Thursday, August 01, 2024

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, on Netflix

Many English and Welsh students must write an EPQ, sort of like a senior thesis. Pip Fitz-Amobi had two ideas. She could write something safe and stupid about “feminism in gothic literature,” or re-open the investigation into a local murder, hopefully clearing the name of an older student she thought highly of. Option 2 might actually make the world a better place, but it would be very dangerous. She chooses the more perilous course in creator Poppy Corgan’s six-episode A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which starts streaming today on Netflix.

Fitz-Amobi is smart, but her EQ is questionable. Nevertheless, she has a loyal core group of friends who represent varying degrees of geekiness. Five years ago, she idolized seniors Andie Bell and her boyfriend Sal Singh, both of whom were cool to her. Consequently, she never believed Singh killed Bell and then committed suicide, so she intends to find the real killer for her EPQ.

Initially, she investigates like a bull in a China shop, greatly offending Singh’s younger brother Ravi. Nevertheless, her earnestness eventually wins him over, so they join forces. Awkwardly, their suspicions soon fall on the older, more popular sister of Pip’s best friend. It appears those mean posh kids lied about when poor Singh left that fateful night, thereby denying him his rightful alibi. They also soon discover Bell sold drugs to the group, at the behest of a bigger dealer, including the date-rape cocktails employed by wealthy predator, Max Hastings.

The revelation of Bell’s lurid secrets very much feel like they are modeled on the secret life of
Twin Peaks’ Laura Palmer, while the rapport between Fitz-Amobi and her pals is similar in tone to CW’s Nancy Drew, especially when they break out the Ouija board. It is definitely a lot like a lot of other shows, including Dead Hot, but at least these teens are not so compulsively promiscuous (how could anyone be?).

Emma Meyers and Zain Iqbal both have a lot of screen charisma as Fitz-Amobi and the younger Singh brother. They also develop some pleasant chemistry together. However, most of her friends are boring and poorly differentiated in terms of personality. Demographics and sexual identity are poor substitutes for meaningful character. The adults are also a pretty lame lot, uncharacteristically including Anna Maxwell Martin, who is sadly under-utilized as Fitz-Amobi’s John Hughes-ish mom, Leanne.

In some ways,
Guide’s casting inadvertently works against it. When a fairly well-known cast-member is prominently billed in the opening credits, but only pops in and out briefly in early episodes, to make idle chit-chat, it is a sure bet they will emerge as a “shocking” suspect later in the series.

Series director Dolly Wells tries to keep things pacey, but Holly Jackson’s source novel would be better suited to a ninety-minute film adaptation than six fortysome minute installments. There just are not enough twists to fill all that time. It is still reasonably watchable, hitting a level on par with
Red Rose, but it lacks sufficiently special qualities to set it apart (Nancy Drew was vastly superior). Just okay for brainless streaming, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder starts streaming today (8/1) on Netflix.