The second series of The Crow Girl had a difficult task on its hands, and, in my eyes, had a bit of work to do to regain my trust. On the one hand, it was great to see Eve Myles and Katherine Kelly return for another helping of this deeply unsettling crime thriller (they’re both fine actors). On the other, I had real reservations about the first series’ closing twist, which revealed that vigilante serial killer Victoria Burkeman and respected psychiatrist Dr Sophia Craven (Kelly) were one and the same. It felt like a leap too far at the time, and the sleight-of-hand reveal was more like a cheat code.
Thankfully, this follow-up gets straight to work explaining how Burkeman and Craven can coexist, and more importantly, why. Rather than treating the revelation as a gimmick, the series explores the fractured psychology behind it, gradually revealing the devastating trauma that shaped Victoria’s life.
Meanwhile, DCI Jeanette Kilburn (Eve Myles) is rapidly unravelling. Her marriage is falling apart, the pressure to catch Burkeman is mounting, and she’s unknowingly sleeping with the very person she’s hunting. Throw in the discovery of seven bodies (more young immigrant boys) on a farm, along with one member of the paedophile ring tied down and half-eaten by pigs, and it’s safe to say this is not light entertainment.
The series juggles an enormous amount in the first half. The paedophile ring still needs bringing to justice, while flashbacks at the start of each episode reveal Victoria’s childhood friendship with Bethan, a fellow pupil at the private school she attended. Bethan’s eventual fate, discovered among the bodies on the farm, helps expose how the school, the abuse ring and the deaths of the immigrant fighting boys are all interconnected. It’s an ambitious web of storytelling and, at times, it struggles under the weight of everything it’s trying to balance.
Where The Crow Girl truly excels is when it narrows its focus to Victoria herself. The revelation that Burkeman suffers from dissociative identity disorder gives real emotional weight to her dual existence. Dr Sophia Craven, named after the therapist who once tried to help her as a teen (even the haircut is the same), becomes everything Victoria longs to be: confident, intelligent and successful… and trauma-free. That carefully constructed life begins to fracture once Jeanette enters it.
What also makes things interesting is that Craven does not know that she is merely a construct, and a figment (or driver) of Burkeman’s imagination. She does not know she is essentially a coping mechanism.
The psychological material is woven skilfully into the thriller elements, particularly the disturbing scenes between Victoria and her imprisoned mother. As both an enabler and participant in Victoria’s abuse, her mother’s twisted attempts to justify the past are among the series’ most chilling moments. She snarled about feeling jealous when her husband lost interest in her and found all the interest in their daughter.
There’s still a third Erik Axl Sund novel waiting to be adapted, and this ending certainly leaves the door open for that to happen. But even if that’s where we leave things, The Crow Girl eventually settles into something intensely compelling: an extremely dark, harrowing and often moving thriller that lingers long after the credits roll.
Paul Hirons
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
The Crow Girl season 2 is broadcast in the UK on Paramount+