I never married him. I just came home one day and he was there.

Continuing my trip down Empire's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.  

#4 : Shining Girls

Another Apple TV+ banger, this enveloping, timey-wimey serial killer thriller really delivers. Adapted from the Lauren Beukes novel by Silka Luisa, it stars a typically outstanding Elisabeth Moss as newspaper archivist Kirby, who still carries the scars (both literal and figurative) from being violently attacked some years before. With the help of journalist Dan (Wagner Moura) she begins an investigation to track down her assailant, hindered by the fact that neither he, nor she, nor the fabric of reality itself, appears firmly anchored in time. 

Skipping over We Own This City (#16 here, #22 in The Guardian), Big Boys (#15/#6), Sherwood (#14/#2), Barry (#13/#41 - which I've still to watch), The White Lotus (#12/#16), Stranger Things (#11/#25 - still to watch), This Is Going To Hurt (#10 on both lists), Derry Girls (#9 on both lists), The English (#8/#45), House Of The Dragon (#7/#12), Bad Sisters (#6/#20) and The Bear (#5/#1) brings us to this, which completely passed me by at the time.  Yes, stuff on Apple TV+ doesn't get the publicity that other streaming services seem to manage but even so you'd expect something with Elisabeth Moss in it to cut through the noise a bit more than this did (for me, at least).

Woah - you know that "unreliable narrator drama" is a thing, right?  Well this is "the most unreliable narrator drama" thing.  I mean "the MOST"!  It's quite well done because the first episode makes it clear that all is not well in the land of Kirby, but then right at the end they take things up like a million notches and you're like "ah - I really didn't understand where we were".  But it's well done because it makes it clear that Kirby doesn't want to be unreliable so your sympathies lie with her (although you can't help but suspect you might live to regret that).

Because of the unreliable-ness of it all, I'm not going to give you many more details but I will warn you it also gets pretty timey-wimey - you very much have to pay attention.  Episode 6 is particularly impressive because it gives you the back story which manages to explain things whilst also making things more confusing.  I have to say I used quite a few internet articles to give me some clues as to what was going on along the way - but it's enjoyably confusing (and tense as well, when you think you know what's going on) and there was never any danger of me giving up on it.

A good part of what kept me engaged is the acting - Elisabeth Moss is, of course, excellent (her third appearance here and we haven't covered either Mad Men or The Handmaid's Tale yet - and I always forget she was in The West Wing as well).  Jamie Bell is nicely creepy in this - you're obviously supposed to think he's the bad guy, but given how unreliable the narration in this is, you're never entirely sure how it's going to work out.  Wagner Moura is also great in this as Dan, a reporter who tries to help Kirby figure things out - I didn't recognise him, but he was Pablo Escobar in Narcos which I did watch one season of.  Amy Brenneman is also worth mentioning as she makes her second appearance on Empire's '22 list (but it's fair to say she doesn't have a huge role) and I'd also call out Chris Chalk in a small role as Marcus, Kirby's (sometime) husband.

It's also very well shot - the overall style is beautiful, but the timey-wimey nature of it means there are a LOT of different eras featured in this and people have put a lot of effort into making them authentic, but not in an "in your face" kinda manner so you really have to pay attention to try and work out where you are.

If I do have a couple of quibbles, I think I would have enjoyed it more if things had been "explained" (I use the word very loosely here) a bit earlier in the season and I'm also left with a sense of uncertainty as to whether there's going to be another season or not.  It does have an ending, but it also leaves several threads hanging - it feels a bit "having your cake and eating it", but I guess that's required in this era of general uncertainty as to how much time people are going to give you.  The internet is unsure what's going to happen - the general feeling seems to be that that's probably it, but I'm not so sure.

I enjoyed this, but I can quite understand it won't be for everyone - there's often a fine line between "intelligent" and "confusing" drama and I think it's safe to say this lives in the danger zone.  However you view the story though, it's certainly gorgeous to look at and well acted - it's also really made me want to read the book (in a very similar manner to Station Eleven which was also gorgeous to look at and not always the easiest to follow).  If you fancy giving Shining Girls a go, it's on Apple+ - they've had quite a good year for TV drama (but not good enough for me to actually subscribe to it).

And that's the last new thing on Empire's list so we're done with telly from 2022 - obviously I'll give you one more post to give you the last three on the list and some final thoughts, but (as always) you're fine completing ignoring that!

#17 - Gorgeous but frustrating
2022 - Another year-end write-up