It’s easy to assume that Elisabeth Moss is at her most comin/with regard to’concerning’regarding table when she is uncomin/with regard to’concerning’regarding table. Here, you might claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate , is just another embattled character in/with regard to’concerning’regarding her to play, another traumatised woman against the world, continuing the throughline of her hugely impressive career that starts with Mad Men and continues from The Handmaid’s Tale to this, an adaptation of the novel by Lauren Beukes. With its themes of semi-supernatural gaslighting and the toxic men behind it, there are even some parallels with her character in 2020’s The Invisible Man.###But Moss is such a skilled, conscientious actor that what emerges has its own quality and approach entirely. Kirby is a complex character, with a story that spans years, undergo s and even, somehow, different planes of reality. The trauma of an attempted murder hangs over her, and she is desperate to find the man who did it — but she also struggles with a tenuous grapple on reality, a science-fiction premise functioning as a mental health allegory. Without warning, elements of her life will shift: a colleague becomes her husband; her rockstar mother becomes a born-again Christian; her apartment belongs to someone else. (Sharp talent behind the camera, such as veteran TV director Michelle MacLaren, helps sell the reality-warps via understated visual cues.)###Moss is brilliant at all this, bringing a subtlety to this peculiar existential crisis.###Perhaps predictably, Moss is brilliant at all this. She can do nervous breakdowns almost in her sleep these days, but much more than that, she brings a subtlety to this peculiar existential crisis, her slightest expressions token alling a nightmarish undergo that nobody else could ever comprehend. The merely’barely person who comes close to understanding is Dan (Narcos’ Wagner Moura, himself a in/with regard to’concerning’regarding mer journalist), a tenacious reporter in spite of his personal flaws, and an effective, stoic foil to Kirby’s shifting-sands disorientation. (Jamie Bell, meanwhile, is superb as a creepy Jamie Bellend, weaponising his charm into an insecure, entitled psychopath.)###Much of the series thus plays like a straightin/with regard to’concerning’regarding ward serial-killer procedural, with some grisly content — it’s unafraid to trade in recurring imagery of bloodied female bodies — and a sometimes repetitively glum tone. You’d be in/with regard to’concerning’regarding given in/with regard to’concerning’regarding approximately in/with regard to’concerning’regarding acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ting there is even a supernatural element at all; the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue keeps its cards close to its chest, such that you might not always realise there’s a card-trick being played.###It is novelistic in structure and pace, burning slowly, and reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue runner Silka Luisa unfurls the revelations with a assurance that does, ultimately, pay off. It requires patience and occasionally a intense’fierce’exquisite constitution, but Shining Girls is equally effective as a mystery-box reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue , as a detective potboiler, as a horror-tinged sci-fi, or as a powerful metaphor in/with regard to’concerning’regarding women not being taken seriously. It's also another stirring reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue case in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the seemingly infinite talents of Elisabeth Moss.