Entertainment
Prime Video’s The Girlfriend, adapted from Michelle Frances’s bestselling psychological thriller, brings to screen a fascinating power struggle between two women who are connected by one man, a son and lover caught helplessly between them. The series stars Robin Wright as the overprotective mother Laura and Olivia Cooke as the enigmatic girlfriend Cherry, the series is a stylish, suspenseful, has exploration of deceit, manipulation, and the subtle cruelty of privilege.
The show is Directed with a very sleek and chic background showing a dark side of things ,The Girlfriend unfolds over six fascinating episodes, each peeling back another layer of mistrust. What begins as a seemingly perfect domestic drama, a wealthy mother meeting her son’s charming new partner, quickly spirals into a tense psychological duel. The brilliance of the show lies in its refusal to tell the audience whom to believe. Through alternating points of view, it builds an atmosphere where every smile hides suspicion and every kind gesture could be a trap.
THE PERFORMANCES
Robin Wright delivers one of her most controlled and nuanced performances in recent years. As Laura she embodies both warmth and quiet menace, a woman haunted by her son’s affection slipping away. Her polished exterior conceals deep insecurity, and Wright captures that duality with remarkable precision. Opposite her, Olivia Cooke shines as Cherry, a working-class woman suddenly thrust into the world of upper-crust luxury. Cooke plays Cherry with layered ambiguity, vulnerable one moment, calculating the next, leaving viewers perpetually guessing whether she is victim or villain.
STRENGTHS
While the narrative setup feels familiar, The Girlfriend distinguishes itself through its exploration of class tension and maternal obsession. The divide between Laura’s gilded world and Cherry’s modest background gives their conflict sharp social texture. Beneath the suspense, the show quietly examines how wealth amplifies paranoia, how the privileged instinctively distrust outsiders and how love, when bound to status, becomes possession rather than affection.
Visually, the series is impressive. The camera lingers on glassy interiors, designer kitchens, and the sterile beauty of upper-class life, symbols of both success and isolation. The cinematography, paired with a subdued yet sinister score, mirrors the emotional chill beneath the show’s surface. Director Ben Taylor maintains a slow burn pace, giving every confrontation the weight of unspoken judgment.
WEAKNESSES
However, The Girlfriend occasionally stumbles in its storytelling. The pacing, while deliberate, sometimes edges toward sluggish, and certain twists stretch believability. The male lead, Daniel (Laurie Davidson), feels underwritten, a passive observer whose presence is more functional than emotional. The series clearly belongs to its two women, but Daniel’s lack of depth weakens the psychological triangle at its core.
That said, the writing remains sharp enough to sustain intrigue. The dialogue often crackles with subtext, polite exchanges dripping with hostility, apologies laced with accusation. Even when the plot ventures into melodrama, the committed performances and high production value keep it engaging.
By its final episode, The Girlfriend leaves the viewer with an unsettling realization: truth is not always about evidence but about belief. In an age of curated appearances and emotional manipulation, who we choose to trust says more about us than about those we doubt.
AUDIENCE RESPONSE
With an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and strong critical acclaim for its performances, The Girlfriend has emerged as one of Prime Video’s more compelling thrillers of 2025. It might not reinvent the genre, but it refines it, trading jump scares for quiet psychological warfare. Wright and Cooke’s electric dynamic anchors the show, turning a familiar premise into something rich, elegant, and unnervingly human.
In short, The Girlfriend is a tense, beautifully acted psychological thriller that keeps you second-guessing until the end, not just about who’s lying, but about why we’re so eager to believe one side over the other.
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