There’s something fundamentally relatable about the duo at the center of Prime Video’s new 6-part thriller The Girlfriend.
An ambitious but unsure young woman (Olivia Cooke) from a lower social class, desperately trying to fit in to her new boyfriend’s wealthy family, and a once-bereaved and subsequently over-protective mother (Robin Wright), fearing her inevitable obsolescence, make for solidly watchable fare. We’ve seen similar setups from Crazy Rich Asians to The White Lotus. However The Girlfriend manages, for the most part, to subvert audience expectations with a clever narrative twist that will keep you guessing as to its meaning until the final episode.
The series introduces us to Laura (Wright), mother to Daniel (Laurie Davidson), the apple of her eye. Outwardly, Laura is poised, confident of her place in the world, and passionate about her work. She’s a well respected art curator whose exhibitions can make or break a new artist. She has a loving and easy-going millionaire husband (Waleed Zuaiter), a cadre of loyal friends, and a son who absolutely adores her.
But it’s only when Daniel introduces her to new girlfriend Cherry Laine (Cooke) and confides his new love might be “the one” that we begin to see another side to Laura, and understand that the various securities, relationships, and achievements that form the pillars of her life are built on rather shaky ground.
Cherry is the beautiful, hard-working, ambitious, and outwardly confident daughter of a butcher and a brick layer from a London council estate. However, Cherry is anxious to hide her humble origins in her initial meeting with Daniel’s parents. In one scene, she pretends to have been schooled in a far more prestigious establishment than the local comprehensive. In another she tells the family her deceased father was an architect. She admires Laura’s art, but Laura later discovers her seemingly off the cuff but astute critique was ripped from the pages of an interior design magazine. Cherry’s lies and attempts to schmooze the family are clumsy efforts to fit in amongst almost-billionaires, and Laura sees right through them from the get-go.
After a tense introduction, Laura is faced with a choice: welcome Cherry — artifice, social climbing, lies and all — to the family, or alert Daniel to her flaws. Instead, she chooses to play a wait-and-see game, co-opting her snobby friends to dig up what dirt they can on Cherry’s claims to wealth and status, while she gently tries to steer Daniel onside.
However, Laura has seriously misjudged the heat of her son’s passion for Cherry, and as things begin to move more quickly between the two lovers, Laura likewise finds herself pulled along in the wake of events by her own instincts to protect her son from harm.
It’s here that The Girlfriend becomes really interesting. Each episode relates an incident to the viewer — a family dinner, a holiday abroad, birthday plans — with the first half of the episode seen from either Laura or Cherry’s perspective, then switching, via a series of deep cuts, to the other woman’s point of view.
In Laura’s cut, she’s so distracted by Cherry’s lies at the dinner table that she distractedly pours hot dessert sauce over her lap. Despite her apologies, Cherry seems intent on taking offence, and soon Laura is wondering if Cherry has stolen an expensive bracelet from her jewellery box on the way to the bathroom in some manner of revenge move. We later see the same event from Cherry’s perspective. With her credit card almost maxed out she buys an expensive dress for the family dinner with intentions of returning it to the store later. We can clearly see the price tag half tucked away, but visible to Laura’s meticulous eye. In Cherry’s cut, Laura’s sauce-pour is deliberate, and the act is one borne out of jealousy. Not only is Cherry scalded and humiliated, but she’s also out of pocket for an item she simply can’t afford. The bracelet meanwhile, was in Cherry’s purse all along, hastily stashed so that Laura wouldn’t see her trying it on for size earlier.
The show cuts back and forth showing us an escalating series of events, misunderstandings, interpretations, accusations, and recriminations that soon put both women on a trajectory for mutual destruction. As the black hole of their enmity grows it begins to suck in those closest to them, with friends and family becoming collateral damage on the battlefront to secure Daniel’s trust and loyalty.
But who is the story’s actual villain? And who is the real victim? Is Cherry a cold-hearted manipulator with sights on the family’s cash, or is Laura a controlling and fearful mother with an unhealthy attachment to a son she can’t bear to see grow up? The Girlfriend refuses to take sides. Instead we are shown both, slowly gaining an intimate and fuller understanding of both women at the center of the storm in the excruciating process.
Robin Wright, who also serves an executive producer on the show, is a treat to watch as Laura, the proverbial swan gliding on water. Above the waterline we see a vision of elegance, assurance, and poise, but beneath she is kicking madly — fearful, desperate, and seconds from losing control. Laura is a woman drowning in the choices of her own life, while the rest of her family stand on the shore wondering why she’s making such a fuss. Wright’s acting chops are of the calibre where even the slightest glance or muttered line can convey multitudes, and her scenes with Cooke, who brings the heat to match Laura’s cool charm, are electric.
In fact, the show seems to deliberately lean into the fire and water motif. Laura, in cool pastels or nautical blues, spends a lot of the series standing next to, or swimming in water, while Cherry’s intensely red outfits and flowing auburn hair serve to highlight her intensity, passion, and, at times, rage. Add to this the scenic backdrops of Mediterranean villas, expensive yachts, and swish London mansions, and The Girlfriend quickly becomes quite a feast for the eyes over the course of its punchy six episode run.
The series is not without its flaws. Although its central premise is solid (if not solidly familiar), and the show’s two-sided method of direction is intriguing, some story beats feel implausible, while others pander to melodrama, particularly towards the end of the series.
In one episode Cherry bumps into an old boyfriend who has slighted her in the past. When she learns he’s getting married, she infiltrates his wedding venue dressed as a caterer and spikes the wedding cake with an explosive bag of pig’s blood, splashing the bride and groom during their cake cutting ceremony in a series of orchestrated events so complex Ethan Hunt and the whole Mission Impossible team would want a word.
And while the show ambitiously and steadfastly refuses to take sides throughout most of its run, it does give in to temptation eventually. The move is an inevitable one, considering the show’s thriller genre, and its episode count. However, it’s also a disappointing move that does away with the most compelling aspect of the show, and creates the very cliched villain it managed to avoid so well until this point.
However, those who want to be left guessing until the final seconds if the truth really is a matter of perspective will no doubt be happy with the various twists and turns involved in getting from A to Z. Throw in Wright and Cooke as a phenomenal double act, an intelligently selected supporting cast, some beautifully lavish European locations, and a suitably thrilling finale, and there’s a lot to like here. In fact there’s something interesting to note about women, ambition, and the value we assign ourselves sandwiched in between the leaps of imagination and moments of melodrama.
In addition to Wright and Cooke, The Girlfriend stars Laurie Davidson as Daniel, Waleed Zuaiter as Howard, Tayna Moodie as Isabella, Shalom Brune-Franklin as Brigitte, Karen Henthorn as Tracey, Anna Chancellor as Lilith, Leo Suter as Nicholas, and Francesca Corney as Millie.
The series is produced by Imaginarium Productions and Amazon MGM Studios.
Based on Michelle Frances’ novel of the same name The Girlfriend is adapted for TV by Naomi Sheldon and Gabbie Asher, with episodes written by Naomi Sheldon, Gabbie Asher, Polly Cavendish, Helen Kingston, Marek Horn, Ava Wong Davies, Isis Davis, Smita Bhida and Matt Evans.
All six episodes of The Girlfriend land on Prime Video on Wednesday, September 10.
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