Like so many movies of late, Steven Soderbergh’s 2009 film The Girlfriend Experience has gotten the TV treatment, swapping adult film star Sasha Grey for indie darling Riley Keough. Where the film offered a straightforward look at the life of an experienced high-end escort, the series followed a law firm intern who tiptoes into the profession as a way to pay off her college loan debt, getting more and more wrapped up in the complexities of sex work. Adopting the anthology format, The Girlfriend Experience (9 p.m. Sundays, Starz) takes on yet another distinct storyline in its second season — two of them, in fact.
The first takes place in Washington, D.C. ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections. Erica (Anna Friel) is the finance director of a Republican super PAC facing serious pressure to hit fundraising goals. With the help of escort Anna (Louisa Krause), Erica blackmails a powerful dark money fundraiser to gain access to his donor network. As Erica and Anna’s relationship quickly evolves from professional to personal, one must question whether they can truly trust one another. After all, Erica will use any means necessary to get what she wants, while Anna — whose job is literally to play the role of a girlfriend — has spied on past clients. There’s a tense, calculated House of Cards vibe at play.
The other storyline follows “Bria” (Carmen Ejogo), the new chosen alias of a former high-end escort who enters Witness Protection after turning in her abusive criminal boyfriend. Complicit in his crimes, Bria relocates to New Mexico, reluctantly joined by her ex’s 13-year-old daughter (Morgana Davies). Under the charge of a U.S. Marshal (Tunde Adebimpe), Bria secretly seeks out clients again. Given her stark lifestyle change from living in a mansion, draped in designer clothes, to being in a dingy apartment in the middle of nowhere, wearing inconspicuous lost-and-found garb, her desire to be a “sugar baby” is somewhat understandable. But it also seems like the dynamic is all she knows and understands.
Episodes air two at a time, with one half-hour devoted to Erica and Anna’s storyline and another to Bria’s. The standalone stories never intertwine. It’s almost a wonder why series co-creators/writers/directors Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz would not just focus on one, or split them into separate seasons — as the narratives are as complex and compelling as they are different — yet they do manage to pull it off. And while Soderbergh is just an executive producer in this TV adaptation, his stylistic signature is evident in each artful shot.
The implications of being an escort are magnified even more this season, with two longtime “GFE providers” getting in over their heads. Beyond the physical and emotional toll of sex work, Anna and Bria face life-altering — sometimes life-threatening — consequences. So do those around them.
We don’t get into as many fine details of how the GFE business works as last season, but Anna’s and Bria’s totally contrasting experiences illustrate the wide range: Erica has a professional web presence for clients to book her and meets them in discreet hotels; Bria makes a free profile on a sleazy sugar daddy site and is willing to brazenly hop into a customer’s car.
The two stories look drastically different cinematically, too. Erica’s and Anna’s episodes feature wide shots with the camera lingering far enough away to not really know who you’re looking at. There’s a cold feeling to these scenes, not unlike the characters that inhabit them. Between politicians and prostitutes, you never really know with whom you’re dealing.
In contrast, the uncomfortable nature of Bria’s storyline is expressed through tighter shots. She feels trapped — within a tiny apartment unlike her former luxurious home, the new rules of Witness Protection and the danger of her vengeful ex.
The sex scenes are much more full-body graphic (though thoughtfully so) in Erica’s and Anna’s story than Bria’s, which is interesting when you consider the former is directed by a man and the latter, a woman.(Kerrigan and Seimetz each write and direct their own respective storylines.)
As if this season wasn’t ambitious enough, The Girlfriend Experience’s exploration of gender dynamics, sex work and power play force viewers to consider these issues at what could not be a more pivotal time.
Contact Jac Kern: @jackern
This article appears in Dec 6-13, 2017.