A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (Season 2) Review: A Redemption?

Note: Spoilers for Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Season 2

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season two dropped just four days ago. I had mixed feelings going into this one because of the absolute car crash that was season one. Such a car crash in fact that it made me genuinely emotionally angry. I reviewed it on Redbrick in 2024, after taking two months to mull over how actually shit it was. I said at the end of that review that if it were to ever get renewed, I would still watch it just to see if it can get any worse. It got renewed, but this time Holly Jackson, the author of the trilogy the series was based on, was sat at the head of the writer’s table. Now, I was almost excited.

Season two follows the story of Good Girl, Bad Blood, in which, reeling from cracking the case of Andie Bell and Sal Singh, our main character Pip (Emma Meyers) is on a mission for justice. Max Hastings (Henry Ashton), one of the big bads from the first case, is on trial for rape after confessing to Pip that he drugged and assaulted three girls while at school, including Andie’s sister and killer, Becca. Max is your traditional pompous asshole, clad in pastel pink, an incredibly punchable face (not you Henry, you just did a really great job :P) and so rich he believes he’s above the law.

The season follows the events of the trial but is quickly thrown off by the disappearance of Jamie Reynolds. Jamie is the older brother of Connor Reynolds, one of Pip’s best friends, who recruits her to solve the kidnapping because of her murder mystery success the previous year. The issue is, the pretty little town of Little Kilton is much more sinister than the winding pebble streets and colourful buildings and as soon as Pip starts poking around, someone is threatening her to back off.

Good Girl, Bad Blood is the weakest of the original trilogy. It acts simply as a transition from A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder to As Good as Dead but on its own holds a mildly anticlimactic story. Now, nothing Holly Jackson has ever written has been boring, but as a master of words the show struggles to do her mastery justice. There’s a moment right at the end of the show, which is shown as the cold open, where Pip is trying to revive a body. Naturally, she is traumatised. Jackson does this beautiful thing in the novel where she makes the most of the page. Words are jumbled and spread out, no longer in sequence. I had never seen an author do something like that, subvert expectations just with the layout of the page, and it acted as a pure punch in the gut. The show did its best, with music and a montage that revolved around Pip as she acts gormlessly as if she has died inside, but it didn’t have the same effect.

There was much that I did enjoy this season though. The show followed quite closely to the book. We got Kill Joy as a fluff moment, which I thought was incredibly clever. Dan Da Silva (Jackson Bews) grew on me which was weird because I don’t remember giving a single shit about him in the books. Zain Iqbal continued to be the most adorable Ravi I could have ever wished for. Emma Meyers’ accent got a little bit better! It seemed like she’d finally grasped the common middle-class twang by the finale. I also really really enjoyed the new additions to the cast. Eden H. Davies was a great Jamie; I spent a lot of the series rooting for him while simultaneously mentally scolding his stupidity. Jack Rowan had me absolutely fooled as Charlie Green (I LOVE when they cast an attractive man as the villain). And most controversially but surprising, I really liked Misia Butler as Stanley Forbes.

Stanley Forbes was the elephant in the room surrounding the buzz of this season. He was completely removed from the first season despite him being a crucial character to the entire book series. It seemed impossible to introduce him in the second season and make the same impact. They changed his occupation from news reporter to security guard and they removed a lot of the depth, but still his key moments did hit in the way they were meant to. I enjoyed the innocence; it made sense to why Pip turned to side with him so quickly.

I think through the books and the show, it’s the characters that pull much of the weight of the success of this series. Especially in Good Girl, Bad Blood where the case is a little bit petty and ridiculous. I think this remains here, as the character development and relationships shone above the weird editing choices and obvious scheduling conflicts. There were a lot of quick cuts that didn’t add anything to the scene, a few too many montages, and the weirdest of them all, a long conversation between Pip and Asha Banks’ Cara which was done primarily in close-ups and over the shoulder shots because the two actresses weren’t on set together that day. I get it! Asha has blown up with her music since season one, she’s one busy woman. But it was so weird to watch.

I also think there’s a downfall to being a fan of the books and watching a series like this. Starting out, I didn’t remember much of the book but as the show progressed it sparked memories. I’d remembered the story of Child Brunswick, I remembered the outcome of the Hastings case, I remembered the entire finale before I’d gotten there. When a plot is so reliant on shock factor and cliffhangers, it really does ruin it knowing exactly what’s about to go down.

I’m looking forward to season three now though. There were a lot of easter eggs sprinkled across this season including the duct tape covering Pip’s mouth on the newspaper posted through her door, and the DVD case where Max hid roofies displayed a film called ‘As Good as Dead’. The final book in the trilogy is one of the most twisted, tense stories I have ever read, I can’t wait to see how they do it on screen. Kudos Holly Jackson, you continue to be one of the most iconic people in the industry.