Over the last few years, we’ve watched Elizabeth Moss face off against a lot of terrible men on-screen. There’s her Emmy-winning role in The Handmaid’s Tale. And then her utterly brilliant performance in Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, which debuted in February 2020. Now she’s taking center stage once more in the Apple TV+ series Shining Girls. She plays a former aspiring journalist who teams up with a reporter to unmask the man who attacked her and derailed her life. And the trailer is incredibly chilling.
Set in Chicago, the series, based on the Lauren Beukes novel, picks up in the aftermath of a murder—one that has parallels to the attack on Moss’s character, Kirby Mazrachi, several years prior. But as she and reporter Dan Velazquez (Narcos’ Wagner Moura), dig into potential links between the two cases, they uncover several more similarities—and these additional cases span decades. And that’s where things get downright creepy.
Here’s the synopsis from Apple TV+:
Kirby Mazrachi (Moss) as a Chicago newspaper archivist whose journalistic ambitions were put on hold after enduring a traumatic assault. When Kirby learns that a recent murder mirrors her own case, she partners with seasoned, yet troubled reporter Dan Velazquez (played by Wagner Moura), to uncover her attacker’s identity. As they realize these cold cases are inextricably linked, their own personal traumas and Kirby’s blurred reality allow her assailant to remain one step ahead.
Phillipa Soo, Amy Brenneman, and Jamie Bell round out the cast. Silka Luisa adapted Shining Girls, serving as showrunner and executive producer. In addition to starring and executive producing, Moss also directs two episodes. The eight-episode season sees executive producers Michelle MacLaren helm two episodes, with Daina Reid directing four.
Interestingly, Apple TV+ is not billing Shining Girls as a limited series. (At least not yet, anyway.) So I’ll be curious to see if, like The Handmaid’s Tale, the series uses the novel as a jumping off point. Or if it makes changes to prolong its TV shelf life. Either way, it’s an incredibly sinister plot. One that will have us looking over our shoulders for a sinister Jamie Bell lurking in the background.
Shining Girls premieres on April 29, debuting the first three episodes with the following episodes dropping weekly.
