Netflix adaptation of 'A Good Girl's Guide to Murder' falls flat due to confusing and unmemorable plot – Central Times

On August 1, Netflix released the teen thriller “A Good Girl's Guide to Murder” in all countries. The series is based on the first novel in the trilogy by Holly Jackson.

Jackson's “A Good Girl's Guide to Murder” follows 18-year-old detective Pippa “Pip” Fitz Amobi, who investigates the disappearance and murder of Andie Bell, a case that was closed five years ago. Everyone in Pip's small town believes it was Andie's boyfriend Sal Singh who killed her and then himself – although Andie's body was never found.

Pip's investigation takes dark turns and delivers new shocks in each episode. The ending seamlessly ties in the theme of the “grey area” between good and evil while proving Sal's innocence.

But Netflix's adaptation can't be praised enough. The oversimplification of Jackson's complex plot made the ending of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder disappointing. The producers changed core aspects of the crime thriller in a way that didn't even make sense, and book fans like me were left wondering when the plot would come together like it did in the novel. Unfortunately, that never happened.

Here is my list of changes in the adaptation, from smallest to largest, that ultimately hurt the series:

6. The Sal Innocence Scene
In the novel, Pip finds out that Sal is innocent by reading a Facebook post and realizing that his friends lied about his alibi. She then confronts Sal's girlfriend Naomi about it – a dramatic and touching scene. But in the series, Pip seems to forget about it after Naomi confesses to lying about Sal's alibi, leaving viewers to wonder what happened to Naomi.

The scene itself wasn't particularly important considering it was the climax of the book. Pip accomplished what she set out to do – prove Sal's innocence – and the Netflix adaptation skimmed over it without hesitation.

5. Nat Da Silva
Nat Da Silva was my favorite character in all three books. She was fiery, sarcastic, and hated Andie Bell with a frightening passion. Her role is important throughout the series, especially after readers find out she was one of the many girls drugged and raped by Max Hastings.

But in the show, she is seen in a scene where she tells Pip what a great friend Andie was and that Pip should stop investigating. Based on this information, Pip puts Nat on the list of suspects, which confuses fans of the show. The show left out all the important parts of Nat and watered her down so much that even I wasn't sure how important she was to the story.

4. The hostility between Becca Bell and Elliot Ward
The supposed “antagonists” of the first book are Becca, Andie's sister, and Elliot, a teacher Andie was dating. They were the ones who “killed” Andie Bell. But in both Becca's and Elliot's cases, it was an accident that was covered up by hiding their bodies and blaming the innocent Sal.

Neither Becca nor Elliot are good people, but they had somewhat legitimate intentions behind their actions. Becca let Andie die out of anger because her sister didn't care that she was raped, which she immediately regretted. Elliot, on the other hand, put the blame on Sal to protect his daughters.

In the book, they are portrayed as sympathetic characters, but in the show, Elliot and Becca are portrayed so exaggeratedly that they come across as pure evil. Is it evil to not want to go to prison and abandon your daughters? That's a gray area, and the show never managed to capture this central theme of Jackson's novel.

3. Representation of Max Hastings
The producers of the show barely addressed the fact that Max had raped several girls, or even considered that trauma. Instead, they used Max's screen time to have him flirt with Pip. This frustrated me because why was Becca Bell, the rape victim, being targeted more antagonist than Max Hastings, the rapist? Although the producers probably didn't intend this effect, the careless plot holes in Max's story made him seem like a saint compared to Elliot and Becca.

In the book, Max is Pip's emotional cornerstone. He is the reason for everything terrible that has happened and the true exception to the grey area between good and evil (huge respect to Holly for seeing rapists and misogynists as the greatest evil).

2. Pip's Obsession
Pip is a smart and stubborn feminist – the epitome of a female protagonist. She is unhealthily determined to prove Sal's innocence, so much so that she gradually becomes obsessed with the case, spending days and nights on it. This gradual obsession, coupled with Pip's insane intelligence, kept me reading late into the night and added to the thriller aspect.

But the series never really tormented Pip that much about the case, and there were scenes that seemed unnecessary as viewers tried to solve the case. The series fell so far short of expectations in its thriller roots that I found myself scrolling through social media while watching some episodes.

1. Jason Bell’s abuse
Although it's not obvious in the first book, serial rapist and killer Jason Bell is considered the true villain by most fans. Although he hides in the shadows for most of the book, he is considered the prime suspect in Andie's disappearance because Pip exposes how verbally abusive he was toward his daughters and constantly objectified them.

But the show has Jason Bell on the suspect list for no apparent reason. Viewers don't understand how evil he is for most of the show, which undermines his importance and creates a major plot hole. Essentially, he was treated the same as Max Hastings. It's disappointing that Jackson took her two most disgusting fictional men and undermined their evilness.

I was incredibly disappointed with the Netflix adaptation of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. They clumsily replicated Pip's complex investigations, creating more confusion than suspense. Let's hope seasons two and three are more accurate.