A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: This Case Needs More Than Just A Strong Protagonist

Based on the bestselling mystery book series by Holly Jackson, this Netflix show focuses on Pippa Fitz-Amobi (Emma Myers), a high school senior who needs to complete a personal project for graduation. An avid fan of true crime, she decides to investigate a five-year-old murder case in her own town: the death of popular student Andie Bell (India Lillie Davies), and conviction of her boyfriend Sal Singh (Rahul Pattni) who eventually committed suicide. Her investigation leads to a complicated web of lies and dangerous secrets among the residents of her town.

Although I read the original book, I can't really remember a thing from it. But I remember loving it. This show just felt like a downgrade. The portrayal felt forced from some of the actors, namely Sal's younger brother Ravi Singh (Zain Iqbal). While his characteristics are supposed to be awkward and a bit socially inept, most of the acting seemed really uncomfortable to me. I was just kinda put off by it. Along with the stiff acting, there were a lot of unnecessary characters. Pip had a core group of friends, but I have no doubt that their entire purpose was to create an aura of likability for her; almost half of them hardly spoke and they didn't contribute anything to the plot.

Along with the useless chracters, I didn't get enough from the useful ones. Spoiler alert. We discover that Andie was planning to run away with Sal because of her controlling father Jason Bell (Matthew Chambers). Yet, how am I supposed to believe he takes such an active part in causing her distress when he's hardly seen in the show. I can't really sympathize with Andie's frustration and pain because I hardly see Jason, let alone his possessive behavior; it all just seemed improbable to me. This storyline had the potential to be so much more powerful if the character was used more actively.

There were also multiple plotlines that weren't fully solved. More spoiler alerts ahead. I'm the kind of viewer who likes visual confirmation of everything, like someone dying (if i don't see a physical corpse, I guarantee that person's not dead). We didn't actually see Andie's younger sister Becca (Carla Woodcock) get arrested. For all I know, she escaped from her attack on Pip fully unscathed. There was no scene of her arrest, no scene of her in custody. Maybe it didn't bother anyone else, but it bothered me. Also, it wasn't made clear who was sending Pip threatening texts. I think we were supposed to assume it was Jason, but it wasn't really clarified. I was surprised about that because it was a relatively important part of the plot, and I got really no explanation. Since Netflix loves to capitalize on book series, I can imagine we'll be getting more seasons and maybe these questions will be answered. Until then, not a favorite of mine.