The Girl Before - General Discussion

[AnimeMania]

The Girl Before is a 4 episode psychological thriller airing on BBC1 in the UK on Dec 19, 2021 and HBO Max in the US on February 10, 2022.

The Girl Before is an adaptation of a JP Delaney novel of the same name. JP Delaney wrote the screenplay and is an executive producer. Lisa Brühlmann directs and is also an executive producer.

The Girl Before tells the story of Jane (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who gets the chance to move into a beautiful, ultra-minimalist house designed by architect (David Oyelowo). The one catch being that occupants have to abide by his strict list of rules. When Jane makes the shocking discovery that her predecessor Emma (Jessica Plummer) died in the house, she begins to question if her fate will be the same as the girl before…

 

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Jane

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Jane, a traumatized young woman who makes a shocking discovery about the house she has just fallen in love with and moved into.

Jane and Edward

David Oyelowo as Edward Monkford architect of the beautiful, ultra-minimalist house at One Folgate Street.

Jessica Plummer and David Oyelowo

Jessica Plummer as Emma, the previous occupant of the house who passed away just three years prior to Jane's arrival. Fun loving and confident, Emma is stuck working at an unfulfilling marketing job, and is less than satisfied with her partner. For her, One Folgate Street’s stone walls represent security, safety and renewal. But Emma is hiding a dark secret and, living in the pressure cooker that is One Folgate Street, the truth will out in the end.

Ben Hardy as Simon, who was Emma's partner. Simon can’t quite believe he’s got a girlfriend like Emma. He’ll do anything to keep her, but worries he’s not enough for her. Living in the minimalist haven of One Folgate Street, the creation of Edward Monkford, heightens his insecurities even more.

[AnimeMania]

Episode 1-4 Descriptions   all four episodes released THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10.

Spoiler

Episode 1 
Jane falls in love with an extraordinary minimalist house, but when she discovers that another damaged woman died in the same property three years earlier, she starts to wonder if her own story is just a rerun of the girl before.

Episode 2
Edward pursues relationships with both Jane and Emma. As Emma is forced to testify against her attacker, Jane visits Emma’s therapist, where she learns she is in danger.

Episode 3 
After receiving shocking news, Jane resolves to find out exactly what Edward knows about Emma’s fate. Meanwhile, the police pick apart the story of Emma’s assault.

Episode 4 
Jane learns the truth about Edward. As Emma’s fate is revealed, Jane fights to ensure the deadly cycle of events doesn’t claim her too.

 

Edited February 1, 2022 by AnimeMania

[AngieBee1]

I stopped watching after the second episode but because I love both Mbatha-Raw and Ejiofor, I will get back to it.

It's a bit of slow going and I assumed that is what would annoy viewers, instead I saw a lot of people saying it was too confusing because Mbatha-Raw and Jessica Plummer look too alike when they really don't. At all.

[AnimeMania]

 

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Edited February 9, 2022 by AnimeMania

[Kiss my mutt]

I loved the book, so fingers crossed, this is also enjoyable!

[Lily H]

On 2/1/2022 at 5:10 PM, AngieBee1 said:

instead I saw a lot of people saying it was too confusing because Mbatha-Raw and Jessica Plummer look too alike when they really don't. At all.

But they do! I was halfway through ep 1 before I realized I had been watching 2 different women in alternating timelines. From then on, pretty much the only way I could tell who was who was by what they were wearing and whether or not they were with Simon. It's pretty obvious that they are meant to look alike and that's why they were chosen by creepy psycho architect.

Which brings me to the reason I found the show kind of off-putting. That house was not only incredibly ugly, it resembled a concrete prison cell. Everything was hard, bleak, empty, and gray. What kind of person would voluntarily live there, especially since one of the rules was "No Books". NO BOOKS? They're all insane.

[Rickster]

In a story today in the NY Times, the director said they were looking for actors who looked as alike as possible, but had different types of energy. Actually they picked Mbatha-Raw first, then looked for someone like her. I could tell the difference though.

Saw half of the first episode last night. Thought it was intriguing, will be watching the rest.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Rickster

[AngieBee1]

13 hours ago, Lily H said:

It's pretty obvious that they are meant to look alike

Obviously, but I don't see the twinning that people were seeing. I never confused the two.

[AnimeMania]

The Girl Before cast on the shocking finale, the killer's secret backstory, and the characters' futures

[SunnyBeBe]

I’m trying to watch this, but find it incredibly annoying,  The premise is there , but for some reason it seems to be failing.  With so much talent at its disposal, why does HBO seem to to struggle for decent products?  I find that their series are increasingly disappointing.  

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[fountain]

I would voluntarily live in that house. I loved it so much, it was amazing. I don't read really, so could do the no books.

I could tell the difference between Emma and June when they were shown face on but sometimes the scenes were far away or from the side and I had to look at the context like the clothing or who was around as there was a lot of overlap (the husband hung around in both, they both dated the homeowner). I also probably don't pay full attention.

[Sweet-tea]

On 2/11/2022 at 7:24 AM, Rickster said:

In a story today in the NY Times, the director said they were looking for actors who looked as alike as possible, but had different types of energy. Actually they picked Mbatha-Raw first, then looked for someone like her. I could tell the difference though.

Saw half of the first episode last night. Thought it was intriguing, will be watching the rest.

I think they look a lot alike. I was getting them mixed up. The different hairstyles helped me tell them apart.

I read the book and really liked it. Agree the place is creepy.  I don’t know why anyone would want to live there, but both women have issues from recent trauma. Edward is seeking vulnerable women he can manipulate. He is is super-controlling! Yikes! Those questions the women have to answer and no privacy. I don’t care if the place was free. I wouldn’t live there. 

And there are no building codes about safety? That staircase with no banister… 

[Ceindreadh]

There were a few occasions when I think the camera angles were deliberately used to make it difficult to initially tell which character we were looking at. 

I watched this over the Christmas break.  I'd read the book before, which would have helped if I'd remembered more of it!  Enjoyed it though. 

[SunnyBeBe]

This series reminds me a lot of an old series on USA called Falling Water, only I liked that one better.  
 

Jane and Edward made a point about the cameras in the house being disabled the day Emma was killed.  But, why would they have been turned off by Simon, since he didn’t plan her death. He got angry and it was spur of the moment.  He had no reason to turn the cameras off. 
 

Emma was a reasonably intelligent woman.  How could she not know the time from the rape video didn’t match the incident she reported as rape.  That whole lie was so bizarre.  

[AnimeMania]

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[AnimeMania]

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[Black Knight]

I binged this and enjoyed it quite a bit. I was so creeped out at some points.

I didn't have an issue with telling Jane and Emma apart because in the early going the show had a consistent rule about the characters' hair: Emma's was always down and free, while Jane's was always pulled back and sometimes up. That gave me what I needed to be able to focus on the women's faces and start cataloging differences there. Emma's face is a little rounder, for instance.

I haven't read all of the articles about this show, but it interested me that of the ones I did read, nobody mentioned the choices of Jane and Edward for names. This isn't a straight re-telling of Jane Eyre, but I can see where there's some inspiration drawn from that book. The names aren't accidents.

I haven't read the book, but I gathered from Mbatha-Raw's comments that the ending there is different. She didn't say outright how, but from the context of her comments it seems that BookJane tells BookEdward to pound sand. Which is interesting given the Jane Eyre inspiration: No "Reader, I married him" here! I understand Mbatha-Raw's point about people being complex and not all good or bad, but Edward's creepiness in how he romanced each woman identically is just too much. I could never get over it if I were Jane. I appreciated the little scene in the credits that indicated that even though we do see Edward going to therapy as Jane suggested, he's not close to being able to end his repetitive compulsion.

I was previously familiar with Mbatha-Raw and she's always excellent, but Jessica Plummer was new to me and a revelation. I hope to see her in other things.

[peachmangosteen]

At first this kinda reminded me of Behind Her Eyes but that show was kind of fun and insane and this show was just bad and boring. That made me realize it reminded me of that one Harlan Corben show I watched on Netflix. I don't remember the name but I'm pretty sure they're all exactly the same so it doesn't really matter lol.

Was the actress playing the dead wife in pics the one who played Taissa on Yellowjackets? If not, she looked just like her.