4 out of 5

Created by: Poppy Cogan

Though essentially following in the tradition of UK smalltown mystery thrillers – past secrets; shocking revelations; it’s-never-who-you-think-it-is culprits – A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder finds nuance in the genre via those most mystical dimensions: character and story. More specifically, as co-written by creator Poppy Cogan across its six episodes, lead ‘good girl’ Pippa (Emma Myers) is given narrative space to be much more than a casual sleuth when looking into the disappearance and presumed death of student Andie Bell, from five years earlier – not only is her progress on the case quite believable, but the mixture in of her daily life as a pre-college teen feels quite real, and more importantly matters to the story. At least until the narrative kicks into fuller gear towards the series’ back half, we’re using the framework of this mystery for a character study, that quite carefully tries to assess the lingering impact of offenses great and small: the things we directly do or say, but also the things we didn’t intend to do, or didn’t say. And once that narrative does kick in, while the focus on better may shrink to the background, and we get a little lost in some more typical Gotchas of the genre, ‘Good Girl’s’ story takes the tactic it’d applied to Pippa and spreads it outward, letting the story drift to postscripts in a way a lot of these things forget to do. It’s a very responsible drama, but done so without trivializing the fun of piecing together clues, or the sense of true danger when the investigation heats up and anonymous threats start to drift Pippa’s way.

Directing the first half of the series, Dolly Wells feints towards some teen movie-isms – needle drops; over-stylization – that butt up against some generally more traditional framing and pacing. But these episodes are much stronger in the direction of the teen cast – although not everyone is given the same grace in the script as Pippa, Wells seemed to have a good method of (and patience for) giving her cast room to more organically deliver their lines, so it doesn’t feel like we’re just getting to the next clue. With Myers especially, the blend of curiosity and stubborn determination and fear she’ll flit through at moments is powerful – it’s something you just recognize as a human being, and empathize with. Tom Vaughan takes over the latter half, which is more focused on stewing the clues to a boil, and delivers a fittingly tighter style, and perhaps a little more stylistically consistent. Both approaches work for their halves, although it would’ve been interesting to have the best of both worlds throughout.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, from afar, fits a particular mold: it does the short UK mystery serial with a PG-13 framework. And with that, you’ll probably guess at answers, and be able to spot Checkov Guns way before the camera drifts to them. But it’s also one of those series that uses that familiarity to its advantage, taking the time to really deliver on its character work in a valuable way – a way that engages the brain, and your attentions – and then follows that up with a more realistic and balanced take on its narrative than the genre generally offers.