One part psychological thriller, one part murder-mystery, and one part Lifetime movie, the BBC’s latest David Oyelowo-led series, “The Girl Before” is streaming on BBC One and HBO Max now. Based on the New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, the series (created, written, and executive produced by author JP Delaney) follows two women’s stories three years apart as they move into the same minimalist dream home, created by eccentric architect Edward (Oyelowo).
Though the rent of the stunningly beautiful building is dirt cheap, the tenants pay a different price — they have to adhere to the strict care and lifestyle guidelines set by the architect, and pass a series of personality tests and quizzes before moving in. Though both Emma (Jessica Plummer) and Jane (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) agree to live by Edward’s rules in exchange for getting to shack up in such a ritzy house, they soon find themselves embroiled in his personal life, uncovering unsettling secrets along the way.
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Told over the course of four hour-long episodes, it’s not difficult to discern that “The Girl Before” is based on a novel — the series takes its sweet time meticulously establishing numerous interwoven narrative and character threads, throwing traditional limited series pacing out the window in favor of opting to more closely adhere to the novel’s structure. The willingness to buck television writing conventions is likely due to the fact that the original novel’s author is at the helm of the series as well, and though Delaney’s total authority certainly allows the show to stay true to the book and to maintain uniformity and creative integrity, there are moments when the show gets so carried away with its own ideas that Delaney likely would have benefited from having other voices in the room to reign certain elements in.
While ambition is often the hallmark of a great thriller/mystery, “The Girl Before” fundamentally struggles to satisfyingly resolve the nearly insurmountable potential it sets up for itself in the first few episodes — there’s constant build-up and layers being added for a big reveal, but when the twist finally comes it feels underwhelming, and there are countless elements and plot threads that were emphasized in the setup but never paid off or circle back to in an interesting way.
Surprisingly, most of the show’s narrative issues revolve around Oyelowo’s Edward — an icy, OCD-ridden architect who, though handsome and charismatic, is burdened with years of trauma and guilt after the death of his wife and child in a freak accident. He has sole control over which tenants are allowed to live in his minimalist home and handpicks both Emma and Jane for (among other things) their eerie physical resemblance to his late wife. He has all the hallmarks of the perfect mystery centerpiece, but he ends up being remarkably inconsequential to the story once the true culprit behind all the mysterious deaths is revealed — leaving Edward feeling like a massive, over—emphasized red herring who’s more frustrating than anything else.
Though Oyelowo brings his token charisma to the role, the strange way the story revolves around Edward isn’t helped by the fact that it’s difficult to understand why any woman would be interested in him given his massive, overbearing flaws and red flags — and even if Emma or Jane willingly started seeing him in the beginning, anyone with their head on straight would run screaming after the events of the first two episodes at least.
Instead, like stock characters in a horror movie, Emma and Jane stick around for the long haul despite all the warnings, and the former pays the price for it — Emma dies under mysterious circumstances in the house, and it’s up to Jane three years later to piece together what happened and finally bring Emma justice. Aside from Oyelowo’s Edward, his two tenants Emma and Jane are the show’s largest characters, but their constant trauma and paranoia with no release or hope for rescue make the show feel tired and needlessly cruel.
This is especially true in the case of Emma (Plummer)— the house’s first tenant, who initially moves in with doting boyfriend Simon (Ben Hardy). Though at first, she seems like too much of a party girl to adhere to the house’s demanding lifestyle, she soon drops Simon, begins a romance with Edward, and starts a much more subdued life — but trauma and pain are soon to follow. It’s staggering how much pain “The Girl Before” puts Emma through for practically no reason — she’s violently burgled at knife point prior to the events of the series, and spends the first two episodes riddled with trauma of the event.
It’s later revealed that Emma was also raped, and the back half of the show revolves around her struggles to build a court case and gain the police’s support, while she’s simultaneously navigating romance with an increasingly icy and violent Edward, and dodging Simon who is still desperate to get back together. Emma’s life is one crippling blow after another, which makes for an exhausting viewing experience as she gets virtually no catharsis all the way up to her untimely death.
Faring slightly better is Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Jane, the second tenant who has a much cooler head and a sharper eye for Edward’s initial red flags. Like Emma, though, she continues to put up with Edward’s antics even when every sign says she should be heading for the hills — not to mention that she too is riddled with past trauma. Where Emma was burgled and raped, though, Jane is mourning the death of her stillborn baby and is obsessed with determining the cause of her baby’s death over the course of the first two episodes.
Once she finds closure with her child, though, she sets her sights on finding justice for Emma and getting to the bottom of just what is going on with Edward — despite the fact that she continues to pursue a romantic relationship with him the entire time. Both Plummer and Mbatha-Raw give commendable performances, but the characters are so bizarrely written, riddled with trauma, and frustratingly lacking in common sense that any tension the show might have goes out the window.
Though the series boasts a strong cast, slick production design, a haunting score from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, and strong material that could make for a captivating four-part limited series, “The Girl Before” feels thematically aimless, in over its head with narrative threads, and more interested in plot twists than creating relatable, believable characters. While it may serve as suitable fodder for die-hard thriller enthusiasts, the show’s ending is an unfulfilling jumble that disappoints any intrigue established by the admittedly strong opening episode.[C-]
“The Girl Before” is on HBO Max now.