Shining Girls Review: Episode 1-3 Is A Remarkable Thriller That Requires Patience | Apple Tv+
Stars: Amy Brenneman, Phillipa Soo, Jamie Bell
Directors: Michelle MacLaren, Elisabeth Moss, Daina Reid
Streaming Platform: Apple Tv+ (click to watch)
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The Apple TV+ adaptation of the bestseller written by Lauren Beukes promises to be one of the most interesting and original thriller series of the year. Judging from the first three episodes out of a total of eight – Shining Girls has more than one reason to satisfy the serial audience willing to try their hand at different genres. We advise you (surprisingly) not to read the original novel or its plot before seeing the show, since it may spoil some surprises. However, we invite you to do it once you have finished enjoying it in order to appreciate the changes made by the writers.
It arrives on the Apple TV+ platform with the premiere of its first three episodes on April 29, and it will broadcast a new one every Friday until the season is completed on June 3. The talented and versatile Elisabeth Moss, who has been seen to shine in projects such as The Handmaid’s Tale and The Invisible Man, stars, directs and serves as executive producer through Love and Squalor Pictures alongside Lindsey McManus.
Shining Girls Review: The Story
So let’s start by summarizing the story of Shining Girls: in Chicago in the early 90s, the young Kirby Mazrachi (Elisabeth Moss), six years after surviving a horrendous attack, understands with the help of reporter Dan Velasquez (Wagner Moura) that his assailant has killed other women and is contemplating another murder. The manhunt for the two begins immediately, unfortunately hampered by the mental state of Kirby who was severely traumatized by the brutal attack of the serial-killer.
Since the pilot episode Shining Girls has been present as a compelling puzzle, made up of pieces that fit together effectively. First of all, the Chicago of thirty years ago is a magnificently exploited setting: the industrial elegance of the city, with its elevated subway and proletarian suburbs, lend themselves to the process of “aging” with enormous effectiveness without necessarily being flaunted. from an insistent work on the sets. On this realistic yet elegantly staged frame unfolds a plot that does not immediately proceed with the classic linearity of the detective-story but offers the viewer an absolutely stimulating puzzle.
In fact, mainly exploiting the mental problems of the main character, Shining Girls chooses to develop from time to time small gaps in meaning, minimal variations on the logic of events and their plausibility: a game with the public that instead of taking away credibility from the story, infuses them on the contrary. an even greater interest. Credit must also be attributed to the careful direction of each episode and to an undoubtedly competent editing. If in the various episodes the concatenation of events is not fully understood, it is because, occasionally, it is a precise choice of the authors, a factor that enriches the result of the show.
In addition to physical damage, it also carries with it other types of problems that make it live in an uncertain reality. Although he tries to hold on to what he knows, he periodically faces small changes that end up leading to much larger ones that he has to immediately adjust to “fit in”.All this is accentuated when the body of a new victim of the man who attacked her, Harper, appears with injuries similar to hers . Julia Madrigal has had less luck than Kirby but she is going to allow him to have something to hold on to her to start an investigation whose purpose is to find out the identity of her attacker and catch him so that he does not harm anyone else.
To do this, he will have the help of Dan Velazquez, a veteran reporter who also works on his newspaper and with whom he will piece together the temporal puzzle of the relentless serial killer who has the ability to harass women anticipating their movements … It seems that can even get into their heads. Shining Girls is a series that has many attractions, above all of them the dosage of mystery and the magnificent cast led by the already named Elisabeth Moss, who has an extraordinary ability to play women on the edge of the precipice.
Shining Girls Review And Analysis
The second ace up the sleeve of Shining Girls are non-stereotypical roles: Kirby’s narrative arc is made interesting by the game of mirrors to which her mind continually subjects her in spite of herself. Dan’s personality is anything but charming, presented as that of a man who now only has his job to keep him from total failure. The interpretations of Elisabeth Moss and Wagner Moura effectively support the nature of their respective characters: the star of Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale he works on Kirby’s physical and mental frailty with undoubted competence, while the protagonist of Narcos manages to construct Dan as a “man without qualities” who, however, is always credible and capable of interesting.
But the best comes from Jamie Bell as the psychopath Harper – he’s not a spoiler, actor and character are introduced in the very first scene of the pilot. With an impressive stylization work, Bell allows Harper’s composure to become increasingly terrifying scene after scene, without ever becoming an exercise in style. The of him is not a glamorous Hannibal Lecter-style maniac but an assassin who calculates his moves with icy practicality. His playing with the couple who have set out on his trail raises the tension of the series exponentially. While some clues have pointed us in a specific verse, we honestly can’t write that we know where the second part of The Shining Girls is headed. And this is a source of amazement, if not enthusiasm. What the writers built in the first four episodes is a quality show, both for the eyes and the mind.
Taking into account that Kirby is tremendously imprecise as a narrator (she doesn’t even trust her senses, as happened to the protagonist of Memento), we are constantly forced to continue with the viewing to answer the many questions that are raised. The antagonist is colossal: Harper lacks the ability to age while maintaining the same appearance over decades, but she also cannot shake her urge to kill, something she does in a twisted way, after harassing her victims and making them wonder what is happening around you.
In a few words: Shining Girls makes use of a fantastic premise that, in reality, tries to serve as a metaphor for sexist violence that has been sustained over time. Also on the table is the scant attention received by the surviving victims of an attack, not only in their need to find the whereabouts of their attackers, but also to heal their wounds and successfully reinsert themselves into the different facets of their lives: sentimental, family, work… Thus, the fact that the ground moves under the feet of the protagonist when she least expects it, is the most shocking, in addition to the fact that Moss makes us empathize with her anxiety instantly.
Shining Girls Review: The Last Words
In short, Shining Girls is a remarkable thriller that requires patience, but whose viewing is rewarded by some stimulating paradoxes and a lucid denunciation of the isolation and loneliness of those who suffer harassment and violence by predators that lie in wait like vermin to drown. its radiance. Good performances and a very well dosed mystery: the adaptation of the novel by Lauren Beukes is not a literal translation from the pages to the screen but it certainly has the same capacity for attraction and addiction.
