Girl from Nowhere: The Series (2018)

I don't completely know how to feel about this show. I did find it compelling; I breezed through the episodes because Nanno is a fascinating character. Chicha Amatayakul did a great job of portraying Nanno's emotional extremes; she transitions smoothly from Nanno's cute, happy-go-lucky, fragile, and innocent facade to her true dangerous and sinister self. I didn't care much for that maniacal laugh of hers (sometimes less is more), but I feel like that was more of an intentional choice that didn't work for me rather than bad acting on her part. The music was beautiful, but also appropriately unsettling, so it was effective in enhancing the emotional quality of the scenes and the tragic nature of the story.

It is never really spelled out who, or even what, Nanno is. Each episode begins with her transferring to a new school to terrorize a new set of students. The first two episodes seemed to imply that she focuses on punishing people guilty of a specific type of crime, but the crimes her victims commit actually vary quite a bit. Therefore, she doesn't appear to have a particular motive, and there's no implied catalyst for her behavior. It seems that she simply has a good eye for other characters' weaknesses and she chooses targets based on who is most likely to give into their dark impulses. Why? There probably is no particular reason, other than finding it fun.

Nanno is quite happy to tempt and lead her targets onto this path of destruction, however in many cases, she asks them more than once if they are sure that that is what they want to do - apparently giving them a chance to reconsider and back out. When they continue to act against their conscience, the rest of the episode is the subsequent unraveling of their lives as they reap what they sow.

Given this pattern of leading her prey into temptation in order to enjoy witnessing their downfall and despair, along with her obvious supernatural nature, the figure she ultimately is most reminiscent (to me) is Christianity's Satan. (Note: I'm not saying that this is what she is or that this was the actual inspiration for her character.) Often, Nanno also serves as a scapegoat, becoming a horrific visual representation of the violence and hatred of the other characters. Even when she is attacked and brutalized, Nanno laughs because she has already won by manipulating them into committing such atrocities.

Horror, and especially psychological horror, are genres I generally avoid. The trailer of this show looked intriguing, so against my better judgment, I decided to give it a try. There were a couple of episodes I was sure would push my buttons, but that never actually happened. I'm relieved that's the case, and I found that this was a tolerable level of creepy for me. However, if you're interested because you're a big fan of horror, you might be disappointed. When it does cross into gory territory, it looks pretty unrealistic. A few episodes have little to no obvious supernatural elements (such as "Ugly Truth"), while others heavily depend on it ("Wonderwall," "BFF").

"Girl From Nowhere" is somewhat reminiscent of "Black Mirror," which is a comparison I've also seen a few other people make. This show has the same relentlessly pessimistic view of humanity as being inherently corrupt and ugly - except rather than focusing on the ugly future we might create for ourselves with technology, "Girl From Nowhere" focuses on the horrors ordinary people are capable of now, with just a little push in the wrong direction.

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