Under the Bridge Captures the 'Chilling' and Complicated Brutality of Teens

Anyone who’s suffered through middle and high school knows that teenagers can be awful. But sometimes this meanness goes beyond excluding someone from a sleepover or spreading a rumor — sometimes it manifests as something much crueler. 

In recent years, some TV shows have gone beyond the classic school bully trope and ventured into the absolute darkest corners of adolescence. In Mare of Easttown, Erinn’s classmates lure her into the woods and viciously beat her in front of everyone. Sharp Objects’ Amma is one of the scariest characters on TV despite being only 13 years old. Part of what makes these characters so terrifying is the ease with which they commit these terrible acts, reminding us that even kids can be capable of doing heinous things. 

Hulu’s Under the Bridge is the latest show to tap into teenage cruelty. The limited series, which is based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Rebecca Godfrey, explores the 1997 murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) and the classmates accused of killing her. Six teens (dubbed “The Shoreline Six”) are accused of the murder, but the show focuses primarily on Warren Glowatski (Javon Walton), Kelly Ellard (Izzy G), Josephine Bell (Chloe Guidry), and Dusty Pace (Aiyana Goodfellow). 

The series captures the stark brutality of teens and seeks to unpack what drives it in the first place. For series creator Quinn Shephard and co-executive producer Samir Mehta, the only way to do Reena’s story justice was to portray not only the victim, but also the perpetrators, with great care. Instead of just painting the middle schoolers as one-dimensional monsters, they aimed to understand them, even when it’s incredibly difficult.

“Samir said to me the first week we worked together, ‘In order to really do this right, we have to be empathetic when we don't want to be,’” Shephard tells Primetimer. “You know, when it's the hardest.”

One of the most terrifying scenes in the show occurs in the premiere when Reena shows up to a party and walks into a nightmare. Unbeknownst to her, Josephine only invited her because she wants to get revenge on Reena for stealing her phone book and spreading nasty rumors about her. When Reena realizes what’s about to happen (amplified by a kid yelling, “Someone’s ass about to get rocked!”), she makes a run for it. But there’s no escape — even her friend Dusty turns on her. They drag Reena under the bridge, laughing and shrieking almost maniacally. 

This is all made even more jarring by the fact that these characters are played by real teens and preteens; Gupta was just 12 years old when they shot the episode. The actress says that filming under the bridge (where the murder takes place) was the most difficult part of production for her because of how realistic it seemed. “It felt very surreal going into it. It was very tense,” she reflects. “It felt really real, like [I was] living it. It was a sense of trauma.”

Shephard explains that they cast age-appropriate actors instead of 18- to 20-year-olds because they wanted viewers to be able to “hold understanding and empathy” for the middle school characters and really absorb the “turmoil” they go through. Casting age-appropriate actors doesn’t just make the story more chilling, it makes it more complicated and uncomfortable. It’s not as easy to write off the perpetrators as just pure evil when they’re portrayed by young teens, and it’s difficult to reckon with the idea that these kids can do horrific things while still seeming “innocent” in some ways. For instance, Josephine, who longs to escape her life in a group home, naively believes she can simply escape to New York City and live out her fantasy as a “gangster” if Rebecca (Riley Keough) just buys her a plane ticket.

“It was like a two-sided character,” Guidry says of playing Josephine. “I was excited to unpack all the layers that she had, because she did have so much. Separating your character from who you are is really important to me, but [so is] trying to relate to what they’re going through … trying to understand [why] they are the way that they are.”

Walton has similarly complicated feelings about his character. The show doesn’t minimize or excuse Warren’s role in the murder, but it makes a point to also showcase his more vulnerable side, like when he walks into a diner begging for a job after his father takes off and leaves him to fend for himself. He also cares deeply for his girlfriend and develops a genuine connection with Rebecca. “He does an awful thing, but there's a lot of layers to Warren as well,” Walton reflects. “He’s a charming guy. He's got a sweet side to him. I really feel like, what he did that night, it was just a really awful night for him.”

Under the Bridge also seeks to unravel the complex relationships between the teens. Before it escalates into extreme violence, the group dynamic feels like typical mean girl stuff. Josephine, or “the princess,” as Dusty refers to her, is clearly the queen bee — she calls the shots and frequently treats Reena and Dusty (the only people of color in the group) poorly. In the pilot, Josephine makes a cruel jab at Reena’s weight, then announces that they’re all going to hang out at a boy’s house, quickly adding, “Reena, you’re not invited.” Dusty is clearly uncomfortable, but follows Jospehine’s lead, evidently not wanting to become the next target. However, she and Reena are also shown to have a genuine friendship, which makes Dusty’s choice to turn on her at the party all the more upsetting.

In order to better understand Dusty, Goodfellow turned to Staci K. Haines’ book The Politics of Trauma. “[Haines] writes that humans have three things we all need, and that trauma is created when we have to sacrifice one or more to protect one or more,” they explain. “Dusty’s journey is really about her deciding whether she's going to prioritize a sense of belonging with Reena or a sense of safety with the others. She's used to having to prioritize safety over anything else. As a young person in foster care, she doesn't have that sense of community and family and security.”

While Goodfellow calls the murder case “chilling,” they wouldn’t consider it shocking. “There are Reenas all over the world. There are Reenas experiencing violence as we have this conversation,” they reflect. “I think the most depressing and heartbreaking part of it is that it's still so unbelievably relevant, and will probably continue to be unless we learn from events like this, from stories like this, and change our society at large.”

Mehta echoes this sentiment and emphasizes that a variety of factors in the teens’ lives, from their unstable homes to the police viewing them as disposable (coining the term “Bic girls” for them, after the lighter brand), made the murder possible. “If even one thing was different, it probably wouldn't have happened,” he says. “The ease with which we could have prevented it is kind of scary. The fact that everything kind of happened perfectly, but in the worst way, is just sort of terrifying to contemplate.”

To Goodfellow, preventing horrific crimes like this ultimately requires trying to find “humanity” within even the most brutal actions. This means, as Shephard and Mehta put it, challenging ourselves to hold empathy for the teenage perpetrators even when it’s incredibly difficult and uncomfortable. Otherwise, we not only learn nothing from the cruelty, but enable more horrific crimes like this to happen to teens in the future. In real life, Reena’s parents actually forgave Warren, who now dedicates his life to restorative justice.

“We're all a few decisions away from harming the Reenas in our lives,” Goodfellow says. “We've all done bad things. It's more helpful to see the humanity in terrible actions than to label them as monstrosities, because then we get to learn from it.”

New episodes of Under the Bridge drop Wednesdays on Hulu. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.
 

Kelly Martinez is a TV Reporter based in Los Angeles. Her previous work can be found at BuzzFeed and People Magazine, among other outlets. She enjoys reading, spending time with her cat, and explaining the plot of Riverdale to people.