The Girlfriend

This is a slick and entertaining drama with a very well paced story, through the lens of two controlling women in a man's life. Throughout the series you can pretty much guess most of the outcomes, although there are some nice little twists and turns.

Olivia Cooke plays her role magnificently and its worth watching just for her amazing outfits. I feel they missed a trick and could've made this a dark comedy drama, as there were situations between the mother and son that the girlfriend picked up on, which could've been comedic.

What let's this show down is the penultimate scene in the final episode.....no spoilers. Watch for yourself as it doesn't completely ruin the experience, but it does make you think they could've written it better and the ending would still have the same impact.

The Girlfriend has a hooky premise and uniformly strong acting but it leans too hard on prefab gloss. The show's world is populated by stock archetypes: a 27-year-old doctor with a handsome face and a magazine-body, a pretentious mother who's a blue-chip art dealer, an unremarkable father who happens to be a hotel magnate. The ensemble feels assembled by ChatGPT.

Cherry, the sharp working-class outsider dating into this moneyed clan, is the exception. She has the raw material for a compelling class-clash protagonist. The writing gestures at complexity, code-switching, impostor syndrome, moral compromise but her arc stalls just as it should deepen.

What keeps the series watchable is the evolving antagonism between Wright's character, the mother, and Cherry.

Around them, too many players fade into décor. Brigitte and her mother, in particular, function as narrative furniture; useful for expository nudges, seldom granted interiority. It doesn't help that the production design is so pristine (beautiful houses, landscapes, wardrobes) that it threatens to become the point. The mise-en-scène is luxurious; the psychology, less so.

Bottom line: polished and perfectly watchable, but frustratingly safe. With more investment in character design (fewer portrayal of "perfect" rich people and more recognizable human mess and realness) The Girlfriend might have transcended its clichés. As is, it's a handsome surface with flashes of the show it wants to be.

I just binged all six episodes in one stretch! It was great to see the very talented and naturally beautiful Robin Wright in front of and behind the camera. Even though she has been busy, this was my first time seeing her since the final season of House of Cards - which was a 10/10.

The graceful Olive Cooke, who very convincingly played an unstable outcast in Thoroughbreds, was in top form in The Girlfriend and the perfect rival for Wright's character.

I enjoyed the story's easy to follow point of view format. The scenery is spectacular. Initially, the music seemed aggressive but grew on me. The acting was excellent by the supporting actors, too.

Very importantly, The Girlfriend has realistic representation of race and sexuality without being over the top. Shows like And Just Like That...tried too hard for representation and IMO inadvertently came off as racist, bigoted, and prejudiced by trying to check off all the boxes.

Lastly, despite The Girlfriend having a couple of plot holes, this psychological thriller is an easy and fun viewing experience! I definitely recommend.

Episodes are really tight the first half, direction, character development, pace, music... all very well done. But as it nears the end, it just pushes a little too much. Still, I recommended it to most of my friends, yes it's flawed but it was highly entertaining.

Olivia Cooke and Robin Wright didn't come to play.

A satisfyingly wicked domestic thriller. Robin Wright is perfectly passive-aggressive as a mother who won't let go, while Olivia Cooke delivers a career-best performance as a maybe-maybe-not con artist. The dual-perspective format is clever, and the show embraces its own soapy excess. Think Big Little Lies meets The Talented Mr. Ripley-with better coats.