Stephen King Shares Praise for New Apple TV+ Horror Series

More than merely being a creator of terrifying tales, Stephen King is also known to consume unsettling stories and share endorsements of them on Twitter, with the latest series to get the King sign of approval being Apple TV+'s Shining Girls. Fans of King will notice that Apple TV+ seems to be a go-to service for the author, as he has regularly shared praise for the M. Night Shyamalan series Servant, and while he's not involved in either Shining Girls or Servant and seemingly has no need to promote them, the streamer did adapt his novel Lisey's Story, a project he had been hoping for years to see brought to life. New episodes of Shining Girls premiere on Apple TV+ on Fridays.

"SHINING GIRLS (Apple+): This is exactly what streaming was made for. Scary and involving, well-acted, and sumptuously made, it's a novel for the eyes and the mind," King shared on Twitter.

Shining Girls follows Kirby Mazrachi (Elisabeth Moss) as a Chicago newspaper archivist in the early 1990s whose journalistic ambitions were put on hold after enduring a traumatic assault. When Kirby learns that a recent murder mirrors her own case, she partners with seasoned, yet troubled reporter Dan Velazquez (Wagner Moura), to uncover her attacker's identity. As they realize these cold cases are inextricably linked, their own personal traumas and Kirby's blurred reality allow her assailant to remain one step ahead. In addition to Moss and Moura, the gripping drama stars Phillipa Soo as Jin-Sook, Amy Brenneman as Rachel, and Jamie Bell as Harper Curtis.   

Executive producers on the series also include MacLaren, Beukes, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alan Page Arriaga, Daina Reid, Jennifer Davisson, Lindsey McManus, and Michael Hampton.  

King isn't using the metaphor about the series being a "novel for the eyes," as it is based on the novel of the same name from Lauren Beukes. However, the ways in which the narrative unfolds in the series as opposed to the novel is a bit different, bringing with it both challenges and opportunities for the filmmakers involved.

"That was an incredible challenge and something that we all discussed a lot. You take a leap of faith, and in this case, audiences are very sophisticated today, they're really smart," director Michelle MacLaren shared with ComicBook.com of managing to keep audiences guessing without throwing them off entirely. "I think, hopefully, they want a challenge when they're watching something, so I want to give them a lot of space to be involved in the storytelling process and wanting to figure it out."

She added, "It is a fine line, and something, as I said, we discussed a lot, but ultimately this is about how the time shifts are a metaphor for the aftermath of trauma, so you want to create that sense of imbalance. You're trying to solve a mystery of who's killing these women, but also the mystery of what's happening to Kirby's mind, and we want you to be solving it with Kirby. Most of this is told from her point of view, so it is going to be ambiguous, it is going to be off-balance, and that's because that's how her character is feeling, and we want the audience to feel that way."

New episodes of Shining Girls debut Fridays on Apple TV+.

What do you think of the series? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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