''The Girlfriend Experience'' is an American anthology drama television series created, written, and directed by Lodge Kerrigan and

Amy Seimetz Amy Lynne Seimetz is an American actress and filmmaker. She has appeared in several productions, including AMC's '' The Killing'', HBO's ''Family Tree'', and films like ''Upstream Color'', '' Alien: Covenant'', ''Pet Sematary'', and '' No Sudd ...

that is broadcast on the premium cable network

Starz Starz (stylized as STARZ since 2016; pronounced "stars") is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consis ...

. The first season stars Riley Keough as Christine Reade, a law student intern who also works as a high-end escort. Executive produced by

Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker. Soderbergh's direct ...

, it is based on the 2009 film of the same name. A 13-episode first season premiered on April 10, 2016, and all episodes were made available on Starz On Demand. On August 1, 2016, Starz renewed the series for a 14-episode second season, focusing on new characters and storylines, with Seimetz and Kerrigan returning. The second season premiered on November 5, 2017. In July 2019, Starz renewed the series for a 10-episode third season, which is written and directed by

Anja Marquardt Anja Marquardt is a German film director who won two major international film awards for her first feature film ''She's Lost Control''. Marquardt was previously known for her screen-writing and directing of critically acclaimed short films. Her f ...

and stars Julia Goldani Telles. The third season premiered on May 2, 2021.

Plot

Season 1

Second-year Chicago-Burnham Law School student Christine Reade lands an internship at the law firm of Kirkland & Allen and struggles to balance her workload, expenses and classes. When her close friend Avery reveals that she has been working as an escort, she encourages Christine to tag along and introduces her to a friend of one of her clients, who is looking for an escort. Under the pseudonym "Chelsea Rayne", Christine works as a high-end escort specializing in providing "the

girlfriend experience A girlfriend experience (GFE) is a commercial sex service that blurs the boundaries between a financial transaction and a romantic relationship. It ranges from a transactional sex relationship to a client paying a sex worker to pretend to be his ...

" (GFE), an array of sexual and other associated services intended to make the client feel both sexually and emotionally satisfied. Initially working for Avery's madam Jacqueline, Christine eventually strikes out on her own, experiencing pitfalls along the way as clients cross boundaries and she discovers corruption at Kirkland & Allen.

Season 2

The second season features two parallel storylines. One storyline, set in Washington, D.C., takes place during the upcoming

U.S. midterm elections Midterm elections in the United States are the general elections that are held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term of office, on Election Day on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Federal offices that are up for e ...

and follows Erica Myles, a

finance director The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and fina ...

of a Republican super PAC, and Anna Garner, a GFE provider. Under intense pressure to deliver on her fundraising goals, Erica enlists Anna's help in blackmailing a high-powered

dark money In the politics of the United States, dark money refers to spending to influence elections where the source of the money is not disclosed to voters. In the United States, some types of nonprofit organizations may spend money on campaigns wi ...

fundraiser. The other storyline, set in New Mexico, follows Bria Jones, a former high-end escort who enters the

Witness Protection Program Witness protection is security provided to a threatened person providing testimonial evidence to the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during, and after a trial, usually by police. While a witness may only require p ...

with her estranged thirteen-year-old step-daughter to escape an abusive relationship. However, she revives her career as an escort, which threatens Bria's new identity and well-being of her step-daughter and the U.S. Marshal put in charge of her.

Season 3

Iris, a

neuroscience Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...

major, drops out of school and moves to London to join a tech

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

that is studying human behavior. As she begins to explore the transactional world of the girlfriend experience, she quickly learns that her client sessions provide her with a compelling edge in the tech world and vice versa.

Cast and characters

Main

Season 1: Christine

* Riley Keough as Christine Reade * Paul Sparks as David Tellis *

Mary Lynn Rajskub Mary Lynn Rajskub (; born June 22, 1971) is an American actress and comedian who is best known for portraying Chloe O'Brian in the action thriller series '' 24'', and the character Gail the Snail in '' It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia''. Rajsk ...

as Erin Roberts

Season 2: Erica & Anna

* Anna Friel as Erica Myles * Louisa Krause as Anna Garner * Narges Rashidi as Darya Esford

Season 2: Bria

Carmen Ejogo Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo (; born 22 October 1973)

as Bria Jones/Sarah Day * Tunde Adebimpe as Ian Olsen *

Harmony Korine Harmony Korine (born January 4, 1973, some sources report September 1, 1974)
" Retrieved on 2009-10-26. is an Ame ...

as Paul * Morgan Davies as Kayla Fairchild

Season 3: Iris

* Julia Goldani Telles as Iris Stanton

Recurring

Season 1

* Kate Lyn Sheil as Avery Suhr * Alexandra Castillo as Jacqueline *

as Annabel Reade *

Aidan Devine Aidan Devine is an English–Canadian film actor. He was born in England and immigrated with his family to Canada at the age of 15. He studied at Dawson College's Dome Theatre in Montreal, Quebec and began his acting career in Montreal. He ...

as Martin Bayley *

Sugith Varughese Sugith Varughese (born 25 April 1957) is an Indian-born Canadian writer, director and actor. Background Born in Cochin, Kerala, India into a Syriac Saint Thomas Christian family ("Varughese," also sometimes spelled " Varghese" and "Verghese" a ...

as Tariq Barr * Michael Therriault as Skip Hadderly * Sabryn Rock as Kayla Boden * James Gilbert as Jack

Season 2

* Emily Piggford as Sandra Fuchs * Michael Cram as Mark Novak

Season 3

* Charles Edwards as Elliott Stanton * Jemima Rooper as Leanne * Ray Fearon as Paul *

Enzo Cilenti Vincenzo Leonardo "Enzo" Cilenti (born 8 August 1974) is an English actor, known for his roles in works such as '' The Theory of Everything'', '' Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'', and ''Game of Thrones''. Early life Cilenti was born in Bradfor ...

as Sean * Talisa Garcia as V Recruiter * Armin Karima as Hiram * Alexandra Daddario as Tawny * Oliver Masucci as Georges Verhoeven *

Frank Dillane Frank Stephenson Dillane (born 21 April 1991) is an English actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Nick Clark on '' Fear the Walking Dead'' (2015–2018) and 16-year-old Tom Riddle in the film '' Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prin ...

as Christophe * Daniel Betts as Rupert * Tobi Bamtefa as Brett * Peter Guinness as Lief

Episodes

Season 1 (2016)

Season 2 (2017)

Season 3 (2021)

Production

In June 2014, the series was greenlit by

, with a 13-episode order with the series being based upon '' The Girlfriend Experience'' which was directed by

who also serves as an executive producer on the series, while Lodge Kerrigan and

, wrote and directed all 13 episodes and also serve as executive producers. In September 2014, Riley Keough was cast as the female lead.

Shane Carruth Shane Carruth (born 1972) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, composer, and actor. He is the writer, director, and co-star of the prize-winning science-fiction film ''Primer'' (2004), which was his debut feature. His second film, '' Upstrea ...

composed the musical score for the series. Principal photography took place in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. In January 2017, it was announced that Louisa Krause, Anna Friel and

Carmen Ejogo Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo (; born 22 October 1973)

were cast as the three female leads of season 2. The second season features two parallel storylines, with Kerrigan and Seimetz each writing and directing their own storyline. In March, Narges Rashidi joined the cast of the series. Although there is no crossover between the storylines and Kerrigan and Seimetz worked independently, they did read each other's scripts. In an interview with '' Variety'', Kerrigan said: "We respected each other’s work, and I think we have mutual respect as filmmakers, so we read each other’s scripts and watched each other’s episodes, but really, we just did our own thing." In September 2017, Kerrigan and Seimetz indicated that they would not return for a third season. Kerrigan explained, "Amy and I are going to bounce after season two which was always the plan to allow new filmmakers to come in." In July 2019, Starz renewed the series for a 10-episode third season, to be written and directed by

. Filming for the third season began on August 20, 2020, in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Reception

Critical response

The first season of ''The Girlfriend Experience'' received positive reviews from critics, earning a rating of 85% with an average score of 8.5 out of 10, based on 40 reviews, on the review-aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

. The site's critical consensus reads: "The darkly fascinating (and utterly bingeworthy) ''The Girlfriend Experience'' powers past any shortcomings with a breakout performance by Riley Keough."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

provides a score of 78 out of 100 from 27 critics, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Matt Zoller Seitz Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and film-maker. Career Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for '' New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as ...

, reviewing for ''

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North a ...

'', gave top praises to the series, stating that "''The Girlfriend Experience'' is actually four or five shows rolled into one, and a big part of its specialness resides in those moments where it morphs from one thing into another", as well as giving high praise especially to the season finale: " tis the most daring, dense, allusive, and multilayered single episode of TV I’ve seen since the finale of season three of '' Louie''". The second season received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 74% rating with an average score of 9.4 out of 10 based on 19 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "''The Girlfriend Experience'' reinvents itself from a character study into an ensemble piece, thoughtfully unpacking thorny aspects of sexuality and providing rigorous programming for viewers who want to be both challenged and titillated". On Metacritic, it has a score of 72 out of 100 based on 6 reviews. Writing for

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particle ...

, Chris Cabin gave it a four star review and wrote that it's "one of the greatest seasons of television that 2017 has produced thus far." Writing for ''Variety'', Sonia Saraiya felt that while the second season was "still directed and produced beautifully, with a soundscape so precise and intimate that it is haunting and immersive in a way little else on television can even approach", sex work and "even the sex worker herself" had become "secondary to the aims of the filmmaker", particularly in ''Erica & Anna,'' but that both storylines had fine qualities: "'Bria' is cinematically stunning, with a few sequences that are going to be hard to forget anytime soon. 'Erica & Anna' is a much more straightforward story, with a chilly aesthetic that makes 'House of Cards' look upbeat. But the relative opacity of 'Bria’s story' beats — and the oddly pat metaphors of 'Erica & Anna' — left me with the wish that these two well-matched directors might, you know, collaborate." The third season has received somewhat positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, it has a score of 76 out of 100 based on 6 reviews.

Accolades

For the

74th Golden Globe Awards The 74th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2016, was broadcast live on January 8, 2017 from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST by NBC. ...

, Riley Keough was nominated for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film.

Home media

Amazon Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service p ...

acquired rights to the series for the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Japan, with the series premiering on June 27, 2016, excluding Japan. The first season was released on Blu-ray and DVD in region 1 on August 2, 2016.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Girlfriend Experience, The 2010s American LGBT-related drama television series 2016 American television series debuts 2010s American anthology television series 2020s American anthology television series English-language television shows Erotic drama television series Live action television shows based on films Prostitution in American television Serial drama television series Starz original programming Television shows filmed in Toronto Television shows set in Chicago Television shows set in London Television shows set in New Mexico Television shows set in Washington, D.C.