The Girlfriend Experience is an American anthology drama television series created, written, and directed by Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz and airing on the premium cable network Starz. 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, 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.
Video The Girlfriend Experience (TV series)
Plot
Season 1: Christine's Story
Second-year Chicago-Burnham Law School student Christine Reade (Riley Keough) lands an internship at the law firm of Kirkland & Allen and struggles to balance her workload, expenses and classes. When her close friend Avery (Kate Lyn Sheil) 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. Christine eventually makes the decision to work as a GFE, women who provide "The Girlfriend Experience" - emotional and sexual relationships available through the transaction of money, under the pseudonym "Chelsea Rayne", initially working for Avery's madam Jacqueline (Alexandra Castillo). Christine eventually strikes out on her own, experiencing pitfalls along the way as clients cross boundaries and she uncovers a scandal at Kirkland & Allen.
Season 2: Erica & Anna's Story/Bria's Story
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 (Anna Friel), a finance director of a Republican super PAC, and Anna Garner (Louisa Krause), a GFE provider. Under intense pressure to deliver on her fundraising goals, Erica enlists Anna's help in blackmailing a high-powered dark money fundraiser. In the other storyline, set in New Mexico, it follows Bria Jones (Carmen Ejogo), a former high-end escort who enters the Witness Protection Program with her estranged thirteen-year-old step-daughter (Morgana Davies) 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 (Tunde Adebimpe) put in charge of her.
Maps The Girlfriend Experience (TV series)
Cast and characters
Main
Recurring
Episodes
Season 1: Christine's Story (2016)
Season 2: Erica & Anna's Story/Bria's Story (2017)
Production
In June 2014, the series was greenlit by Starz, with a 13-episode order with the series being based upon The Girlfriend Experience which was directed by Steven Soderbergh who also serves as an executive producer on the series, while Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz, 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 composed the musical score for the series. Principal photography took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
In January 2017, it was announced that Louisa Krause, Anna Friel and Carmen Ejogo 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 2017, Narges Rashidi joined the cast of the series.
Reception
Critical response
The first season of The Girlfriend Experience received positive reviews from critics, earning a rating of 83% with an average score of 8.5 out of 10, based on 36 reviews, on the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. 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 provides a score of 78 out of 100 from 27 critics, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Matt Zoller Seitz, reviewing for Vulture, 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: "[It] is 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 has received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 80% rating with an average score of 9.44 out of 10 based on 15 reviews. On Metacritic, it has a score of 72 out of 100 based on 6 reviews. Writing for Collider, 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."
Accolades
For the 74th Golden Globe Awards, Riley Keough was nominated for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film.
Home media
Amazon Video 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
- Official website
- The Girlfriend Experience on IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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