Season 1 of The Girlfriend Experience received moderate success as a TV drama. Riley Keough received most of the positive reviews and was even nominated for a Golden Globe for her role. Unfortunately for fans, season 2 will not feature Keough’s character, Christine Reade. We’re not entirely sure whether creators Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz intended for the show to be an anthology, but it’s looking like so with the release of the season 2 trailer.
In the trailer, we see two parallel stories, seemingly independent of each other. Whether these two story lines intertwine or intersect at some point is not likely. On one side, we see two main characters, Anna Friel as Erica Myles and Louisa Krause as Anna Greenwald. It looks as if the two women are working together as colleagues, partners, or even possibly lovers. The trailer had a political theme to it, introducing Myle’s character role, Anna Friel, through an online article as someone who has ties with D.C.’s power elites. This gives us another clue in the location of this coming season, while season 1 was based in Chicago. From the trailer, we gather that Friel is the one that directs Krause’s actions. It looks like it involves blackmail in a political setting, something that isn’t too far from the season 1 premise of a law school student and escort working with powerful clients in the field–still involving sex and ambition.
The second story featuring Carmen Ejogo as Bria Jones looks entirely different. We aren’t getting much of the transactional relationship feel for this one, except we’re seeing a little bit of paranoia, a little identity change, and a little action as well. We could very well be wrong because we see Ejogo’s character, Jones, in some risqué situations as well on the trailer. It looks as if Jones is caught up in a world she doesn’t want to be in, and she can’t seem to find her way out.
Whatever the story lines will explicitly be, we know that it still involves the same world that season 1 presented, maybe in just a different light. We also know that this is an opportunity for the show to really expand its roots and grow into a true anthology. Kerrigan and Seimetz intended for the show to be short-lived, but with this expansion, you never know which direction the show will take. There might have been consideration to continue on Keough’s character’s story from season 1, but we have a feeling that we’ll want the same after this second season is over. After going into this direction, there really is no limit for The Girlfriend Experience. There are plenty of avenues to explore, many cities to concentrate on, and even more characters to create–all the while staying within the world of paid intimacy and all the emotional, social, and physical consequences that go along with it.
Season 2 of The Girlfriend Experience is set to be released on Sunday, November 5 at 9/8c on Starz.
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