With Thanksgiving break just around the corner, you might be looking for a new show to binge. The question is, which shows should you watch when there are so many out there and more being released every week?
Well, if you’re into mystery, I’ve got a recommendation for you: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
While the show was released on Netflix on August 1st, 2024, it’s based on the 2019 novel by Holly Jackson. The novel is the first in a series of three novels and one novella: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (2019), Good Girl, Bad Blood (2020), As Good As Dead (2021), and Kill Joy (2021).
So why choose A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder over all the other shows out there? For starters, the premise and the acting.
The main plot of this show is the main character Pippa, played by Emma Myers, who is trying to solve a 5-year-old case for a school project but the case is already closed. In the case, teen Andie Bell was murdered but the body was never found. It is assumed to be her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who murdered her. They found Sal in the woods dead and the police assume he took his own life out of guilt. Pip does not believe this and thinks Sal is innocent. She talks to Sal’s younger brother Ravi, played by Zain Iqbal, and they investigate the case together. Throughout the show, they talk to people who knew Andie and who knew Sal and discover more and more and eventually uncover the truth. The plot was by far the best thing about the show. I loved how they slowly solved the mystery, revealing all the different antagonists one by one, before finally letting us finally find out the whole web of events.
Margaret Lyons in her article “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ Puts a Teen on the Case” in The New York Times writes, “Her quest to solve the case puts her in a lot of dicey scenarios– seedy, yeah, but also just too grown-up, and Myers’s luminous performance beautifully and poignantly synthesized this blend of panic regret, embarrassment, determination, courage, fear and stubbornness.” I couldn’t agree with her more. Pippa does get put into a lot of difficult situations but she shows her determination to get out of them.
The acting in this show is also really good – the emotions felt so real. Throughout the show, the character Pip goes through a lot as she finds out more about the Andie Bell case. I had seen Emma Myers before in the Netflix show on Wednesday. I loved her in that, and once again, she was great in this. I myself have not read the books, so I cannot compare the show to them, but standing alone, it is a great show.
Another reason that this is the perfect show to watch this Thanksgiving is that it’s only 6 episodes. It is a quick and easy binge that could be finished in one or two days. If the series is renewed, the later series plans to cover the other two books. However, executive producer Frith Tiplady also stressed that the first series has a real end.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder delivers exactly what you’d want from a binge-worthy mystery: sharp acting, a clever plot, and just the right mix of suspense and fun. It’s a perfect pick for curling up during Thanksgiving break, whether you’re escaping the holiday chaos or just looking for a quick, satisfying watch. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself hooked from start to finish—this one’s a killer treat!
