drewmail-44554 Review of The Girl in the Woods

The Girl in the Woods (2021– )

Not Optimistic about this Show's Future

[5/10 · 29 May 2022]

I came across this show on Peacock and the premise sounded intriguing. A secret cult, deep in the Oregon forests, protects the outside world from demons that periodically escape from a nearby portal to the demon world. A teenage girl, trained by the cult to be a "guardian" against these creatures and the daughter of the cult's leader, decides to escape from the cult and ends up befriending a couple local kids. Together, they hunt and do away with monsters that threaten their little community of West Pine, OR. The obvious parallel is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, set in central Oregon instead of southern California. After watching three episodes, I have some concerns. The first is the 25 min. Episodes where there's hardly time to build up much plot and I've never been a big fan of anthology TV series. The second is the two local sidekicks who don't seem to have any ambition and like to force jokes onto the lead character, Carrie, who plays her role straight and serious. The first demon, some sort of monster who lures his victims into the woods to live of their blook, we very weak. They'll definitely need better villains/monsters. Then, there's the element of the Cult trying to chase, and return Carrie to their clutches, because they don't want the secret of the monster's portal to be discovered. The Cult seems more good, than bad, however, and the local townspeople seem clueless. I also don't like the lesbian/gay elements that seem to be developing between Carrie and one of the other Guardian trainees and the queerish local sidekick guy. I'll invest another couple hours to watch the last five episodes of season one, but I don't think I can recommend season two just yet.