Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls, which came out in 2013, was once the subject of a global bidding war among publishers. She became famous for being a freelance journalist and publishing three previous books based on her home country before authoring this novel. Her earlier works took place in countries like South Africa where she comes from. A thriller novel set in Chicago during the Great Depression marked her next writing style. A man stumbles upon a house that takes him through different ages forcing him to stalk and kill women who shine with a particular kind of passion and potential hence he refers them as shining girls. However, tables turn when one woman subjects him to what he deserves.
Similarly, Appian Way, Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, MRC—the makers of House of Cards on Netflix and Rian Johnson’s Knives Out—bought the rights to adapt the book into film the same year it was released. They picked it up seven years after initial purchase finally belonging to Apple in 2020 with Elisabeth Moss as its lead actor. Later on in April 2022, the first episodes were launched by Apple TV+’s streaming network called Apple TV+. In eight episodes, it will try to tackle the intricacy found in the original book for adaptation of television.
Elisabeth Moss is casted front and center in Apple TV+’s new show. This means yet another milestone achieved for Moss who has featured prominently such shows as The Handmaid’s Tale as well as movies like Shirley and The Invisible Man. Not only is she acting but also directing this show while serving as an executive producer too. She plays Kirby Mazrachi whose world changes after being assaulted by a serial murderer because she is journalist called Kirby Mazrachi rather than becoming one herself: I portrayed her in my capacity both behind camera lens (or) starring her role onstage; My version inspired portrayal led me back onto strobe as a locutionary text, which is then followed some more by narratorial commentary from the writer himself; and she is also its executive producer. The other main actors in this series include Wagner Moura (Narcos), Jamie Bell (Snowpiercer, Rocketman), Phillipa Soo (Hamilton), and Amy Brenneman (Private Practice).
A stranger starts to mutilate a bee right in front of a little girl when Shining Girls begins at 1964. “We first see it shine before we take that away,” he says while tearing off its wings so that it can never fly again. It’s a prologue that alerts viewers to the period they are about to experience with an instant switch of focus to Moss laying on her bed. Although caption reads 1992, do not forget the prologue from earlier because it will come back again to haunt you and our protagonist: Ms Mazrachi.
When audiences first meet Kirby Mazrachi, she is presented as a young woman who lives with her mother and has failed as a journalist but works as assistant for someone else. Mazrachi looks sloppy like her head is quite high above the clouds. She moves through her work on auto-pilot whilst listening to music on headphones connected by wire into Walkman strapped around her waist; if she smiles it comes across as quite strained. This young lady has been through something awful, clear only from small details like different computers being hers one morning at work compared to yesterday morning all of sudden.
This is the first sign that something is wrong; but it will not be the last. As she tells her story, Mazrachi’s paranoia becomes more apparent and we learn how she had been attacked by a serial killer, the antagonist in this series who can move across time. She has noted such disparities since that day in her notebook. Some minor changes happen to her daily life like moving offices while others are drastic and sweeping showing up one day to find that she has married her co-worker.
In three episodes of Apple TV+’s initial release of Shining Girls, there is nothing much left for me to wonder; just more questions. There seems no discussion at all even though aspects driving the story are never talked about: Time travel itself or other characters such as Phillipa Soo’s Jin-sook appearing as plot devices rather than adding any meaning to the whole story for that matter. Often when Kirby moves through life, she remains stuck in the same job and routines which connect her with past traumas while Jin-sook never notices what lies ahead of her career-wise but always gazes at heaven above. Kirbly also looks shy while Jin-sook is outgoing.
Again, this is where both trauma and its results come into play with respect to characters. Considering some traumatic events Kirby experienced before it would be difficult for some people not to dismiss what she says because they think it cannot be happening or real at all. This trait makes women lose their place in society since today’s medicine still takes them lightly despite modernization even if they suffer from serious diseases (Kovacs & Ruiz 2014). Her storyline follows a straight pattern unlike most recovery stories, and this does not imply that healing necessarily goes together with moving between times and places with ease.
At times however, it is as if this situation was designed so that she would go through hardship perpetually—a scorecard marking every occasion when life changed dramatically while the fact of her assault never went away. Even if other people forget the life she has lived until that point, she will never be able to forget and experiences a different kind of loss each time a big change happens. The suffering of the show’s female characters seems voyeuristic in its approach, especially as the show fails to establish why the killer does what he does.
Moss has proven that she can play women who go through profound external as well as internal changes; her performance in The Handmaid’s Tale is proof enough for this. In Shining Girls, Kirby is given a mission driven by trauma. When she spots a journalist covering a case with murder details eerily similar to hers, she tries to get more directly involved even though doing so means confronting her past. A fellow staff member (Moura) at her workplace acts as her partner-in-crime thus makes them both co-workers and conspirators in a suspense story.
The Shining Girls is generally well-acted, but strong performances by the ensemble cast cannot save it from having too many loose ends. This series takes its time and relies heavily on nuances; there are moments when the killer is seen following Jin-sook directly, while others where Kirby has to pick up her life again to realize he’s standing right in front of her. The idea of multiple universes connected through time travel may sound interesting in theory but hard to execute especially for a story like this. And once objects start appearing at random, you wonder if it was him or did it just happen to appear, leading to some confusion that may forever remain unclear.
Shining Girls only works as a thriller. It seems more like character study than a gripping thriller as Kirby’s character arc traces a particular emotional trajectory. A fantasy show with psychological undertones and inquiries gradually metamorphose into a less tedious one also serves for now. There’s also the underpinning of the solid journalism tale akin to 2008 Zodiac along with serial killing investigations taking place within this drama. This means that viewers have been asked to suspend disbelief throughout its narrative line yet; this expectation isn’t clear at first.
This will be the TV show for fans who love mysteries and character studies. On the other hand, those looking for a thriller might not appreciate unexplained fantasy elements making it feel unrealistic at times. Its complicated nature might be intentional due to its foundation on different genres hence it becomes whether one wants to labor through watching all of them.
2022 appears to be aiming towards literary-based true crime and real-life stories. Inventing Anna, The Dropout, The Girl from Plainville, Under the Banner of Heaven in addition to Shining Girls which were released by streaming platforms during Q1 strongly suggests that this year could indeed be referred as such one year later on after 12 months have already passed since today. Some succeeded beyond expectations while others fell short. True crime may be the in thing at the moment but The Shining Girls is just too weighed down by its details to sparkle.
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