This murder mystery has enough to enjoy despite its shortcomings

When a pathbreaking discovery is made about the accused murderer, his brother (Zain Iqbal) doesn’t showcase any shock but rather cheese-talks with Pip. And this character, despite Iqbal’s competent performance, becomes the series’ biggest minus. Force-fitting a romance in a story like this keeps cutting the gradual momentum that’s been built, and this angle constantly sucks out the genuine tension that some of the scenes have.

The series seems to prioritise the ‘solving a murder’ aspect more than anything else; hence, we get twists just to add one more piece to the puzzle. In a typical mistake for a mystery thriller, an external character is suddenly introduced near the end, just to give us an important piece of information. And it’s also a bizarre decision to have two middling end-twists instead of one. This dilutes the impact of both discoveries, making the last episode rather underwhelming.

However, despite its shortcomings, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a series that knows what it’s doing, and it happily settles as an engaging enough murder mystery. It is designed to cater to a specific age group—audiences for whom a Star Wars reference might go over their heads. And it caters well to what this demographic might expect from it, delivering ample loads of relatable conflicts, intriguing plot points, and a mostly tight-knit plot trajectory.

Creator: Poppy Cogan

Cast: Emma Myers, Zain Iqbal, Asha Banks, Raiko Gohara, Jude Morgan-Collie, Yali Topol Margalith

Streamer: Netflix

Rating: 3/5 stars

(This story originally appeared on Cinema Express)