As far as small-town fictions go, the winning order of genres is romance over murder mystery. But once in a while, a Nancy Drew look-alike comes across our screens, out of the books, and tries to reserve the order. The limited series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is exhibit A.
Based on Holly Jackson’s book of the same name, the series is adapted by Poppy Cogan and directed by Dolly Wells and Tom Vaughan. The six-episode series flows smoothly without giving much space for you to dwell on the irregular pace of events.
The story opens on a dark road in the small English town of Little Kilton in 2019. In a brief flashback, Andie Bell (India Lillie Davies), is seen walking down the street with a wound on the back of her head. That was the last time she was seen before she went missing. When her boyfriend Sal Singh’s (Rahul Pattni) corpse is found in the woods along with a cryptic confession of murder, it becomes an open shut case of a murder-suicide situation.
Emma Myers as Pip Fitz-Amobi and Zain Iqbal as Ravi Singh in ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ | Photo Credit: NETFLIX
Five years later, 17-year-old Pippa Fitz-Amobi (Emma Myers) decides to dust off the cobwebs and take on the task of finding the real truth as a part of her EPQ (Extended Project Qualification). The residents of Little Kilton have moved on from the events of the past — built a memory wall for Andie, ostracized the Singh family, slung racist insults at them, and believe that the missing corpse of Andie is the work of Sal, who they dub a mastermind killer.
The series examines rage, obsession, friendship, drug use, assault and more from a teen something’s perspective, as numerous titles like Pretty Little Liars, Stranger Things, and 13 Reasons Why have done before. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder tries to walk in their footsteps and succeeds, but doesn’t necessarily surpass.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (English)
Pippa teams up with a reluctant Ravi Singh (Zain Iqbal), Sal’s younger brother, and begins the investigation by reverse engineering the night Andie had gone missing. She interviews the regular suspects — friends and family of the victims — and nobody questions her motive; most are eager to answer all her questions truthfully and immediately, just like in every other tween mystery.
While the series of events isn’t exactly predictable, the first couple of episodes are spent establishing the early stages of the investigation; the series then rushes through the climax in the finale, almost as if the writers wanted to tie up the series with a clean conclusion like a school essay. From the fifth episode, in which a seemingly big twist is unveiled, the story picks up pace and from then on, it is a race against time.
The titular “good girl” earns her tag by being a teen who does not indulge in any vices, but also by taking a moral high ground of trying to fix the town’s wrongs (as she suspects, solely because Sal was a “good guy”). Her best friend, Cara Ward (Asha Banks) stands by without adding much to the story, but being a constant presence on her conscience. Apart from Emma and Zain’s characters, the supporting cast are mere hangers for their roles and lack dimension.
Zain Iqbal as Ravi Singh and Emma Myers as Pip Fitz-Amobi in ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ | Photo Credit: Sally Mais/Netflix
Cara’s sister Naomi (Yasmin Al-Khudhairi), who was one of Sal’s best friends, and rich kid Max Hastings (Henry Ashton) have plenty of secrets to hide, which Pippa uncovers, not by logic, but by chance. Clues fall into her lap, and her subjects are loose-tongued around her, because “nobody is going to bother with a school girl doing her project.” However, as she stumbles upon more than one dark secret, she starts receiving anonymous threats asking her to stop digging. So as teens do, she does the opposite and foolishly puts herself and her loved ones in harm’s way.
She plays stupid games and wins stupid prizes, but comes out with flying colours as she uncovers secrets, and even manages to learn a thing or two about herself.
Barring a couple of minute details, the series follows the storyline from the original book quite closely. That being said, the pace and flow of the story are better read than watched.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is currently streaming on Netflix
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