A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

 

I wanted to love this show so badly! I am in love with the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder book series (well… 1 & 2… 3 kind of sucks). I am a little disappointed by the show and the changes that they made away from the original books. This book series has such a huge fan base and its sad that it strays away so much. I liked the world that they created in the show, however it's so different for North American audiences. The North American version of the book took place in suburban America and not the English countryside. So going into this I already knew it would be different from the books I was familiar with.

Other changes felt more unnecessary, for example changing her dad’s nickname for her from “pickle” to “chicken” caught me off guard. They also added a random affair that her dad may or may not have had on Pip’s mom. It made no sense and is so out of place. 




There is so much filler and exposition shots between scenes that it takes away from the actual show. I get trying to set up the scene but it slows down the pace of the show because there are way too many. A lesson in editing to be made here.




Emma Myers shines in this, she is such a good casting choice for Pip. I love her in this role, she is my favourite part of the whole show. I liked the actors they chose for Ravi, Sal, Naomi, and Cara Ward. They all feel like they are actually siblings, they look so much alike their on screen siblings.





The music in this show is terrible. It is often distracting from the scene and used in scenes where it is not needed at all. It does not fit the tone of what is happening on screen.




The episodes tend to end in weird places which disrupts the flow of the show. It really throws off the arch of each episode where this happens. I guess it doesn’t matter that much if you are binging it on Netflix, but it feels off. 

Overall, I didn't love the show but if it is to get a second season, I'd probably still watch just because I love the books so much. It's hard to watch as a fan though and already knowing the ending does not help. If they are making this for fans, I don't think they hit the mark. I hope the show brings more people to read the books though.