If you're looking for a gripping crime drama to fill the True Detective-shaped hole in your streaming line-up, Hulu and Disney Plus could have the perfect show for you. Under The Bridge, which you can stream from Wednesday, April 17, is based on a harrowing true story and its trailer (see below) suggests it's going to be edge-of-the-seat stuff.
The drama is based on Rebecca Godfrey's best-selling and critically acclaimed book. It's the true story of a missing fourteen-year-old girl, Reena Virk, who never returns home. When a group of local girls and one boy are accused of her murder, Godfrey and the police attempt to understand the accused girls' world and find out the truth about Virk's disappearance.
Should you stream Under The Bridge?
On the basis of the trailer and the reviews of Godfrey's book, yes. Speaking to Elle magazine, producer Samir Mehta said that "our shorthand in the room was that the show is Eighth Grade meets The Sopranos".
Virk, the teen girl at the center of the story, is something of an outcast at the school, teased and bullied about her weight and her appearance. But in the days before her disappearance, talk about her becomes even more serious and much more sinister. The case would become a national conversation in her native Canada as the details of what happened finally emerged.
Godfrey's book is so powerful because she managed to earn the accused girls' trust, giving her an insight into the tragedy and the events leading up to it that other writers may not have had. The resulting book, also called Under The Bridge, has been favorably compared to Truman Capote's classic crime book, In Cold Blood.
Sadly Godfrey isn't around to see her book on the screen – she died in 2022, aged just 54. In her obituary, the New York Times [paywall] wrote that "the book was written largely from the points of view of each of the people involved with the case, with Ms. Godfrey mostly absent from the narrative, an affecting technique that was also cultural." The TV adaptation changes that, with Godfrey as the show's key protagonist. Hopefully it's a fitting tribute to a remarkable writer.
Under The Bridge is streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus from April 17.
