The Girlfriend

There’s a distinctly old-school feel to The Girlfriend, Prime Video’s new thriller starring Robin Wright, who also directs the first three episodes. Wright plays the fabulously wealthy Laura Sanderson, an American gallery owner in London who develops a borderline psychosexual obsession with her son, Daniel’s (Laurie Davidson), new girlfriend, the mysterious Cherry (Olivia Cooke).

From the moment Daniel introduces his mother to Cherry at an upscale family dinner party, she is viewed as an outsider. Laura’s best friend, Isabella (Tanya Moodie), remarks on Cherry’s otherworldly beauty, while Laura, once excited at the prospect of meeting her son’s new partner, is immediately filled with consternation.

Wright and Cooke expertly convey the multifaceted duel between the two women, which is reminiscent of 90s psychological thrillers like Single White Female and Fatal Attraction. Cherry is something of a femme fatale – at least in Laura’s eyes – greeting her in a bold, low-cut red dress and crimson lipstick. Daniel and his father, Howard (Waleed Zuaiter), at first appear completely oblivious to the tension between Laura and Cherry. This is very much a tale of sisterhood gone awry; Laura should be happy for her son, yet she is filled with rage and something akin to envy in the presence of the younger woman.

But is Cherry indeed the conniving, duplicitous villain that Laura sees? Or is she a misunderstood social outcast thrust into the world of the super-rich, and thus vilified for it? The Rashomon-style storytelling constantly offers up twists and turns, with the characters’ motives shifting with the audience’s sympathies. The first episode, for instance, ends on a suitably jaw-on-the-floor revelation. An incidental contemporary pop soundtrack adds to the show’s glossy appearance and aforementioned vintage feel.

With all its perfectly manicured extravagance, the series leans heavily into soap opera tropes. The class commentary isn’t particularly subtle, with Cherry explicitly branded a “chav” with lofty dreams during a confrontation with an ex. Frequent titillation via sex scenes and partial nudity also feels a tad gimmicky and old-hat.

But The Girlfriend doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is: a showy psychodrama brimming with rapid-fire twists. As binge-worthy popcorn viewing, it should satisfy anyone seeking an escapist comfort thriller.

Antonia Georgiou

The Girlfriend is released on Prime Video on 10^th September 2025.

Watch the trailer for The Girlfriend here: