The Burning Girls

Samantha Morton is brilliant as always, but the messy sub-plots and indecisive supernatural story line create too many loose ends and unanswered questions.

The motivation of most of the various murderous and sadistic characters are not explained, nor are most of their actions.

The supernatural visions of burning girls, ghosts, the dead rabbit / bird theme, lights going out and doors banging shut, and the cursed village plot in general, is clearly designed to build suspense and keep viewers watching, but then is left dangling with zero explanation, other than a brief moral subplot.

This is a decent rainy Sunday slow burner with a bit of a twist, but overall has a frustrating finish and is ragged around the edges.

If you are in the mood for a thriller mystery, then I think this is above average, but not spectacular. Admittedly, I am a bit biased because I enjoy, and purposely watch most all of Samantha Morton's work where she gets to stand out. The first episode was a little soft getting into it and I was concerned she was going to have a bit of a vapid character role, but in episode 2 and beyond it gets a bit more engaging and we see a little more expected contribution. I had figured out about 60 percent of the mystery pretty quick, but there is enough concealment to keep some surprises at the end that fits together well and makes a good mini-series binge.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. It started off over the top hammy with the eerie music and flashes of ghosts. Also far too many weird 'horror' scenes that turned out to be Morton's character having a nightmare. But it was fun.

Then it turned murder mystery and forgot about the supernatural stuff. That was good too, but far too many parts were glossed over or didn't really make sense.

It's as if they came up with a lot of great story ideas, decided to throw them all in the pot but just starting ignored them when they started getting too convoluted.

I'm off to read the book now. Maybe that'll shine some light on the whole thing.

TLDR? Very enjoyable and watchable but expect it to end up in a way that makes you go, 'Uh okay, but what about...' and then head onto IMDB to look at trivia in the hopes that'll fill in some gaps.

I really did love The Burning Girls! Loved the cast, loved the characters, loved premise, loved the location and loved the supernatural elements. By about the second or third episode I was starting to worry that there might be too many plots and subplots on the go for 6 episodes, but all of the stories intertwined and came to an extremely satisfying conclusion. I watch a fair amount of mystery dramas, and I am always incensed when I reach the final episode only to discover the main murder was actually an accident. This obviates the need for a proper motive and is extremely lazy writing. You will not get this with The Burning Girls, there are motives galore (even if some of them stretched my credulity a little bit). The Burning Girls follows a tried and true crime/mystery drama formula, while throwing in a spoonful of Wicker Man, Happy Valley, The Exorcist and a pinch of Scandi noir. It worked for me and I have given it full marks, as I cannot image a more enjoyable example of the genre.

I don't know what to say, acting was great, I liked the twist at the end, very well written. I recommend everybody to watch this mini TV series, so entertaining. It is not very scary in my opinion but full of little stories which dragged you in and grab your attention. Jack was the hero of the movie, an inspiring character, a loving trustful mother with tremendous support for everybody. I am so happy that I picked this TV series, really worth watching. Be ready to hear lots of stories from the past, scandals, betrayals, religious beliefs, sacrifice, myth. I just could not imagine the pain has gone through.