A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

An interesting but uneven mystery drama that never quite manages to firmly find its feet. There's lots to enjoy in this series from the lovely shooting locations, the very good lead performances to the actual mystery itself and the almost cold case style investigation which follows. I haven't read the book so can't comment on how accurate it is. The series sometimes starts onto territory that feels familiar and a couple of bits feel slightly shoehorned in, including a I Know What You Did Last Summer style accident.

A certain tall blonde young woman will also appear exactly when our protagonist needs her to in order to help. The friends at times get some development at other times feel superfluous. You start to realise soon all the white men in the series are bad in some often vile and criminal way, ethnic men though are mostly kind hearted and caring, imagine if the BBC did the opposite. It's become almost weakness and trope now you actually start to roll your eyes at. The casting is mostly quite good though one actor playing a pressured 17 years looks not a day over 40. Smart phones get used a lot in the series but usually to advance the plot along. Our main character gets to give lots of self-righteous rants at different point meanwhile her Watson friend somehow seems to be entirely void of anything approaching a realistic life, often just appearing by a lake with his hands in his pockets in order for our protagonist to talk with him, how longs he been stood staring at that tree?

We get a fair bit of drugs in the series, a slightly unsettling list of professions you think you can trust like teachers and policemen who are very much not trustworthy to say the least. Plot holes are simply gigantic, a certain accident involving an animal makes no sense, nor the motives of people really. Some bits are also unclear but for the most part I could follow it. Its all very idealised at times the perfect cottage england homes, the traffic free streets, the dog that never barks or gets too excited, or causes any mess or problems. The parents who exchange witty banter, it's all a bit tv land. I do like a good mystery though, the thing moves along nicely, it's fairly well done technically and so I give it a 6 overall. Despite its slightly funny character overall its not a comedy touching on some interesting themes relevant to young people about racism, parenting, friendship, drugs, consent and intergrity.

I've read the books and I didn't feel the characters in the book with the actors. Emma doesn't have the accent for it. I don't understand why they couldn't hire a British actress. There's plenty out there like okay.

Also, a lot of things were changed which didn't make sense to me and the chemistry kind of lacked in places between friends. I thought the main ship had chemistry.

The scenery, the cinematography was incredible, though. Honestly IMHO if you're adapting a book. Do it by the book. Stop tweaking details. It's annoying and I don't like how white boys/men are depicted nowadays like stop.

Having binge read the book and enjoyed its great pacing and delivery of evidence the series unfortunately falls flat to the high expectations created.

Let's start by the characters. The book itself doesn't dive very deep into the relationships and the development of the people involved. However the series is even more uninterested in highlighting the emotional depth and challenges of the characters. Even main ones like Ravi's and Pip's, their emotional moments feel forced and not very analysed. The others involved, friends family and suspects all feel like fillers for the episodes to reach the time limit, not actual people like in the books.

The acting is not bad but definitely not brilliant either. At times too Disney Channel-y which makes sense bc of the ya vibe of the book but still unable to connect with the viewers at high impactful moments.

Picture is interesting at times, convincing enough for a small town scenery, but the colouring seems a bit off. The saturation feels a little bit much like you're watching descendants on Disney+ and not a teenage murder mystery. All of this to say, we dont need another Riverdale or Winx Saga but at times it took from the broodiness and darkness of the story.

Now the plot, having read the book I was about to scream at whoever write the f script because so much important information (hints about the end) were not revealed until the very end. Six episodes were short for that amount of information and pacing was weird as it felt like we were stuck for about 2 episodes of nothing happening.

Characters were basically assassinated for the sake of the episode's length which created patchy and awkward pauses in the story.

All in all, I expected much more from the story. I think so much was lost because of the writing to be honest. Directorial choices were weird. I feel like a voice-over or even segments that showed the evidence a little bit like the book would help understand Pip's progress in the mystery and help engage with the viewers.

So sad bc this could have been an easy win. Next time consoder asking the readers and stick to the book more .

From the start had a feeling this wasn't for me but I was intrigued to know what happened and because it was only 6 episodes I persisted until the end.

I'm not sure how this has been rated a 10 by some, but each to their own.

The acting was not the greatest and most of the main characters lacked chemistry.

The main character, Pip continually put herself in dangerous situations with characters she believed were the killer/s, which was highly unlikely for someone who was supposedly so smart and such a goodie goodie.

The overall storyline wasn't bad however the plot was simplistic and at times dialogue and situations unbelievable.

I can see why this could appeal to teenagers though.

Just finished watching the show on Netflix.

A few things, apparently this series is based on a book, and I really wanna read it to know more about the details of the story/plot.

The story wasn't predictable which is good but I felt like it felt very unrealistic at times.

Since I am not a teenager in 2024, it's hard to relate to the environment the characters are in.

The actors did a good job, especially "Sal" the few minutes he's on screen, I really felt his presence. His face and emotions were perfect for the scenes.

If you enjoy "true crime" you will like this refreshing series. Kinda like Nancy Drew but in the modern times.