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Lock up your parents and children, people – The Girlfriend is the new Prime Video thriller you don’t want to be caught watching with anybody you get easily embarrassed around. Why? While the scandal and mysteries run deep, the erotic sexiness is off the scale.
Taking the cat-and-mouse hunt we see in shows like Killing Eve to a new extreme, The Girlfriend introduces audiences to a mother called Laura (Robin Wright) when she meets her son’s new girlfriend, Cherry (Olivia Cooke). Laura instantly senses that something is amiss and becomes intent on proving that Cherry’s involvement in Daniel’s (Laurie Davidson) life is more sinister than meets the eye.
As far as new thriller series go, this is pretty damn brilliant. Playing a mother and girlfriend off against each other is dynamic we’ve rarely seen onscreen in recent years, but add in the dual perspective from each episode (you’ll see the same events play out twice from both Laura and Cherry’s point of view) and we’ve got no idea who’s truth is the finite truth.
All of this mystery means that if you’re anything like me, you’ll likely binge the six episodes in the blink of an eye, and even be willing to overlook the slight blunders that pepper the peaks and pits of the drama. If you’ve read the original novel by Michelle Frances and think you know what’s coming, though, think again.
The Girlfriend is hands-down the streamiest stream on Prime Video in 2025
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I mean, the trailer says it all. Both Laura and Cherry are playing with fire in The Girlfriend, and I’ve still got no idea whose side I’m on. We see Laura as both overly-doting (to the point where I’m surprised Daniel hasn’t been to therapy) and conniving, while Cherry is an ice-cold manipulator and hapless nobody who’s in over her head.
It’ll come as no surprise that the intimacy involved (both family and romantic-oriented) is portrayed incredibly well. No matter whether it was a parental argument or a sex scene, I felt as though I should avert my gaze, as it somehow carried the shame of a teenage boy and a worried mother simultaneously. It’s rare that such a mainstream limited series could make me feel uncomfortable and intrigued at the same time, and it’s a testament to the quality of the series that we’re able to sit with moral questions nobody has answers to.
That being said, I promise that each of our mysteries will be answered. There are no loose ends that we’ll come away feeling hard-done by, but there’s still a dangling ‘what if’ cliffhanger that leaves us exploring the narrative internally in greater detail.
I wasn’t expecting such a level of introspection, nor was I anticipating such precise class commentary from The Girlfriend. Aside from the messed-up love triangle that grabs our attention, the series is also a cutting portrayal of rich vs. poor, and whether we can seamlessly rise from rags to riches like we’re told is possible. This is arguably the sub-plot that’s done the best of all, and it’s genuinely worth watching to have a deeper conversation about this alone.
Robin Wright is an incredible director, but that might be to Laura’s detriment
For the most part, I cannot stress enough how impeccable our ensemble cast is. Davidson plays a mommy’s boy so well that he’s fit to feature on Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album, with Tanya Moodie’s BFF Isabella a comic treat and a slam dunk for Motherland fans. They offer us all the sex, scandal and explicit drama we’d want, but it’s not perfect.
Of course, nothing is, but it’s Wright herself that bothers me the most. Even after watching episode 1 alone, it’s abundantly clear how much of an exquisite director she is. The Girlfriend has some of the best designed episodes of 2025, and she’s the creative lynchpin responsible for that.
But while the feat of acting and directing is impressive, I don’t completely buy Wright as Laura onscreen. If anything, she feels somewhat miscast in her own role. There’s a lack of tenderness and heart underpinning the decisions Wright makes, although perhaps that’s just because I’ve watched too much House of Cards. Her emotional connection with those around her can feel stilted in a way that transcends what’s in the script, and I wonder what another actress would have looked like in her replace.
Laura surprisingly has the least amount of chemistry with her ex-girlfriend Lilith (Anna Chancellor), even when she finds herself snogging the face off of the woman she’s supposedly never stopped loving. Chancellor’s appearances feel haphazardly tacked on, and as a stalwart fictional lesbian (remember Tipping the Velvet in 2002?), she deserved more. As a real-life lesbian, I deserved more. As an audience, we understood Laura’s mental anguish without needed to meet Lilith at all.
By the time we get to episode 3, the dual perspective cat-and-mouse verges on the predictable, and it’s not until the latter half on episode 4 that The Girlfriend‘s second engine kicks into touch, driving it home to stick the landing. Still, these are minor issues in the bigger picture. You’d be hard-pressed to find another Amazon show that swings as scandalously (and successfully) big as this.
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