Netflix's 6-Part Murder Mystery Series Is the Perfect Binge Before It Returns This Month

When Netflix's adaptation of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder was first announced, book fans were excited to watch the coming-of-age murder mystery come to life, especially with Emma Myers in the lead. It proved to be just as suspenseful and twisty as Holly Jackson's novel itself, and fortunately, there are two more books yet to be adapted. With the upcoming second season revolving around the events of the next installment, Myers as Pip Fitz-Amobi returns to the screen to investigate yet another local mystery while dealing with the fallout of the previous case. The show has everything you would want from a Nancy Drew-esque mystery, but with darker and more sinister undertones.

Emma Myers Is a Compelling Teen Detective in This Murder Mystery

Part coming-of-age tale and part murder mystery, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder somehow hits all the tones of whimsy, comfort, dread, and terror. Pip is in her final year of high school in a small British town, and as part of an assignment, she investigates the five-year-old murder of Andie Bell (India Lillie Davis). Her boyfriend, Sal (Rahul Pattni), had confessed to the crime before committing suicide, but that never sat right with Pip. With a personal connection to the case, an unyielding sense of curiosity, and the help of Sal's younger brother, Ravi (Zain Iqbal), Pip digs up old secrets to uncover the truth, only to confront the underlying darkness in the town she grew up in.

What makes the show so bingeable and the prospect of Season 2 so exciting is Pip herself, the pinnacle of what every teen detective should be. She isn't immune to the trappings of adolescence, plagued by heart-fluttering crushes and hurtful rumors, which make up one half of her coming-of-age journey as she grapples with her identity. As such, the most convincing part of her personality is also the most important part: her insatiable curiosity. The show doesn't glamorize this trait as some integral part of her detective skills, and actually frames it as a character flaw, a sign of her immaturity and naïveté; she can't let things go despite the disastrous consequences. She is rarely rewarded for her curiosity, which grounds the show and catalyzes the darker repercussions.

With all the teenage drama, the murder mystery could potentially become fanciful and cozy, but Myers' performance never allows it to veer into that territory. She anchors her character's innocence with gravity and dogged determination, so Pip becomes a compelling mix of someone who isn't wise enough to stop investigating, but gradually understands that her investigation will cost more than she expected it to in the beginning. As emotions surge with each new twist in the case, Myers enraptures us with the stifling terror that comes from learning the townsfolk you see every day are capable of atrocities.

'A Good Girl's Guide to Murder' Pairs a Coming-of-Age Story With a Compelling Mystery

Surrounding Pip is a similar narrative of a potentially vibrant coming-of-age world darkened by the town's secrets. The wired anticipation of a final school year is tainted by anonymous threats, teenage parties that are supposed to be fun are laced with the creepiness of black ribbons, and the awkwardness of first love is shadowed by the pits of grief. The show brutally strips away the rose-tinted glasses of the teenage genre, and pokes at an underbelly we'd rather ignore, but does so with a beautiful balance. The six tightly paced episodes are neither too dreary nor too optimistic, operating on a tightrope that keeps our attention on Pip's unfolding investigation at every turn.

Although Season 1 seems to wrap up on a conclusive note, the story will continue in Season 2 as it deals with the debris left in Pip's wake after uncovering many of the town's darkest secrets, and the subsequent trial of Andie Bell's real murderer. Pip may have earned her lesson about the price to pay for the truth, but she is also pulled right back into her detective role when her friend goes missing — how will she handle it this time? With so many more mysteries and darkness to explore in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, you need to binge the first season before Pip's entire world is flipped on its head again.