Under the Bridge

As someone who was a 16 year old girl living in Vancouver, BC, Canada when this happened this is a really hard watch.

Knowing how brutal teenage girls can be as someone who was beat up for being poor.

This story should be told because Reena deserved justice that I believe she was never given. Everyone need to remember her not the scumbags who did this.

This show is shot, written and acted great it but hits too close to home knowing the real story.

RIP Reena you deserved so much more than the short life you got. They robbed you and your family in so many ways.

I think about you and my friend Brandy who were killed so brutally for just being.

There is only the first episode to really judge by, since I have to watch it on Disney+ and not Hulu, but it's got the potential to be really good. Unlike some, who have panned this because there's a white woman as the writer, a quick little research pulls up that Rebecca is based on the real-life writer of the book by the same name regarding this crime so the outrage seems misplaced.

It will be interesting to see how the handle the other aspects of this case regarding to the brutality of the teens mobs and the lacklustre interest apparently shown by the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development.

It is a little weird that the one character who had kicked off the whole attack was renamed in this considering Nicole Cook, aka Josephine Bell, has been interviewed on MSNBC so she's a known participant in the assault.

I recently read the book this series is based on after watching one episode. The book was poorly written and the victim was treated almost as an after thought. I was hoping the series would be better. However it is a somewhat fictionalized account of the book. The author did not work with the police. And the main cop character is made up. So far I would not recommend either. The characters seem so fake. Both the adults and the teenagers are mostly sad and very unlikable. Seems neither the victim or the assailants had any responsible loving adults in their lives. I will continue to watch this series but I don't feel it is worth your time.

I knew nothing about the case or this adaptation of the story prior to watching it. I was skeptical if I would even make it past the first episode because this type of drama isn't really my preference. Surprisingly, as the multi-generational back stories were told I really enjoyed learning about the many characters. The acting was average for a cast most of whom I have never see before.

The story itself was tragic and full of betrayal at every turn leading to the murder. Once the law closes in and arrests made it was all downhill for me. The mystery is solved by the very unspectacular truths. The rest of the episodes have to rely on dull drama and acting which bored me to tears.

There were many unexplained "evidence" items or material references that just fell off the map. If it was important enough to put onscreen and discussed then why leave them out at the end?

I gave the series a 5 because its definitely worth watching the first half of the season although there is a serious drop off in the second half.

When I heard about this show I was very intrigued. I was the same age as Reena and growing up in Victoria at the same time. I have connections to this story that I don't want to make public but to say the least I was very interest in how this story would come to be on the screen. It's that time honored tradition of be careful when something is "based" on a true story.

Fair warning I couldn't finish the second episode because everything around the murder is heighted for television drama. When your main character is the author of a book about the crime written after the fact but somehow the show puts her there as the murder is going on is beyond me. All this does it take the focus of the real victim Reena Virk.

Not to mention in the real world Victoria is the 12th largest city in Canada and not some rural run town poor town like in the show. I had to laugh because the real Craigflower bridge is right by the Old Island Highway and one of the busiest intersections in the city and not surrounded by nothing like the show. When in reality this all went down in such a high traffic area is more shocking than this show where the population of 200 live miles from everyone and everywhere.

We owe it to the memory of Reena Virk to remember her story and the tragic details and not some fantasy made up to celebrate a writer with a tangential connection to the murder. From what I've seen from these first two episodes the show is more interested in the murders (truly awful people that got away way to lightly if you read the truth and not watch this show) than the victim herself. More interested in creating false narratives that work for TV but have nothing to do with real life.

Victoria and the family of Reena Virk deserve better, the scum involved in the actual crime deserve worse.