecca in, as a lead character within the present, it instantly grew to become actually clear to me that there was a must foil her inside like, sort of opposing perspective,” Shephard beforehand advised IndieWire. “I feel that Rebecca’s e-book could be very stunning, however it’s additionally written via the lens of white girlhood. And I feel that it was crucial that there was any individual else, who was a large perspective within the present, who actually didn’t really feel seduced by the attract of the accused teenagers in the best way that Rebecca was. I feel it’s very fascinating how fascinated she was by the youngsters who did this. I additionally assume it’s a extremely legitimate perspective to be kind of delay by that and to not need to interact with that, since you’re so disturbed by the crime.”
In addition they needed Cam in some essence to have the ability to discover points that they discover via Reena —generational trauma, the erotic facets of the draw of white womanhood. You may see Cam battle with wanting to unravel Reena’s homicide, going behind her father and brother so as to take action. You can too see her repulsion of Rebecca’s fascination with the youngsters on the middle of Reena’s homicide, particularly Jo who Rebecca seemingly sees herself in.
Most of those relationships clearly have a societal core, which is among the explanation why Shephard needed to adapt “Underneath the Bridge.” “I don’t assume that this crime would have occurred, and I don’t assume that Reena would have been brutalized in the best way that she was in the course of the homicide had she appeared like Josephine,” Shephard mentioned. “As a result of I do assume, particularly within the late 90s, there was this immense strain to attain this white, skinny, stunning ultimate. And I feel that that’s actually tragic. I feel it’s a tragic story. And I additionally assume that it was an vital one to have the ability to discover on tv.”
Further reporting by Erin Strecker.
“Underneath the Bridge” airs Wednesdays on Hulu.