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Cartel Bonus: AGGGTM Episode 1
148 Plays3 months ago
We are sharing our discussion about the first episode of the Netflix adaptation of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. If you like what you hear, consider joining the Clued in Cartel for a year for as little as $12. You'll get early other bonus episodes, new releases from Sarah and Brook, and you'll get to read along as Sarah and Brook write a mystery together.
Discussed
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (2019) Holly Jackson
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (2024) Netflix
For more information
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Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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Transcript
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Transcript
Introduction & Excitement for UK Setting
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to a Clued In bonus episode. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi, Brooke. Hi, Sarah. We're ready to discuss episode one of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Yes, I'm so excited to hear what you think. I know. It was really, really fun. I just watched it last night, so it's all fresh in my mind. OK, so tell me your first impressions.
00:00:40
Speaker
Well, one of the things we had questioned was whether or not it would be set in the UK and it is and I really like that. I think it feels pretty true to probably what the original story that Holly Jackson came up with.
Episode Overview & Book Comparison
00:00:56
Speaker
You can tell me if I'm right or wrong as we discussed this because listeners will remember that I have not read the book series and Sarah has.
00:01:07
Speaker
But in watching episode one, I felt like this was probably a lot of book one. I feel like we got a lot of information in just 40 minutes of time. Or maybe just the feeling that it probably was expanded upon a little bit more in the book, because I feel like we're really set up pretty well for the mystery that she's going to solve. And it just happened really compactly.
00:01:35
Speaker
Yeah, so I think there was a lot of setup in this episode. For me, I mean, as you say, I've already read the book, so I know what the arc of the book is, and I assume that the show is going to follow a similar arc. But this was a lot of setup, and it wasn't that satisfying in terms of there being enough of a mystery for me.
00:02:03
Speaker
Yeah. And maybe that's kind of what I was touching on as well as it's like, okay, XYZ, here you go. Here's, here's the setup, like kind of a shorthand almost instead of feeling really emotionally attached. And like, I, you know, I didn't really get that sense and to feel real worried for Pip and what she was going to be going through and this kind of dilemma that she's found herself in.
Character Motivations and Differences
00:02:30
Speaker
So one of the things that comes across I think a little bit more strongly in the opening of the book is the impact of Andi's disappearance on the community and on Pip and her friends because one of her friends, older sisters, was a close friend of Andi and that, you know,
00:02:55
Speaker
The result, the impact of Andy having disappeared is something that Pip and her friends feel, which is, I think, why she chooses to use this as her project. The other thing that I'm not sure came through is that in the book, Pip is really portrayed as a true crime fan.
00:03:24
Speaker
Right. So we see in the show where she creates this, you know, she paints her wall and, and adds all of these pictures and information to her wall creates her own like murder board. Right. I think she does that in the book too, but there's more, you get a stronger sense of how into true crime she is. Whereas in the book, it feels like this is just something that she's like, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this.
00:03:55
Speaker
Yeah, that definitely is not a part of her, you know, a hobby or a part of her personality at all, which I think would really add a lot more because you have to have that reason why this amateur would get involved, right? There's a little hint, like she keeps having this flashback in the show where she's, you know, it's been what, five or six years. So she's a much younger girl.
00:04:21
Speaker
And the boy who is assumed to be the perpetrator of Andy's death, she tells him where Andy has gone. You know, they're in a school setting and she points while she went in there. And I guess the thing that I've looked to as her reason at this point is she somewhat feels responsible, even though, however, she doesn't feel that that boy Sal is responsible for Andy's murder. So it's a little murky.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, and so I don't remember that from the book that she was kind of involved in that final day. Like I said, it's been a couple of years and I didn't reread it before this. So that detail may or may not be something that has been added for the show.
00:05:16
Speaker
I think if we had had that background of her being into true crime or reading about other investigations that had taken place, she might have handled how she dives into this a little differently because she kind of botches it up right
Pip's Investigation Tactics
00:05:34
Speaker
off the bat. It's a small village. People obviously know each other very well. And she is pretty insensitive the way she starts things out.
00:05:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, we have to remember she is 17 or 18 years old, so may not have that skill set to be able to handle questioning people in a more subtle way. So I think that's maybe a nice way of seeing her fumbling a little bit because she is young. And so that would be expected. But yeah, she does kind of blunder around a little bit.
00:06:16
Speaker
But she's endearing, isn't she? She's got this, I'm not sure if this was a quirky personality in the book, but definitely just like this, a slightest bit of, um, you know, kind of stepping on her own toes a little bit. And I think that it's endure endearing to a viewer, but I feel like the other characters are, are endeared towards her as well.
00:06:39
Speaker
Yeah, we got to know her friends a little bit, but I wanted to know them a little bit more. I felt like there was, you know, in the book, her friends are really important to her. And I'm not sure that we got to see how much, how strong those relationships are. But that may come.
00:07:04
Speaker
Yeah. And that's definitely true. I don't feel like we have even, or her parents or her family. We don't have a lot of sense of like who these people are to her.
00:07:14
Speaker
So let's talk a little bit, just kind of briefly go down what she's done so far. It's not technically a cold case because the police have determined that the boyfriend, Sal, was the one who killed his girlfriend, Andy Bell.
00:07:34
Speaker
So she's decided she's going to take on this project to figure out who the real murderer is. She doesn't believe it with Sal. And she tries to talk with Sal's brother, and that's one of the things she doesn't handle real great. She gets shot down. She visits the woods where there's a lot of black ribbons hanging from a tree, which we assume is probably in the area where Andy was found and is kind of a remembrance of her.
00:08:02
Speaker
There's a blonde girl in the woods who is kind of interesting to me. And then she goes ahead and she talks with some of those friends of Andy's who were these older kids to her and discovers that they covered for Sal and told the police that he was actually there until after midnight there being a party they were at.
00:08:26
Speaker
In fact, he left at 1030. So it seems to me that this group of kids has pretty much bought into the idea that Sal was the killer. Is that where we're landing, Sarah?
00:08:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a good summary, Brooke.
Anticipations for Next Episode
00:08:43
Speaker
I hope in the next episode that she starts her actual podcast, right? Like that's a big part of the book is her doing this podcast as she's doing this investigation. And she hasn't, I don't think that that's come up yet, that that's what her intention is, right?
00:09:06
Speaker
No, she hasn't mentioned a podcast at all. Like you said, we see the murder board in her bedroom and that's the cover of the book, isn't it? We see the pieces of yarn that connects things. I saw that connection. We've also had one other unusual format in that they have Sal's old cell phone so they can read back through the text messages that were sent back and forth the night that it happened.
00:09:34
Speaker
But I'm excited about the opportunity to maybe see her start a podcast. Yeah, I think I hope that that's something that happens in the next episode. And we see how her investigation continues.
00:09:51
Speaker
All right, so we have some things on our wish list. We would like to have some deepening of characters. We want to see this podcast, which is an important part of the book and maybe feel a little bit more of an emotional attachment to our main character.
00:10:08
Speaker
Well, let's hope that that happens in the second episode. We'll have to watch it and come back and share with our listeners what we think about that episode.
Listener Engagement & Closing Remarks
00:10:19
Speaker
That sounds great. And thank you, Cartel, for listening today. We hope you are watching along. But for now, I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery.
00:10:31
Speaker
Clued In Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app. Visit our website at cluedinmystery.com to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued In Chronicle, or to join our paid membership, The Clued In Cartel. We're on social media at Clued In Mystery.