''The Girlfriend Experience'' is an American
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
drama television series created, written, and directed by
Lodge Kerrigan
Lodge Hunt Kerrigan (born March 23, 1964) is an American motion picture screenwriter and director. His 2010 film ''Rebecca H. (Return to the Dogs)'' entered into the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
Along with Amy Se ...
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 Sudden ...
that is broadcast on the
premium cable
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
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 consist ...
. The first season stars
Riley Keough
Danielle Riley Keough ( ; born May 29, 1989) is an American actress, notable for being the daughter of musicians Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough, and granddaughter of actress Priscilla Presley and singer Elvis Presley, and starting a succes ...
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 direc ...
, 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 and stars
Julia Goldani Telles
Julia Goldani Telles (born March 18, 1995) is an American actress and ballet dancer. She is known for playing Sasha Torres on the short-lived ABC Family series ''Bunheads'', Iris in the third season of '' The Girlfriend Experience'' and for he ...
.
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 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 financ ...
of a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
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
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforce ...
put in charge of her.
Season 3
Iris, a
neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...
major, drops out of school and moves to London to join a tech
start-up 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
Danielle Riley Keough ( ; born May 29, 1989) is an American actress, notable for being the daughter of musicians Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough, and granddaughter of actress Priscilla Presley and singer Elvis Presley, and starting a succes ...
as Christine Reade
*
Paul Sparks
Paul Sparks (born October 16, 1971) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as gangster Mickey Doyle in the HBO period drama series ''Boardwalk Empire'', writer Thomas Yates in the Netflix political drama series ''House of Cards (Americ ...
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''. Rajskub ...
as Erin Roberts
Season 2: Erica & Anna
*
Anna Friel
Anna Louise Friel (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. Born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, she has been acting professionally since age 13. Friel achieved fame with her portrayal of Beth Jordache on the British soap opera ''Brookside'' ( ...
as Erica Myles
*
Louisa Krause
Louisa Noel Krause (born May 20, 1986) is an American actress. After studying drama in college, Krause appeared in numerous off-Broadway productions while also appearing in episodes of New York-based network television series. Her first film role ...
as Anna Garner
*
Narges Rashidi
Narges Rashidi ( fa, نرگس رشیدی) is an American-German actress of Iranian descent. She was born in Iran where her father was an army colonel. In 1987 she settled with her family in Turkey. A year later the family moved to Germany, where ...
as Darya Esford
Season 2: Bria
*
Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo (; born 22 October 1973) as Bria Jones/Sarah Day
*
Tunde Adebimpe
Babatunde Omoroga Adebimpe (born February 26, 1975) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, actor, director, and visual artist best known as the lead singer of the Brooklyn-based band TV on the Radio.
Early life
Adebimpe was born into a Nig ...
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
Morgan Davies (born 27 November 2001) is an Australian film and television actor. He started his career as a child actor. Davies publicly came out as transgender in 2020.
Career
Davies made his film debut as child actor in the Australian film ...
as Kayla Fairchild
Season 3: Iris
*
Julia Goldani Telles
Julia Goldani Telles (born March 18, 1995) is an American actress and ballet dancer. She is known for playing Sasha Torres on the short-lived ABC Family series ''Bunheads'', Iris in the third season of '' The Girlfriend Experience'' and for he ...
as Iris Stanton
Recurring
Season 1
*
Kate Lyn Sheil
Kate Lyn Sheil (born June 13, 1985) is an American actress. She is primarily known for her roles in independent films '' You're Next'', ''V/H/S'', '' The Color Wheel'', '' The Sacrament'', and the award-winning Netflix series '' House of Cards ...
as Avery Suhr
*
Alexandra Castillo
Alexandra Castillo (born 14 June 1971) is a Chilean-Canadians, Canadian actress and dancer. She is sometimes credited as Alex Castillo.
Life and career
Castillo was born in Santiago, Chile as Alexandra Cecilia Castillo-Smith. As a child, her fami ...
as Jacqueline
*
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 Sudden ...
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 woul ...
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" an ...
as Tariq Barr
*
Michael Therriault
Michael Therriault is a Canadian actor. He attended Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto, Sheridan College in Oakville, and was a member of the inaugural season of the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training in Stratford, Ontario ...
as Skip Hadderly
* Sabryn Rock as Kayla Boden
* James Gilbert as Jack
Season 2
* Emily Piggford as Sandra Fuchs
*
Michael Cram
Michael Cram (born July 11, 1968) is a Canadian actor and singer-songwriter.
Early life
He grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, and attended Hillcrest High School before studying economics at Carleton University. He then studied theatre at The Center ...
as Mark Novak
Season 3
*
Charles Edwards as Elliott Stanton
*
Jemima Rooper
Jemima Rooper (born 24 October 1981) is a British actress. Having started as a child actress in television series, she has appeared in numerous film and theatre roles.
Background
Born in Hammersmith, London, Rooper is the daughter of TV journ ...
as Leanne
*
Ray Fearon
Raymond Fearon is an English actor. He played garage mechanic Nathan Harding on ITV's long-running soap opera ''Coronation Street'' and voiced the centaur Firenze in the Wizarding World film series ''Harry Potter'' and '' Fantastic Beasts''.
...
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 Bradford ...
as Sean
*
Talisa Garcia Talisa is a female given name. Notable people with the name include
People
* Talisa Lanoe (born 1994), Kenyan swimmer
* Talisa Soto (born 1967), American actress
* Talisa Thomalla (born 2003), German skater
* Talisa Torretti (born 2003), Italian gy ...
as V Recruiter
*
Armin Karima
Armin Karima is an Iranian/British actor known for his role as Abdul Bukhari in BBC Waterloo Road, Ant in IBoy, Kasim Al-Yazbek in FOX series Tyrant and Malek Amir in Netflix series Sex Education.
Career
While training Karima booked his f ...
as Hiram
*
Alexandra Daddario
Alexandra Anna Daddario (born March 16, 1986) is an American actress who had her breakthrough portraying Annabeth Chase in the ''Percy Jackson'' film series (2010–2013). In 2021, she starred in the first season of the HBO series ''The White ...
as Tawny
*
Oliver Masucci
Oliver Masucci (born 6 December 1968) is a German actor. He is best known internationally for the role of Adolf Hitler in the 2015 film adaptation of the satirical novel ''Look Who's Back'', Ulrich Nielsen in the Netflix series ''Dark,'' Anton ...
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 Prince ...
as Christophe
*
Daniel Betts
Daniel Alexander Betts (born 10 December 1971) is a British film, television, stage and voiceover actor.
Life
Born in West Sussex,
Betts trained at the Drama Centre London. As well as appearing in films and television programmes, he has been ...
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
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 consist ...
, with a 13-episode order with the series being based upon ''
The Girlfriend Experience
''The Girlfriend Experience'' is a 2009 American slice of life drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring then-pornographic actress Sasha Grey. It was shot in New York City, and a rough cut was screened at the Sundance Film Festiva ...
'' which was directed 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 direc ...
who also serves as an executive producer on the series, while
Lodge Kerrigan
Lodge Hunt Kerrigan (born March 23, 1964) is an American motion picture screenwriter and director. His 2010 film ''Rebecca H. (Return to the Dogs)'' entered into the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
Along with Amy Se ...
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 Sudden ...
, wrote and directed all 13 episodes and also serve as executive producers. In September 2014,
Riley Keough
Danielle Riley Keough ( ; born May 29, 1989) is an American actress, notable for being the daughter of musicians Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough, and granddaughter of actress Priscilla Presley and singer Elvis Presley, and starting a succes ...
was cast as the female lead.
Shane Carruth
Shane Carruth (born 1972) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, composer, and film actor, actor. He is the writer, director, and co-star of the prize-winning science-fiction film Primer (film), ''Primer'' (2004), which was his debut feature. Hi ...
composed the musical score for the series. Principal photography took place in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
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 Ca ...
,
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 tot ...
.
In January 2017, it was announced that
Louisa Krause
Louisa Noel Krause (born May 20, 1986) is an American actress. After studying drama in college, Krause appeared in numerous off-Broadway productions while also appearing in episodes of New York-based network television series. Her first film role ...
,
Anna Friel
Anna Louise Friel (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. Born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, she has been acting professionally since age 13. Friel achieved fame with her portrayal of Beth Jordache on the British soap opera ''Brookside'' ( ...
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
Narges Rashidi ( fa, نرگس رشیدی) is an American-German actress of Iranian descent. She was born in Iran where her father was an army colonel. In 1987 she settled with her family in Turkey. A year later the family moved to Germany, where ...
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
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', 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
Anja Marquardt.
Filming for the third season began on August 20, 2020, in
London
London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
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 b ...
.
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 Wang ...
. 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 review aggregator, 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 arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
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 and ...
'', 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
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...
of ''
Louie Louie may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Louie'' (American TV series), by comedian Louis C.K.
* ''Louie'' (French TV series), animated series about a young rabbit who draws pictures which come to life
* "Louie" (song), by Blood Raw
* ''L ...
''".
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. T ...
,
Riley Keough
Danielle Riley Keough ( ; born May 29, 1989) is an American actress, notable for being the daughter of musicians Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough, and granddaughter of actress Priscilla Presley and singer Elvis Presley, and starting a succes ...
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 pri ...
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.