Shining Girls is, for the most part, a thriller viewers have seen countless times before. A woman is attacked and left for dead, then goes on a determined hunt to uncover the identity of her assailant. It’s a feminist tale as old as time, with a female protagonist, a metaphor for the phoenix rising from the ashes to redeem her lost sense of self. Shining Girls is quite symbolic in that sense, strongly touching upon themes of trauma and resilience, but its execution is nothing short of inventive.

A sci-fi, drama, and thriller all rolled into one, Shining Girls takes the age-old premise of a woman trying to piece together fragments of her traumatic past and throws in a time-travel subplot to reframe the story through a more disorienting lens. It’s mind-mending and, at times, confusing, but refreshingly different. And, with an incredible performance from Elisabeth Moss, tied in with themes that mimic those of her previous roles, Shining Girls is a must-watch for fans looking for their next binge after The Handmaid’s Tale.

Shining Girls is an 8-Part Twisted Thriller on AppleTV+

Based on the book of the same name by Lauren Beukes, Shining Girls follows Kirby (Elisabeth Moss), an archivist and aspiring journalist who finds herself trapped in shifting realities after a brutal attack that left her for dead. Determined to identify her attacker, she comes across a murder similar to her own attack. With the help of reporter Dan Valazquez (Wagner Moura), Kirby uncovers a series of cold cases spanning decades, all involving similar killings. However, caught between different realities, where her apartment, relationships, and job change without warning, Kirby struggles to maintain her sense of self while piecing together the clues.

If there’s one thing to know about Shining Girls, it’s that it demands the viewer’s utmost attention. Kirby’s shifts between realities happen suddenly and without warning, with scenes overlapping in ways that can be just as confusing for the audience as they are for her. However, that shouldn’t deter viewers. Shining Girls is a mind-bending thriller packed with twists and turns, making it a perfect watch for fans of both sci-fi and thrilling limited series. Its mix of psychological suspense and speculative elements offers a fresh take on the thriller genre that rewards close viewing.

Shining Girls is an Ingenious Exploration of Survival & Trauma

Respectfully and accurately exploring themes of trauma on screen can be difficult. Even more difficult is portraying the lasting impact of such experiences without reducing characters to mere victims. Many films and TV series in the revenge subgenre have been critiqued for this, particularly ones that typically use the “male gaze” to sensationalize violence against women with a strong focus on victimhood. Shining Girls avoids these mistakes by simply using its sci-fi premise as a metaphor for trauma and disorienting memory.

Kirby is an unreliable narrator, which alone reflects the effects of trauma. Since the attack, the details of her life constantly change. As she travels through multiple realities, each with its own take on the truth, she must constantly adjust herself, keeping a notepad full of these various details to remember who she is. Fragmented memories are part and parcel of trauma, leaving survivors similarly distrusting of their own experiences. What Beukes and show creator Silka Luisa do, respectfully, is use Kirby’s alternate realities to depict such effects, mirroring the way trauma can disrupt perception and recall. This was very much the intent of the story’s sci-fi premise. During an interview with Awards Radar in 2022, Beukes explained:

The metaphor for the entire series was built on the concept of working through trauma. The shifting realities are about how years after a traumatic event, it can feel like you can’t start your life. You can sort of be pulled back in time and become disoriented at any moment. No one believes you. You can feel isolated and alone. I think Lizzy (Elisabeth Moss), right from the get-go, completely understood that. And you can see that in her performance. It’s been interesting because so many different people have connected with the show. They have talked about it in terms of general trauma. For example, Harper is a perpetrator against women, but at the same time, I think many people can relate to living through horrific events. They have had to deal with situations like Kirby. It doesn’t necessarily have to be from a specific type of incident.

It’s an ingenious method, using genre conceits to place viewers in the shoes of a character forced to relive her traumas. Aside from the clear metaphor of disrupted recall, the show’s time travel elements are also used as a tool of control and to demonstrate how one man’s violence can spread across generations. It’s made known from the first episode that Harper Curtis (Jamie Bell) is a time-traveling serial killer responsible for Kirby’s trauma.

The mystery isn’t so much about the perpetrator as it is about Kirby’s understanding of her alternate realities. Through Harper’s ability to move freely across time, Shining Girls illustrates how violence, particularly male violence against women, extends beyond a single act or victim. Harper’s killings span decades, targeting women on the cusp of transformative moments in their lives, cutting them off from their futures and erasing their potential. The time travel device literalizes a truth often felt by survivors, that the impact of such violence is not confined to a single moment, but reverberates through time, affecting identity, memory, and opportunity.

Elizabeth Moss Fans Should Check Out This Thrilling Limited Series

Best known for her portrayal of June Osborne in The Handmaid’s Tale, a role that earned her multiple Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe, Moss has consistently drawn audiences into harrowing stories of resilience and survival. With The Handmaid’s Tale recently concluding its run, Shining Girls offers fans an opportunity to see her take on a distinctly different challenge.

Despite premiering three years ago, the show is relatively slept on but is arguably one of Moss’ most twisted and interesting roles to date. In Shining Girls, Moss plays Kirby, a character shaped by trauma and uncertainty, but also driven by determination. Moss is, as always, fiercely intense and attuned to the smallest changes in her character’s mood and pain. She plays Kirby without sentimentality, making her the perfect anchor for a story that could easily feel gimmicky.

With Moss’s performance combined with the show’s somewhat slow pacing and the audience often being ahead of the characters, Shining Girls functions better as a character study than a pure thriller (though it works well as both). Kirby’s ongoing struggle to adapt to a world that shifts without warning is a powerful depiction of the lasting effects of trauma. Living a life where the familiar suddenly becomes strange and trust is fractured by painful truths is something many who have experienced assault will recognize.

One reality gives way to another as she takes uncertain steps toward a new normal, and even as the female victim count rises, Shining Girls never loses sight of this fundamental truth. Of course, this isn’t the first for Moss as The Handmaid’s Tale explores similar themes of trauma and survival. This is perhaps why, despite its sci-fi elements, fans of The Handmaid’s Tale will enjoy Shining Girls, with Moss essentially playing Osborne in a 1992 setting. The series taps into the same resilience and trauma, making Shining Girls a natural next step for Moss and a must-watch for her fans.

Shining Girls can be confusing. There’s little continuity, and Kirby’s shifting realities switch without warning. Little is also explained in the series, with a strong emphasis on symbolism and metaphors over scientific logic or detailed exposition. That said, Shining Girls isn’t meant to be a high-concept sci-fi thriller, but a character study on the effects Kirby’s trauma has had on her memory. Because of that, for those wanting a psychological thriller that’s seeped in mystery and problem-solving clues that lead to a twisting revelation, Shining Girls isn’t it. But for those who appreciate slow-burn storytelling that prioritizes emotion over explanation, much like The Handmaid’s Tale, it delivers something far more rewarding.