Under the Bridge

The show delves into the psyche of teenage bullying, not as some sort of freak show or grotesquery, but rather as another facet of this tragedy. .... Gladstone is the marquee performer in this show, and she brings a tender earnestness to her role.

Believing it is the key to the success of “Under the Bridge.” The first couple of episodes falter a bit in this category with some dialogue, especially for the young characters, that sounds manufactured, but that falls away as the performers and writers are allowed to flesh out these people beyond how they try to look to other people. Be patient with it. It deserves it.

Thoughtful, empathetic writing and excellent performances make it more than just another dead-girl show.

Under the Bridge, adapted for television by Quinn Shephard, works admirably hard to differentiate itself. It is both solemn and furious about its story.

“Under the Bridge” deals with tough material, but it’s relatively easy to watch if you’re braced for the anguished gloom that accompanies most true-crime tales (one that’s amplified here by the stormy skies and pervasive sogginess of its Northwestern locale). But if you’re a true-crime veteran, you’ve also seen this story and heard these points before, only with ample attention and insight.

Despite being based on a grim true-crime yarn, Under the Bridge makes several poor choices in translating the book to the screen, beginning with inserting the author, Rebecca Godfrey, into the story. This bridge into the familiar waters of troubled teens thus proves most notable as Lily Gladstone’s follow-up to “Killers of the Flower Moon,” albeit in a rather drab role as the local cop investigating the case.

Almost everything wrong with the series "Under the Bridge"—based on Rebecca Godfrey's 2005 nonfiction novel about teenage Canadian murder—is about conforming to the standards of TV drama, not to mention the relentlessly unpleasant characters spouting impossibly vapid dialogue. .... The murder-mystery aspect of "Under the Bridge" is more complicated than it might first appear and at moments genuinely baffling. But the details of the case and the characterizations here fit too neatly into a framework of sociological clichés.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]