Murder mysteries — especially streaming original murder mysteries — come with a certain expectation. No matter if you’re watching Mare of Easttown or True Detective on HBO, or Lupin or Mindhunter on Netflix, shows where someone is investigating a tragic crime are often much darker than normal dramas.
But Netflix’s latest murder thriller is something entirely different — a series that is full of the bright lighting and the cheery coming-of-age tone of a Freeform series. But because of this, not in spite of it, it somehow is even more tense and terrifying with each passing episode, and makes for the perfect binge.
What It’s About
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder follows Pip Fitz-Amobi (Wednesday’s Emma Myers), an overachieving high school student as she attempts something huge for an Extended Project Qualification to beef up her university applications: solving the five-year-old murder of local girl Andie Bell.
The police think they have the culprit, Andie’s then-boyfriend Sal Singh, but Pip is convinced they have the wrong person. Together with her best friend Cara (Asha Banks) and Sal’s brother Ravi (Zain Iqbal), she sets out to find out who’s really at fault, only to find herself caught up in a gritty underworld of crime, secrets, and her own family.
Why It’s Worth Watching
Directed in part by Dracula star Dolly Wells, A Good Girl’s Guide for Murder is about far more than just the case at the center. While Pip is trying to find leads, she’s also negotiating through friend drama, family secrets, school stress, and sorting out if she even wants the future she’s doing all this hard work to achieve.
That leeches into the direction of every episode, which looks more like an adaptation of John Green rather than John Grisham. The point of the Andie Bell case is that her life was ripped from her in the middle of an idyllic life, so that’s what we see. While Pip is brooding over her clues, she’s also going on camping trips with her friends and dressing up for parties, all set to a Gen Z pop playlist.
But that just makes the last few episodes, when the case turns out to be far more complicated than anyone could have thought, all the more shocking. Pip may be getting threatening texts from a mysterious source, but she realizes that she’s past the point of no return.
Though A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a tad dark for fans of fluffy YA book adaptations watch, and a bit more heartfelt than fans of murder mysteries are used to, no matter which side you fall on, the show is insanely watchable. With only six episodes, it’s the perfect way to unwind over a week or spend a lazy Sunday so you, too, can discover who murdered Andie Bell.
