A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder: Upbeat young adult cozy crime with Emma Myers

In the six-part feel-good crime thriller “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder”, which is aimed at a younger audience, “Wednesday” star Emma Myers shows that the young actress is a good investigator – albeit with a few weaknesses in the storytelling. We’ll tell you where we also see room for improvement in our review of the first season.

Spoiler warning – This message may contain hints about the continuation of the plot!

This is what happens in the series “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder”

Five years after the murder of teenager Andie Bell (India Lillie Davies), 17-year-old Pippa (Emma Myers) takes up the case again as a school project in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Her belief that Andie’s boyfriend Sal Singh (Rahul Pattni) was not the murderer soon proves true, because aside from the confession and subsequent suicide of the alleged perpetrator, the case raises a number of unanswered questions.

Pippa teams up with her younger brother Ravi (Zain Iqbal) to prove his innocence and digs so deep that she is even threatened. Has she gotten so close to the real murderer that he is nervous and will not shy away from committing another act of violence?…

Cosy crime for beginners

Even if our teaser might suggest otherwise, it explicitly emphasizes at the beginning of this review that the six-part series based on the novel by British author Holly Jackson, which is currently available in the ZDFmediathek, is really not bad. However, you should know what you are getting into with “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder”. Anyone expecting a clever Brit crime thriller of the complex kind, polished down to the smallest detail, could end up a little disappointed.

Instead of a seasoned DCI with a funny sidekick, a seventeen-year-old schoolgirl was investigating a cold case from five years ago. If you don’t find the premise entirely credible, you should probably skip straight to the conclusion, because the main character Pippa is brilliant in her role as a young adult sleuth and uses techniques that are unlike those of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.

This could prove to be quite disturbing for older viewers, but a younger audience will almost certainly have a lot of fun with this well-executed introduction to the world of feel-good crime series.

Here is the trailer for the series “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder”:

One-dimensional but entertaining

Of course, the characterization of Pippa and the people around her is not all that complex. She herself is perhaps a little too clever, reserved and shy, who is more interested in science than in boys. Her partner Ravi belongs to the category of good-looking, likeable school dropouts, while her friend Cara is precocious. Pretty boy Max (Henry Ashton), on the other hand, is the egotistical rich boy from a good family who is responsible for one or two red herrings. So far, so familiar.

Interesting or even exciting constellations are not to be expected, but that is not necessary in this case. Instead, “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” relies heavily on lead actress Emmy Myers, who portrays Pippa as sweet as sugar, but also stubborn and determined, and is likely to hit the heart of the target audience. The 22-year-old actress not only looks younger, but also knows how to play with the naivety and inexperience, but also the high intelligence of her character to bring Pippa to life.

Ravi is a pleasant contrast to her. He is more level-headed and mature, but as the brother of the wrongly suspected Sal, he has an understandable motive to help her. He is good-looking and a nice guy, which is why there is a bit of chemistry between the two in certain situations, albeit from a certain distance.

The other constellations serve as filler material, typical of the genre, to distract the audience from the real culprit or to support the young detective in one way or another. This can be in a moral way or in the form of tidbits of information that increase the tension and invite the reader to join in the guessing.

The story

This brings us to the core of the story, the case that needs to be solved. The series creators, including showrunner and main author Poppy Cogan, are undoubtedly using the right levers here. Pippa’s adventure begins as a harmless teenage game, but then develops over time into an exciting story, albeit one that is predictable at least for crime professionals. At first everything seems to indicate that Sal Andie was murdered out of jealousy and then took her own life out of desperation. But it was already clear in the first episode that the police had apparently not worked particularly thoroughly.

It is obvious that the question of credibility arises again at this point. Why should a seventeen-year-old amateur detective finally see more than experienced criminal investigators? But if you accept this fact as a given and get involved in the actual construction of the case, you can look forward to some twists, tension peaks and dangerous moments with entertainment value.

However, some elements that are fundamentally part of the mystery genre and have no place in a series like this seem a little strange. A good example of this is a sleepover scene in a forest where Pip and her friends are questioned by a ghost. Of course, the action works and sends shivers down the spines of the teenage protagonists – and ideally the younger audience too.

The question of whether such interludes were really necessary must be allowed at this point, especially since the topic is not taken up again later on. But what exactly is Poppy Cogan trying to tell us with these scenes? That there is more between heaven and earth than we can imagine? That even the most impossible things can come true if you believe in them intensely enough? Fortunately, such lapses are kept to a minimum. On the whole, the entire season is otherwise solid and well-acted young adult crime fare.

Conclusion

“A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” may not be the last word in wisdom and cannot hide some minor weaknesses here and there. Nevertheless, the season is entertaining throughout thanks to a case structure that is not too complex but still exciting, one-dimensional but likeable characters and a clever script structure.

None of the six episodes is boring or long-winded because the audience gets closer and closer to solving the case and you can root for Pippa. Author Poppy Cogan also makes every effort to delay the eureka moment as long as possible and even manages to create a reasonable climax at the end. This makes the series not a masterpiece, but entertaining to watch in between.

We therefore assign four out of five suspects.