Burned them to a crisp, like a couple of script pages - not exactly the best start

Hello everyone!

I'm a huge fan of mystery and horror in movies and TV shows, so I'm always on the lookout for something new and interesting in this genre. With my high standards and years of watching, it's rare for something to impress me, and unfortunately, that's no understatement.

I discovered the British series Burned Girls on TikTok. The trailer was promising, and the description was intriguing - more so than the usual small-town secrets and creepy houses, which I only love in horror movies about haunted houses. So, I decided to give it a shot.

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➤Release Year

2023. That's relatively recent.

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➤Country

United Kingdom.

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➤Genres

Horror, Thriller, Drama.

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➤Number of Seasons

1.

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➤Number of Episodes

6.

Each episode is under an hour, so the total viewing time will be around five hours.

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➤Directors

Kieron Hawkes, Charles Martin.

I had to Google these names because they didn't ring any bells for me.

First, I couldn't find anything familiar in Kieron Hawkes' filmography, although his other shows have decent ratings - often 6 and above.

Charles Martin, on the other hand, has The Sopranos and The Dark Crystal on his resume, which are pretty popular shows.

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➤Cast

Samantha Morton - I didn't recognize her at first, but her filmography is seriously impressive. I've seen her in a bunch of projects, including "A Dark Place", "The Libertine", "The Golden Age", "The Walking Dead", and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". She's also a producer on the film "Her" with Joaquin Phoenix, which is about falling in love with an operating system.

Rubi Stokes - I've never seen her in anything before, but she's got at least one notable project under her belt, and that's "Bridgerton".

Rupert Graves - he's probably the most prolific actor on this list, with over a hundred projects to his name. You might know him from "Sherlock" on the BBC, or "V for Vendetta" and "The Forsyte Saga".

Conrad Khan - I've seen him in "Black Mirror" and "Peaky Blinders", but it's been a while, so I don't remember him from those shows.

Paul Bradley - he's been in a ton of stuff, but the most notable film on the list is probably "The Pianist", that heart-wrenching film with Adrian Brody.

Elodie Grace Orkin - she's got a role in the popular show "Stranger Things".

John Macmillan - his filmography is pretty impressive, with projects like "Game of Thrones", "1917", "The Fury", "The Dark Knight Rises", and "Sherlock".

The cast is pretty experienced and has been in a wide range of films and shows, but I wouldn't have recognized any of them without a hint.

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➤Plot

I've gotta say, I was a bit skeptical about the whole vicar thing, but the setup was pretty intriguing. A woman vicar and her teenage daughter move to this isolated village, hoping to start fresh. But of course, they soon discover the dark history of this seemingly idyllic place: two girls were burned at the stake 500 years ago, and two schoolgirls vanished 30 years ago. The locals claim that the village is haunted by the ghosts of the 'burning girls'. I was a bit worried that the vicar would follow in the footsteps of the previous one, who took his own life in the church, but I was curious to see how it all played out.

I'm not a huge fan of the whole religious aspect in TV shows, but the description had me hooked. The twist that gave the show its name was a nice touch, and while the idea itself isn't new, the execution can make all the difference. A good writer can take a familiar concept and make it feel fresh and exciting.

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➤First Impressions

At first, I thought the show was going to be a bit of a snooze-fest, but it really grew on me. The atmosphere was top-notch, the legend of the new place was fascinating, and those creepy straw dolls representing the burned girls were a great touch. The unexpected discoveries, the mother and daughter on the run from something bad, the villagers with their secrets and skeletons, the time jumps that made the story feel like it was unfolding on multiple levels... it all came together to create a really compelling narrative.

I was hoping for a more dramatic impact, but this effect lasted me roughly one season of six episodes. Unfortunately, most of the characters are paper-thin and unengaging: you don't feel for the victims, you don't get angry at the villains, and you don't believe their emotions or words. The actions meant to show that they're all living and breathing people come across as formulaic and illogical. And it's a shame, because the actors are mostly good, but their characters can't withstand any scrutiny, they're just so miserably presented. The special effects get old after the first time, because they're all the same. The creators throw in a hook, start to develop it, and then just forget about it. What's happening, why it's happening, and what the point is - all of these questions are left unanswered, because the goal is to create tension, not to explain anything.

This all gets so exhausting that by the time the show finally delivers a genuinely unexpected twist that explains a lot of the previous plot points and ties everything together, you're just too drained to be genuinely surprised. You think, 'Oh, that's cool, I guess,' and you just wish the show would finally be over.

(I recently read Svetlana Tulbashova's book 'The Forest,' and after a similar twist, I wanted to jump up and down, exclaim, 'No way!' and 'Now it all makes sense!' because the puzzle had finally come together perfectly, but in this show, some of the details just get lost under the bed and disappear forever.)

The ending left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. It didn't tie everything up with a bow, and I felt like some of the mystery was left unexplained. If you strip away the mystique, the story doesn't lose much. The title's a bit of a stretch, to be honest – it's more of a metaphor for what the villagers were hiding, but that's not what I was expecting. It's a drama that's wrapped up in a pretentious package, and it's not particularly original. I only finished it because it's a short series, and I wouldn't have regretted ditching it otherwise.

Despite that, the show has a good rating, and there are plenty of positive reviews on various platforms. So, to each their own – you might really enjoy it, and it's worth checking out if you're interested.

Thanks for reading!

Hope you find some great shows to watch!