The Girlfriend Experience

One of the greatest seasons of television that 2017 has produced thus far.

This is a singular vision throughout, written and directed by the team of Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz. (She also plays Christine’s older sister.) Their intense focus draws a disquieting portrait of a peculiar personality.

After such a small sample size (just two episodes out of 10), plenty of questions remain, many of which feel purposeful. ... Season 3 is meticulous in its construction, and the extra outdoor scenes or limited physical contact [due to COVID-friendly shooting requirements] aren’t distractions. They add to the story Marquardt is telling. ... In Season 3, Iris seems to be looking for more, and for now, I think audiences can expect more in return.

Keough’s Christine is fascinatingly inscrutable, and the 26-year-old actress (Elvis’s granddaughter, incidentally) carries the series with her chilly poise and enigmatic composure. The show, written and directed by Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan, offers no exposition whatsoever, rather following Christine from scene to scene and only occasionally abandoning her when plot necessitates it.

The Girlfriend Experience season three may a bit too moody or rely too heavily on tech talk, or just not feature enough sex, for viewers (let alone fans of the show). But what this particular narrative does do well is show Iris’ use of each encounter to carefully study human emotion in a way that’s not been seen before.

The two halves have wildly different strengths. “Bria” is cinematically stunning, with a few sequences that are going to be hard to forget anytime soon. “Erica & Anna” is a much more straightforward story, with a chilly aesthetic that makes “House of Cards” look upbeat. But the relative opacity of “Bria’s” story beats — and the oddly pat metaphors of “Erica & Anna”--left me with the wish that these two well-matched directors might, you know, collaborate.

Mostly the half-hour segments move in and out of often disjointed moments of Christine's escort-driven life at a pace that seems intentionally, and unforgivably, elliptical.