Under the Bridge: Episode 1: "Looking Glass"

April 25, 2024 11:27 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

From Google: " The hidden world of the teenagers accused of a savage murder reveals startling truths about the unlikely killer." Starring Lily Gladstone and Riley Keough
posted by BibiRose (6 comments total)

Discussing the show on Morning Joe (MSNBC), Gladstone said she hadn't been sure about doing another true crime-- presumably referring to Killers of the Flower Moon-- but decided to participate because Keough was already signed up. The two of them are fantastic together., and the actors playing the kids are wonderful.

This is a heartbreaking true story and it's hard for me to really view it as entertainment. Watching the kids, I had a similar feeling to watching the 1994 movie Heavenly Creatures, where the stuff the girls did seemed so bizarre and incomprehensible, but recognizable at the same time.


Obituary of Rebecca Godfrey, who wrote the book on which the series is based. (NYT gift link.)
posted by BibiRose at 11:32 AM on April 25

Interview with Gladstone and Keough (NYT gift link):

Lily Gladstone and Riley Keough Investigate a Chilling Murder https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/arts/television/under-the-bridge-lily-gladstone-riley-keough.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n00.wQn2.DA2gOT1R8Jf-
posted by BibiRose at 10:44 AM on April 28

I struggle with true crime stuff because it is so often exploitative and often really cruel to the victims and their family and friends (I'm looking at you Up and Vanished Season 1), but this more fictionalized approach telling a story that's now well in the past does feel somewhat less creepy. And so far, this is well done and shows a lot of sympathy towards everyone.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:38 PM on April 28 [1 favorite]

I'm 3 episodes in and I'd describe it as boring. Like there isn't enough story to tell to move forward, and the writer/investigator lady seems all to willing to get taken by these kids.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:01 AM on May 1

I wasn't at all sure about watching this, but I did and I thought it was very good. It had an excellent cast without a single weak link. That poor girl. Some of the kids who attacked Reena needed help just as much as or even more than her, with the exception of Kelly Ellerd, who seems to have been raised like a princess and never disciplined, and turned out to be a malignant narcissist.

As I watched, I kept trying to mentally fix the story in my head, to figure out what the Virks might have done differently to help Reena. They were good people who loved their daughter and were doing their best, but it was a very difficult situation, and no one could have predicted that it would end the way it did. How do you help a 14-year-old girl who is so desperate for friends that she's chasing after a bunch of abusive, delinquent kids, and who is so easily manipulated and naive that she'll falsely accuse her own father of physical and sexual abuse without at all realizing what the consequences will be for him? They really shouldn't have taken away her bedroom door, though. Reena needed her privacy, and you don't discipline kids by taking away their basic rights.
posted by orange swan at 12:57 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]

This show gave me a similar feeling to what i had watching Heavenly Creatures: a mixture of "Oh my god this is so messed up" and "There but for the grace of god." I feel lucky I didn't get involved in something like that as a teenager, that is such a chaotic time.

Still not sure how I feel about Riley Keough's character. Certainly there are adults who act that way and the idea that in her case it's from unresolved trauma that happened at that age makes sense.
posted by BibiRose at 5:12 AM on July 2