“Girlfriend Experience”: Unlikely Success
Benjamin Lee writes: ‘Taking Steven Soderbergh’s middling 2009 drama The Girlfriend Experience as the jump-off for a more expansive small-screen iteration was hardly a thrilling proposition when it was revealed on Starz last year. The show, like the film, focuses on an escort who offers the titular high-end service, meaning that a client would receive the illusion of a partner rather than a more transactional sexual encounter, and in a time of increased opportunities for women on television, something about it seemed at best regressive and at worst exploitative. While female
sexuality has been explored in depth in the last year, thanks to Insecure, Better Things and Fleabag, there still remains an industry standard of oversexualization. It feels even less necessary given recent horrifying tales of Hollywood harassment, abuse and reductive objectification. But The Girlfriend Experience isn’t a show about titillation.’
