The third season of the Steven Soderbergh-produced escort drama dives deep into tech and science โ and loses some of its spark along the way. Welcome to Previously On , a column that fills you in on our favorite returning TV shows. The digital form of her future employer lays down the rules for this tech-based take on sex work: the platform that matches her with dates takes a thirty percent commission, and as with other gig economy apps, users will rate Iris based on their experiences with her.
Created by Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz, with Steven Soderbergh executive producing he made a film of the same name in , The Girlfriend Experience now has Anja Marquardt at the helm, directing and writing every episode of Season 3. Each storyline follows a different high-end escort, all of them women, most of them white and involved in sex work by choice.
This premise is fruitful territory for meditations on desire, intimacy, and power, but the show takes an unexpected turn into the area of technology and gets lost in its own musings along the way.
The new arc is dutifully determined to present itself as a part of the cutting edge. Long expository conversations about neuro-technology, floaty shots of skyscrapers, and the occasional shiny-fake VR room constantly hammer home the point that the future is now. Based on the five episodes available for review, The Girlfriend Experience Season 3 is a series of missed opportunities and dull narrative detours.
If the scientist wants a general understanding of human desire, why would she start with the rich and powerful clients of an escort agency? When Seimetz and Kerrigan ran the show, it was proof positive of the power of a well-built sex scene. The first season, which remains the best, uses sex scenes to propel the plot, shift essential power dynamics, reveal emotional truths, and even force viewers to examine their own desires.
