'The Girlfriend' Christopher Raphael/Prime Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment The Girlfriend announces itself right off the bat. Over a moody Lorde cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," the camera swirls around the exterior windows of a stately London home, capturing disturbing snatches of noise from within. Doors slam. Metal clatters. Voices shout in violent argument: "Laura, put the knife down!" "I need to protect him from you!" You can guess how the rest of the story plays out from there, even before the premiere jumps back five months to properly introduce its leads - and, for both better and for worse, you will not be wrong. The lack of any real surprises or subversions along the way can be a drag, making the Prime Video miniseries feel a bit padded even at a relatively trim six hour-long episodes. Related Stories TV TV's Latest It Brit, Olivia Cooke, Wants to Be Your 'Girlfriend' News Robin Wright Reflects on Leaving the U.S. to Live in the U.K.: "America Is a Sh**show" The Girlfriend The Bottom Line Delicious acting elevates a predictable plot. Airdate: Wednesday, Sep. 10 (Prime Video)Cast: Robin Wright, Olivia Cooke, Laurie Davidson, Waleed Zuaiter, Tanya Moodie, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Karen Henthorn, Anna ChancellorCreators: Naomi Sheldon and Gabbie Asher, based on the novel by Michelle Frances But it also leaves plenty of room for what is really the series' greatest draw anyway: the chance to watch Olivia Cooke and especially Robin Wright go toe to toe in wickedly unhinged fashion. The lead actresses play the two women who love Daniel Sanderson (Laurie Davidson), a sweet-natured med student, more than anyone in the world. Wright (who also directed the first few episodes) is his mother, a well-heeled and well-known gallerist named Laura. She dotes on her son with a protectiveness that borders on possessive, folding him into hugs that seem just an inch too close or a second too long. When Daniel mentions bringing a new girlfriend home for dinner, Laura's amused until he clarifies that no, this one's different - he's serious about this one. Her grin never falters, but it seems to dim in some barely perceptible way. Said girlfriend is Cherry (Olivia Cooke), a high-end realtor with working-class roots. It's not just her name that's a bit "naff," as Laura snarks to her best friend, Isabella (scene-stealer Tanya Moodie). From the moment Cherry walks into the Sandersons' tasteful beige-and-cream mansion, she sticks out like a gaping wound with her dark lips and plunging red minidress. And that's before Laura catches Cherry sneaking her precious boy off into a side room to give him a blow job - a sight that so unnerves the mama bear, she's wiping away tears after. Adapted by Naomi Sheldon and Gabbie Asher from Michelle Frances' 2018 novel, The Girlfriend splits each of its hours into two parts that play the same events first from one woman's perspective, then from the other's. Sometimes, these tellings contradict each other in small ways. More often, they reveal omissions, like a line of dialogue that does not flatter one of the POVs or additional background information unavailable to the other party. For Laura, that missing context often boils down to her own unconscious class prejudice. Is there truly something off about Cherry, as she insists to her endlessly patient husband, Howard (Waleed Zuaiter), or is Cherry simply unschooled in the ways of their elite class? Does Cherry fibbing about where she went to school or feigning a knowledge of modern art make her disturbingly manipulative, or just desperate to fit in? Though not exactly a screw-the-rich excoriation on the level of Netflix's Sirens or Prime Video's own We Were Liars, The Girlfriend is observant about the ways money divides its characters - the anxiety and ambition it sparks in Cherry, the ease it affords Daniel and his family. But it's even shrewder about exploiting that wealth differential to play with our sympathies. So Laura might not be wrong to guess that Cherry pocketed the money Daniel gave her for a first-class ticket and spent it instead on clothes. But gosh, it sure is easy - and fun - to hate a woman who'll smirk about Cherry's "terribly expensive" new swimsuit from the top deck of her own family's yacht. It is so easy, in fact, that even when Laura does dig up seemingly damning evidence of Cherry's ill intentions, we might still be inclined to give the poor girl the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she does have a reasonable explanation for crashing her ex's wedding in spectacularly gory fashion! Who's to say? Certainly not Laura, who seems determined to interpret even Cherry's most benign gestures in bad faith. But The Girlfriend has no intention of valorizing Cherry, either. If the interloper is easier to pity, she's not much easier to like. She's u