A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: Great Thriller, Less Queer
Season two of the BBC hit is sharper and darker. But its queer character gets even less screen time. Here's our verdict.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is back for a second season. The BBC thriller streams on Netflix outside the UK. This week it's making headlines — but not entirely for the right reasons. Autostraddle noted that season two is genuinely great television. The downside: the show's queer storyline gets sidelined further than before.
What Is This Show?
The series is based on Holly Jackson's bestselling YA novels. Showrunner Poppy Cogan developed it for the BBC. Season one launched in August 2024. It followed teenager Pippa Fitz-Amobi — played by Emma Myers — investigating a closed murder case in her small English town. The show was a hit. Critics praised Myers for her sharp, grounded performance.
Season two picks up a new case. Pippa is drawn into a darker, more dangerous investigation. The stakes are higher. The pacing is tighter. Director Dolly Wells helms several episodes and brings real tension to the screen. Co-stars include Zain Iqbal and Yali Topol Margalith, who plays Cara — the show's queer character.
What Works
Emma Myers carries the show completely. She is watchable in every scene. Her Pippa feels real: smart, stubborn, and occasionally reckless. The writing around the central mystery is confident. Season two builds its tension well. Each episode ends with a reason to keep watching. That is harder to pull off than it looks.
The production design is quietly excellent. The English small-town setting feels specific, not generic. Dolly Wells brings visual discipline to the episodes she directs. The tone stays grounded — this is not a glossy American teen thriller. It earns its darkness.
As a straight crime drama, this is some of the best YA television currently available. The show knows its audience and respects them. That counts for something.
What Does Not Work
Cara's queer storyline was already thin in season one. In season two it shrinks further. Yali Topol Margalith is a compelling presence. But the show gives her almost nothing to do. Her queerness is mentioned, not explored. For a series with a built-in queer fanbase, this is a missed opportunity.
This is not about politics. It is about storytelling logic. Cara is positioned as a central friend. Her inner life matters to the audience. Reducing her to background detail weakens the emotional core of the show. The novels give Cara more space. The adaptation chose differently.
There is also a broader pattern here worth naming. Many mainstream series include queer characters as visible signifiers — and then give them little actual story. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is not unique in this. But it is a clear example. Compare this to a show like Sort Of, where queer identity is woven into the structure of every episode — not added as decoration.
Who Is This For?
Fans of smart, grounded YA thrillers will enjoy this enormously. Emma Myers is a genuine talent. The mystery plotting is strong. If you liked season one, season two delivers more of what worked.
If you are watching primarily for queer representation, lower your expectations. Cara is present. She is not absent. But her story is thin. You may find more satisfaction in a series built around queer experience from the ground up — something like Pose, which put queer and trans lives at the absolute centre of its world.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder season two is confident, well-made television. It is genuinely one of the better YA thrillers of recent years. But it treats its queer character as a footnote. That tension — between how good the show is and how little it does with Cara — is exactly what makes it frustrating. Worth watching. Worth criticising at the same time.