Plot: Years after a brutal attack left her in a constantly shifting reality, Kirby Mazrachi learns that a recent murder is linked to her assault. She teams with veteran reporter Dan Velazquez to understand her ever-changing present and confront her past.
Review: After her turns in Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Leigh Whannel’s The Invisible Man, it should come as no surprise that Elisabeth Moss is headlining another story about a woman who avoids becoming a victim but rather takes control of her circumstances. Moss has proven to be one of the best actresses working today in those aforementioned projects and many more, but her latest series, Shining Girls, may just be the best showcase of her talents to date. With a unique twist on both serial killer and time travel stories, this series is a distinct character study wrapped within the constraints of a cross-genre thriller. Shining Girls, which is premiering with three episodes of its eight-episode season, may not be what audiences are expecting based on the trailer, but those willing to stick with it will find it an engrossing mystery.
Set in 1992, Shining Girls was filmed on location in Chicago. Based on Lauren Beukes’ bestselling novel, the series is created by Silka Luisa alongside producer Elisabeth Moss. For those familiar with the novel, the core plot and characters are the same, but Luisa has reinvented the book to better fit a visual medium which means how the story unfolds has changed a bit. But, the core remains the same: Kirby Mazrachi is the survivor of a violent assault six years earlier at the hands of Harper Curtis (Jamie Bell). That attack has led to Kirby becoming unstuck in time with things shifting at random times through her life from her address to her mother to her pet. As she tries to find her attacker, Kirby teams with reporter Dan Velasquez (Wagner Moura) before Harper can claim his next victim, Jin-Sook (Phillipa Soo). The twist is that Harper is able to travel through time.
The intriguing premise of Shining Girls makes it seem as if it is a serial killer story with a sci-fi angle, but in reality, it is much more than that. On one level, the time travel plot device allows for the narrative to shift from different decades throughout the 20th century. On another, the series chronicles the investigative side of journalism as it follows Dan and Kirby through their search for the killer. Journalism has been central in many serial killer stories, notably David Fincher’s Zodiac, but here it works well alongside the supernatural elements of the plot. The third strand of this narrative is the character study of the main cast. All four actors do good work here, but it is all anchored by Elisabeth Moss. Moss has proven time and again how good she is at playing underestimated characters and is able to physically transform herself into her roles. Kirby shifts from confident to meek, scared to scary, and all the emotions that come with this performance. Shining Girls works as a showcase for Moss and that sometimes leads the rest of the cast to be a bit under-utilized.
Wagner Moura, best known to fans of Narcos for his portrayal of Pablo Escobar, is very good as alcoholic reporter Dan Velasquez. While he does occasionally fall into the cliche of a drunk, Moura is a sympathetic character and has solid chemistry with Moss. The same can be said about Chris Chalk as Kirby’s coworker, Marcus, and Phillipa Soo as Jin-Sook. The work from Amy Brenneman as Kirby’s mother is also quite good and all of these performers do great work with the multiverse/alternate versions of themselves that pop up through Kirby’s shifting realities. The one constant aside from Kirby is Harper, played menacingly by Jamie Bell. While it has become a trend in recent years to make the villain a sympathetic character, Bell plays Harper as a truly despicable and manipulative antagonist and one that you will root against. Bell’s welcoming appearance and demeanor belay the evil simmering under the surface which makes his crimes all the worse to witness. While this story is told mostly from Kirby’s perspective, Harper’s is the next most prevalent and one as the story careens towards their inevitable confrontation before the series reaches its end.
Shining Girls, which clocks in at eight episodes, is directed by Michelle MacLaren, Daina Reid, and Elisabeth Moss. Moss and MacLaren both helm two episodes each while Reid, an Emmy winner for directing The Handmaid’s Tale, takes the other four. The directors make great use of the Chicago landscape and the retro time periods to take this tale out of the age of cell phones and social media, but the slow burn of this story is what helps it work. While the time travel concept is parsed out through the story (even though you can tell it is coming in the trailer), it is one of the improvements that Silka Luisa has made on top of the brilliant novel. Still, there is so much going on in this series that it often feels like it could have been better had it focused on a more straightforward narrative rather than one crammed with genre tropes from science fiction, thrillers, mysteries, procedurals, and horror films.
It takes about half of the series before the mysteries and twists of Shining Girls become clear and the rest of the season for the impact of the story to reach its full potential, but along the way, the creeping tension of what is happening to Kirby becomes terrifying to watch. Elisabeth Moss continues to prove that there are few actresses as capable of playing the entire emotional spectrum as she is. Shining Girls is far from a one-woman show but the superb cast here sometimes feels like they are struggling in the shadow of producer-director-star Moss. If you are coming into this series expecting something closer to Mindhunter or Zodiac, you may be disappointed. If you are prepared to follow an intricately plotted character study with some mind-bending multiversal elements, you are going to love this series.
Shining Girls premieres on April 29th on AppleTV+.