The half-hour Starz drama is an art film in installments, and the year's most psychologically complex show. In the sprawling aftermath of Golden Age of television , shows are covered as vociferously and hyper-intellectually if not more so as films. The party line seems to be that β from lauded shows from The Wire to Breaking Bad , to big-budget, event spectaculars like Game of Thrones β TV has found ways to achieve everything that films do, and they do it all the time.
This is not exactly true. Long, twisting plot lines become red herrings. She struggles to juggle work with, well, work, eventually losing control on her prospective law career. She ramps up operations in her second life, which increasingly seems like her calling. Unexpected collision points β bursts of male vengeance, often β cause her to lose control, something to which she is thoroughly unaccustomed.
Many have offered nothing but the highest praise , but others have excoriated its vague messaging and unusual syntax. In many cases, the lack of a clear moralizing message about its controversial subject matter were considered part of the problem. The Girlfriend Experience does stoke different associations at different points, forcing the viewer to adjust and readjust his mindset.
The character of Christine is, at turns, beyond hard to grasp; a sociopath, it might seem. This says more about the complex experience of a prostitute than a more overtly moralizing and topically focused show would doubtless be able to do.
Across the season, Christine plummets to the bottom of the proverbial downward spiral, but in another sense, she comes to terms with deeper truths about herself. Where most shows expand in scope across a season β building out side characters and the scope of its vision β The Girlfriend Experience hones and clarifies itself.
