PICK OF DIGITAL & ON DEMAND TV

SHINING GIRLS, APPLE TV+

THERE’S a certain type of downbeat serial killer thriller the Americans do very well — the film Zodiac (available on Netflix) is the peak of that — and that’s exactly what Shining Girls seems to be at the start. Based on an awardwinning 2013 novel by the South African writer Lauren Beukes, the eightpart series stars Elisabeth Moss (pictured), who gave such memorable performances in Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale and the Antipodean mystery Top Of The Lake. She is excellent again here, drawing our sympathy as newspaper archivist Kirby Mazrachi, who’s on the trail of a killer who nearly took her life six years earlier. But it soon emerges that this is no straightforward crime thriller, and there are hints that Kirby’s reality is not all it seems. The mystery of why is thrilling and intriguing, and the setting — a dark, 1990s Chicago — really adds to the disturbing atmosphere. There’s a shock in store for Billy Elliot fans, too: the killer is played by the young star of that film, Jamie Bell.