SXSW Review Shining Girls- Apple TV+ Has The Answer To Your Post Severance Blues

Shining Girls is an addictive thriller that mesmerizes with its central conceit and Moss’s unbelievable performance.

Apple TV+’s Shining Girls is a surprisingly gripping addition to the horror/thriller hybrid. Netflix has a glut of these sorts of crime thrillers that we binge for hours glued to the usually subtitled screens because Nordic chillers are particularly mysterious. We hang on every word as we try to decipher the clues along with our protagonist. I love them, but I fully recognize they are made for a specific audience. Shining Girls is that rare beast that subverts expectations and delivers something so unusual and tense you are drawn in from the first moment.

Apple TV+ has become the place to go for genre entertainment. Almost everything they touch turns to gold. Whether it be the expansive and epic Foundation, the unnerving Severance, or the creepy Servant, it’s all balm for the genre lovers soul. Their latest Shining Girls may seem like an edgier version of Octavia Spencer’s Truth Be Told, an arguably addictive procedural. It is undoubtedly edgier, but it challenges what you expect from these stories in narrative, pacing, and structure. This isn’t a typical dead girl mystery.

It has a lot of things going for it. Apple TV+ has the Midas touch, and the story is deeply unnerving without overdoing anything. The cast is beyond reproach. Elizabeth Moss, who executive produces and plays the lead Kirby Mazrachi, is a newspaper archivist in Chicago in the early ’90s whose reality was shattered after surviving an attempted murder. She does fragile determination like no one else, and Shining Girls deserves a look for her sheer star power alone.

The foundation on which Shining Girls precariously sits is unquestionably unique. To say more gives away the punch of the twists and turns, which come hard and fast from the beginning. Based on the 2013 novel by Lauren Beukes, it is certainly complex and intricate. If you are in the dark about the story, better still. It’s too bonkers to explain. For fans of the book, Showrunner Silka Luisa does not make a direct adaptation allowing even the well-informed fan to appreciate the mindbender. From the beginning, the changes are obvious, making me hopeful this adaptation will bring something new to the ending. It’s hard to say which direction the series will go in the latter half, but there are a number of intriguing possibilities.

Despite the insane twists which consistently keep coming, it is grounded by weighty performances and minute details that we cling to even as they slip through our fingers. Newspaper clippings, leaky pipes, and addresses fade in and out of existence with shocking ease. Amy Brenneman’s Rachel, Kirby’s rocker mom, enthusiastically rebels against the establishment and her bandmates while trying to help Kirby hang onto the shred of sanity she has left. Never has anyone looked more beleaguered than Wagner Moura’s Dan Velazquez and Jamie Bell’s Harper brims with charisma and malice. His stabilizing voice, although deeply unsettling, keeps things from veering off course when they easily could have. There’s a seductive charm about Harper’s everyman monster that is equal measures horrifying and tempting.

The choice to show the killer is smart. Knowing exacting who the monster is doesn’t undercut the series; instead, it bolsters an otherwise confusing narrative that hinges on Kirby’s unhingedness. We may not know much is true in her life, but we absolutely know there is a terrifyingly calm guy slicing into women. Allowing us to watch how and why Harper does what he does holds the story together in what could have been a disaster of movie parts.

To say Kirby is an unreliable witness is underselling it. Her life is in shambles, and she keeps a journal with everything she needs to remember, like her cat’s name, or is it a dog? These things keep changing inexplicably, and it’s hard to hold onto dust in the wind. When a body surfaces that shows an eerie resemblance to her own attack, Kirby is questioned by police. She can’t remember much about her attacker but how he felt and sounded. It’s a tenuous thread at best. However, once Kirby and Dan team up, her grit shows. The more she investigates her attacker, the stronger she gets, and the simmering rage that sits just under her fear is felt keenly. The pacing of the first four episodes is impeccable, allowing things to unfold organically without pushing too hard even when the story threatens to unravel.

This might be Moss’s most intense character yet, and that’s saying something. I’m talking snap your spine intense. Her Kirby is teetering on the edge of sanity after her brutal attack. The police never caught the man who hurt her, and she has little to go on herself. The event left her timid, scared, and scarred. It robbed her of her hope, opportunity, and time which is all I will say of things for fear of spoiling things.

Her shifting reality makes it nearly impossible to know what is real and what is imagined. This, combined with her palpable terror, makes for gripping television. If you thought Mare of Easttown was dark, you’ve not seen anything yet. The thing that makes Shining Girls unique is this isn’t a who-done-it. We know who did it and who is still doing it. What we don’t know is why and how. That fresh angle instantly captivates you. I found myself holding my breath, sitting on the edge of my seat, and squinting hard at the screen because I felt like I was missing something, in a good way. I don’t particularly appreciate being manipulated, but I love a good trick, and the Shining Girls is playing one.

Who knows why Moss is so drawn to these kinds of traumatized characters, but I’ll watch anything she is in because even though I know the journey will be exhausting, it will be well worth the ride.

The first four episodes of Shining Girls premiered at SXSW and will be released on April 29th, 2022. Find all our SXSW coverage here.