Someone on reddit said: I wanted the crime to be worse and for her to have actually done it. Really be brave trying to elicit sympathy for a proper murderer. Can someone change? Are the town still raw and do we sympathise with how they act etc
I agree that would have been more interesting and harder to write. But doubt it would be comedic or if it was, it might be a totally different direction e.g. Nighty night black humour, or more drama than comedy - a redemption arc is hard if the character is unpleasant. You could have had Mira as she is in this - remorseful - but you'd still need a motive for murder at 18, that was absolute rather than reduced to manslaughter - which still makes it difficult to get past.
What we ended up with - if 18 not 17 when committing the crime (if older than Mandy, who was 17) - is still a starting point of 15 years for sentencing. Possibly 18 if not seen as taking responsibility by insisting it was accidental. But even though a policeman's daughter was involved, unless Mandy had testified against Mira and was called for the prosecution, the length of sentence makes little sense apart from artistic license.
Had Mandy done worse and testified that Mira was the instigator, there is no way they could have become friends again, surely.
So for me it was the only failing of the premise, that given the circumstances, it wouldn't have been manslaughter although I wonder if we are tougher on women in sentencing.
“The idea came from a fascination with how hard we are on a woman who’s done a bad thing in comparison to how we treat men, and an imagining of what leaving prison would be like, and how hard it would be to rebuild your life in your late thirties in a small town where you’ve done this thing.
“I know it doesn’t sound like a comedy, but I was thinking about the adult beginner aspect of that and all the things you hadn’t done and how hard it would be to start again.”