By Dov Kornits
Steven Soderbergh’s 2009 film, The Girlfriend Experience, was most notable for the casting of porn star, Sasha Grey, in the leading role. Her acting left a lot to be desired, only rivalled by Soderbergh’s experiment a few years later with MMA fighter, Gina Carano, in his thriller, Haywire, in which his first-time leading lady was adept at fighting (as opposed to acting like she’s enjoying sex), but not so much the dramatic aspects of the narrative.
Before I get too far, let me explain that “the girlfriend experience” is something offered as a premium by proponents of the world’s oldest profession to clients who would like the service to recreate what a girlfriend might do; say, kiss you on the lips passionately. You can even find girlfriend experiences in Sydney.
In its brief running time of barely 80 minutes, Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience gave you a lot to chew on, but only really skimmed the surface. Through its 13 x 30 minute episodes, the Starz TV series of the same name (which is currently available for bingeing on the STAN streaming service in Australia) delves deeply into heady issues surrounding modern sexual politics, sexual addiction, female sexuality, masculinity, feminism, patriarchy, capitalism, the internet, and much more. And what’s particularly great about the series, unlike the feature film, is leading lady, Riley Keough (best known as the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley), who plays “working girl”, Chelsea/Christine, in one of the most commanding and enigmatic performances of our “golden age of TV” era – if ever there was a TV series that was a single film broken down into 13 episodes, this is it, with a performance to equal it.

One of the most impressive things about the modern screen landscape is the possibility for auteur TV. Unlike many shows which benefit from a great filmmaker only helming the pilot episode, The Girlfriend Experience is co-written by Lodge Kerrigan (Clean, Shaven; Claire Dolan, in which, interestingly, the late, great, Katlin Cartlidge played a call girl; and Keane) and Amy Seimetz (who also features as Christine’s sister in the show, and had previously starred in the indie darling, Upstream Color, directed by Shane Carruth, who cast Seimetz after he watched a film that she had directed), with alternate episodes directed by the filmmakers.
Mostly set in a slick but soulless Chicago, The Girlfriend Experience is consistently sterile in its presentation of the world that Chelsea/Christine occupies, be it posh restaurants and hotels, or the office of her day job as a legal intern. The sound design adds atmosphere and suspense, and as befits its subject matter, the show is filled wall to wall with sex, though none of it is in any way gratuitous or out of context. It’s also interesting to watch which episodes the respective filmmaker chooses to direct, and the individual approach that they take. And yes, there is an edge-of-the-seat plot that develops as you get through the series, but it’s hardly wrapped up with a nice bow at the end. This is a series designed to excite, entertain, and most impressively, make you think.

All of which brings me to my initial inspiration behind this piece, and the reason that I am exasperated with the masses swarming all over the launch of Game Of Thrones: Season 6. From my personal experience of loving shows such as Girls and Mad Men, and announcing them as the second coming, but then tuning into later seasons to discover that they just turn into melodramas, I can’t help but feel that you’re really missing out if you stick to the safe route of following a show for multiple seasons instead of discovering something new, and something exciting, with something to say. Take it from me, The Girlfriend Experience is that and so much more. I can’t say that I’ll be singing the same tune if there is a second season, especially if it doesn’t involve Lodge Kerrigan, Amy Seimetz, and Riley Keough, but for now, The Girlfriend Experience is the best thing on the box (or on any big screen), and an affirmation that we really are living in the Golden Age of TV.
For information on how to stream The Girlfriend Experience, head to Stan.