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We might have thought The White Lotus had cornered this year’s market on incestuous vibes in a prestige drama, but Amazon Prime is trying to sliver away a slice of the deeply unhinged pie.
Instead of a weird brother-on-brother dynamic, the new eight-parter The Girlfriend features an oddly intense mother-son relationship that could leave you gurning at your TV.
The juicy thriller stars Robin Wright as wealthy matriarch Laura, whose gormless doctor son Danny (Laurie Davidson) brings his new girlfriend Cherry (Olivia Cooke) home to get the seal of maternal approval.
Except, Cherry is an ambitious real estate agent who seems to have some sort of hidden agenda that immediately puts Laura’s back up and has her fretting for her dear boy.
So why does Danny’s mother care so much what the inscrutable Cherry is after? Well, as it turns out, her husband Howard (Waleed Zuaiter) has long been having an affair and she lost a baby daughter years before, so Danny has become the emotional centre of Laura’s world.
Both Laura and Cherry are ever the manipulators and embark on a tug-of-war, with Danny in the middle, as they battle to push the other out of the picture.
Based on Michelle Frances’s 2017 psychological thriller novel of the same name, the sunny north London-set drama is yet more filthy rich TV, with a backdrop of opulent houses, swimming pools and plush gardens.
The bonkers thriller has already been hailed as an ‘addictive’ watch, with an 87% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and all episodes racing up Amazon’s top 10 ranking since its release.
A review in Variety hailed the show as ‘a shocking and twisted story about manipulation, control and jealousy,’ adding: ‘The series is a wild, thrilling ride from its opening scene until its unsettling conclusion.’
Meanwhile, The Guardian said it was ‘a brilliantly slippery beast of a drama’ as the perspective shifts from Laura to Cherry, leaving viewers unsure who to root for.
The Times labelled the show ‘addictive’, writing: ‘A guilty pleasure? Probably. A tiny bit far-fetched? Perhaps. With a sprinkling of bonkers, sir? If you must. One thing is for absolute sure, you simply can’t take your eyes off this thing.’
What did Metro think of The Girlfriend?
You can read TV Editor Sabrina Barr’s full 4.5* review here.
Every so often, a psychological thriller comes along that quite literally makes you question your own mind. The Girlfriend does just that.
One could compare the drama to Gone Girl – it’s tough to know who to trust, it’s sexy and horrifying in equal measure, and the story becomes steadily more unhinged as it unfolds.
But honestly, the series is its own fresh entity, and I can’t wait for other TV fans to devour this utterly tantalising six-parter as quickly as I did.
From the moment Cherry walks into the Sanderson family home, she’s regarded by Laura as a threat. A woman who actually has the potential to take her son away from her for good.
At least, that’s how Laura sees it, even if she doesn’t notice her own paranoia gradually taking form.
Trust me when I say, this isn’t just a family drama about high-society squabbles. This revenge thriller is cutthroat, and it sticks the landing.
Laurie Davidson, who plays Danny, spoke to Metro about the questionable mother-son relationship in the show. Is he prepared for viewers to take the bond as one that’s ‘too close’ for a mother and son?
‘I think people definitely will, and I wouldn’t defend it for them. I think that’s great,’ he said at the London premiere of the series. ‘I think in this country, it’s very unusual.’
He continued: ‘I think there are other places in Europe, maybe, where mothers and sons do have that intimacy. For them, it wouldn’t even register that it was in any way sexual or Freudian.
‘But just being incredibly tactile, being a best friend. I know in Italian culture, for example, that relationship dynamic is quite common. I certainly was thinking with that in mind when doing it, but I think people will think it’s weird. So they should, that’s fine.’
The Girlfriend is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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