Emmy Award winner Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) stars in and executive produces Apple TV+ Shining Girls, a mind-bending crime thriller premiering on April 29, 2022. The eight-episode series is based on Lauren Beukes’ bestselling novel and stars Moss as Chicago Sun-Times archivist Kirby Mazrachi, a woman who has trouble keeping track of even the most basic facts about her life following a horrific attack.
A recent murder stirs memories in Kirby and sends her off down a rabbit hole in pursuit of her attacker.
To say much more than that would be to ruin the experience of watching Shining Girls. The series’ twists and turns demand your full attention; it’s not one you can casually watch while working on your laptop or scanning Twitter on your phone. And even if you turn off your other electronics, it may still be necessary to rewind scenes or even rewatch entire episodes. According to writer, executive producer, and showrunner Silka Luisa (Strange Angel), that was all part of the plan.
“At its heart, it’s a mystery so I think when you’re sort of mapping out a mystery you want to be very methodical on what breadcrumbs you’re placing and what you’re planting to pay off later,” explained Luisa during the 2022 Television Critics Association’s winter press panel. “And so much of the show does live in the details, the different time periods, just working at a newspaper. And so planting all of those little details was really fun and, hopefully, for audiences, it will be fun to go back and re-watch it.”
Elisabeth Moss agreed.
“It was definitely something we said on set a lot where we would be like, ‘Well, the second time they see this it’s going to be really interesting,’” said Moss.
Moss and Luisa were on the same page from the get-go, with Moss crediting Luisa’s scripts with allowing her to figure out how to best approach playing Kirby.
“We first spoke about the script – the first script – almost two years ago now, I think. And it was just an immediate understanding of the tone and the character and the story that she was trying to tell,” explained Moss. “There were very few times when we were on different pages about how Kirby would react to something. And you just kind of get lucky when that happens.”
Moss added: “I do think that what I felt like I wanted to find in her was a human and real and honest approach to the circumstances that she was in. A lot of the conversations that Silka and I, and a lot of the people involved in the show, had in the very beginning were about making things real, about making things feel not a lot of the effects, not a lot of things that felt tricky. We wanted things in-camera. We wanted things to be from Kirby’s point of view. We wanted to feel like it would feel as if it was happening to you. So, I think that was something that we were really trying to focus on a lot throughout the process.”
Narcos’ Wagner Moura stars as Chicago Sun-Times reporter Dan Velazquez. Dan plays an integral role in helping Kirby learn more about her attacker. Prior to the attack Kirby was a budding reporter, and her skills are put to the test as she joins Dan and dives into the investigation of recent murders that resemble her own attack.
“So, with Wag’s character, Dan, what that represents to Kirby and what that represents to the show is – without getting into too much and going too far and spoiling anything – he’s the first person that’s as interested in this as she is. He’s the first person that sees that there are these cold-case murders, that sees that there’s something going on and is just as interested in pursuing it as she is,” offered Moss. “He’s the first person that doesn’t think that she’s crazy. He’s not quite so sure what exactly is going on yet, but he is listening to her. And I think, as a victim of trauma, to be listened to is so important and is so huge. And so that is what Dan brings into Kirby’s world that I think is really important.”
The series takes an honest approach to trauma (albeit with a weird twist), and it was important to both Moss and Luisa that Kirby’s story wasn’t wrapped up with a neat little bow.
“I think that it’s something – an incident like that, Kirby will never be able to move on from, which is the analogy of the show,” said Moss.
“So much of the mythology was built to be that metaphor. Just sort of like when you’re in the aftermath of it, you don’t know if you can trust your own mind. People don’t trust you; people don’t believe what you’re saying,” added Luisa.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Shining Girls stars Elisabeth Moss, Wagner Moura, Jamie Bell, Phillipa Soo, Chris Chalk, Christopher Denham, and Amy Brenneman. The first three episodes will debut on Apple TV+ on April 29, 2022, followed by new episodes on subsequent Fridays.
