Paramount+ UK’s The Crow Girl, the acclaimed Scandinavian import that hooked 1.2 million UK viewers in January 2025 with its 86% Rotten Tomatoes rapture, returns for a second season on September 16, 2025, plunging DCI Jeanette Kilburn (Eve Myles, Hijack‘s high-stakes heroine) and psychotherapist Dr. Sophia Craven (Katherine Kelly, Happy Valley‘s steely sergeant) into a “more intense and emotionally charged” abyss of historic abuse, ritualistic murders, and a killer whose “web of secrets” tightens like a noose. Adapted from Erik Axl Sund’s bestselling trilogy by Sex Education‘s Milly Thomas, the six-part sequel – produced by Buccaneer Media with Slash as exec producer – picks up the morning after Season 1’s gut-punch finale, where Jeanette’s marriage implodes and she wakes in Sophia’s bed, their “troubling” alliance a powder keg in Bristol’s underbelly. “It’s bigger, darker, more twisted than Happy Valley,” Thomas tells Radio Times, her script a scalpel slicing through survivor scars and suspect psyches, with directors Charles Martin and Rebecca Rycroft cranking the claustrophobia from therapy couches to crime scenes. Filmed March-July 2025 in Bristol’s briny docks and shadowy suburbs, S2’s “unpredictable” unspooling – renewed in September 2024 – has already spiked pre-orders 40%, outpacing Vigil‘s vigil.
The hunt’s harrowing? Heart-stopping: Episode 1’s “The Egg She Wishes to Crack” catapults Jeanette (Myles, 46, channeling Torchwood‘s torch with “levity in the mire”) into a fresh frenzy: A young man’s body, fingers gnawed off, dumped in a schoolyard – lidocaine laced in his veins, a “signature” from Season 1’s serial sadist. Sophia (Kelly, 46, her “pursed-lip professional” a “frustratingly glamorous” foil) offers “fresh but troubling” insights, her “web of secrets” unspooling a “dangerous world” of childhood trauma and cultish cults. “The killer’s closer than she imagines,” the logline lures, as Jeanette’s “domestic disarray” (divorce dust-up) drags her into Sophia’s “enigmatic embrace,” their “bed” bond a betrayal bomb. Returning rogues: Dougray Scott’s DI Lou Stanley, a “skeptical sidekick” simmering with suspicion; Clara Rugaard’s Victoria Burkeman, a “troubled teen” tying to the “historic abuse”; Victoria Hamilton’s Superintendent Verity Pound, a badge of bureaucracy. New blood? Raphael Sowole’s Amar, a “mysterious medic” masking motives; Roger Jean Nsengiyumva’s Amar’s ally; Chloe Sweetlove’s Madeleine, a “missing link.”
The “brutal” brilliance? Bone-deep: Thomas’ adaptation amps the “pacy” probe with “spooky” soundscapes (Slash’s guitar ghosts) and “authentic” accents, Martin and Rycroft’s direction a “gripping” gasp of “grim themes” in Bristol’s “eerie charm.” The Guardian‘s Lucy Mangan raves “very well-made, pacy drama” with Myles’ “reliably likeable” levity; The Independent‘s Ed Power hails Kelly’s “Icily Glamorous” iciness and the “understated and spooky” score. Evening Standard‘s Vicky Jessop praises the “overall confidence, style and authenticity.” Skeptics? “Mired in darkness,” but the 1-in-2 clue-to-cliff ratio hooks, BARB metrics outgunning The Jetty.
This isn’t whodunit wallpaper; it’s a web-weaving whirlwind, The Crow Girl‘s S2 a scalpel to the soul where abuse’s abyss meets alliance’s allure. Jeanette’s jeopardy? Jarring. Sophia’s secrets? Sinister. September 16? Not a return – a reckoning. Binge it; the murders mesmerize, the minds mock. Myles and Kelly? No Happy Valley haze – they’re a dynamic duo, delving deeper. The obsession? Overnight, unquenchable.
