Is the girlfriend crazy? Is the mom crazy? Am I crazy? These are all thoughts I had while mainlining Prime Video’s bingeable new thriller, The Girlfriend, based on the novel of the same name by Michelle Frances. To put it simply, this show made me feel insane. And I loved it.
The Girlfriend is a tight, six-episode miniseries that makes artful origami out of the evil mother-in-law trope, then crumples that creation and tosses it in the waste bin. Monster in Law, this is not.
The story is told from the points of view of both the titular girlfriend, Cherry Laine (Olivia Cooke), and the mother, Laura Sanderson (Robin Wright), each episode toggling back and forth between their perspectives—sometimes of the same events.
At the center of this familial tug-of-war is Sanderson’s son, Daniel (Laurie Davidson), the bright (albeit, naive) prize both women appear to genuinely adore. He’s the crown jewel of Laurie’s perfect-from-the-outside life, which includes a successful art gallery, a healthy relationship with her hot and wealthy hubby (Waleed Zuaiter), and a Spanish vacation home that makes the White Lotus hotels look like modest AirBnBs.
Cherry, on the other hand, is a working-class hustler who regularly brushes shoulders with the elite via her job as a luxury real estate broker. She’s unfiltered and scrappy, if a little resentful of the uber rich, like Daniel’s family, but finds herself falling for his boyish charms nonetheless. We learn early on that Cherry is not someone you want to cross.
