The Girlfriend (2025) Review: A Wickedly Intriguing Game of Love and Manipulation
The Girlfriend (2025) Review: A Wickedly Intriguing Game of Love and Manipulation
🎬 Series Overview
Prime Video's The Girlfriend 2025 is a psychological thriller miniseries that premiered on September 10, 2025, based on Michelle Frances' acclaimed 2017 novel. Directed by and starring Robin Wright (who helmed the first three episodes) with Andrea Harkin directing the remainder, this six-episode production represents prestige television at its most compelling. The series explores the dangerously intertwined lives of an affluent mother and her son's new girlfriend, creating a tense narrative that constantly keeps viewers questioning reality and motivation.
The story follows Laura Sanderson (Wright), a successful London art gallery owner with a seemingly perfect life—wealthy husband, successful career, and a deeply close relationship with her medical student son Daniel (Laurie Davidson). This carefully constructed world begins to crumble when Daniel introduces Cherry Laine (Olivia Cooke), a charismatic estate agent with a mysterious past and ambitious nature. What begins as subtle suspicion quickly escalates into all-out war between two formidable women fighting for control over Daniel's affections and future.
📖 Narrative Structure and Storytelling
The Girlfriend 2025 employs a Rashomon-effect narrative that presents events from multiple perspectives, skillfully shifting between Laura's and Cherry's viewpoints throughout the six episodes. This storytelling technique creates a brilliantly slippery beast of a drama that constantly challenges audience allegiances. Just when viewers think they've determined who to trust, the perspective shifts and reveals new information that completely recontextualizes previous events.
The series opens in medias res with a violent confrontation before jumping back five months to establish the central relationship dynamics. This structure creates immediate suspense and foreboding, as viewers know the seemingly polite initial interactions will eventually devolve into the chaos glimpsed in the opening moments. The writers employ title cards indicating whose perspective we're experiencing—"LAURA" or "CHERRY"—creating a deliberate narrative framework that emphasizes the subjective nature of truth.
Midway through the series, a jaw-dropping twist occurs that fundamentally changes the narrative trajectory and forces viewers to reconsider everything they've witnessed up to that point. This bold storytelling choice transforms the series from a potentially predictable wealthy-family drama into something much darker and more complex, exploring how far people will go to protect—or achieve—the lives they desire.
👥 Character Analysis and Performances
Robin Wright as Laura Sanderson
Wright delivers a mesmerizing performance as Laura, portraying her with gravitas that initially makes her suspicions seem reasonable rather than paranoid. Her Laura is a complex woman whose motivations stem from both genuine concern for her son and her own unresolved trauma—including the loss of a baby daughter years earlier and a marriage maintained more for appearance than emotional connection. Wright expertly conveys the controlling elegance of a woman accustomed to power who finds her influence threatened by an unpredictable force.
Olivia Cooke as Cherry Laine
Cooke delivers a career-best performance as Cherry, creating a character who is simultaneously vulnerable and threatening, ambitious and desperate. Her Cherry is a working-class striver who understands that social mobility requires performance and adaptation, buying expensive clothes and keeping the tags on to maintain the appearance of wealth she hasn't yet achieved. Cooke masterfully keeps Cherry's rage "simmering just below the surface," making her every action feel potentially justified yet dangerously unhinged.
Supporting Characters
Laurie Davidson deserves particular recognition for his portrayal of Daniel, managing to make the character genuinely charming and intelligent rather than merely a sappy mommy's boy caught between two strong women. Waleed Zuaiter brings depth to Howard, Laura's husband, who serves as a voice of reason until his own compromises are revealed. The supporting cast, including Tanya Moodie as Laura's best friend Isabella and Karen Henthorn as Cherry's mother Tracey, provide crucial context for understanding the main characters' motivations and backgrounds. . | Actor | Character | Role Description |
- | Robin Wright | Laura Sanderson | Wealthy art gallery owner with overly close relationship to her son |
- | Olivia Cooke | Cherry Laine | Ambitious estate agent from working-class background |
- | Laurie Davidson | Daniel Sanderson | Medical student caught between mother and girlfriend |
- | Waleed Zuaiter | Howard Sanderson | Laura's husband who has secretly supported her career |
- | Karen Henthorn | Tracey Laine | Cherry's protective mother |
- | Tanya Moodie | Isabella | Laura's wealthy best friend |
🧠 Themes Exploration
Class and Social Mobility
The Girlfriend offers a sharp critique of class distinctions and the power of wealth to insulate and corrupt. The series contrasts Laura's effortless privilege with Cherry's determined striving, exploring how each woman weaponizes their social position in their battle for dominance. The show demonstrates how class anxiety manifests on both sides—Laura's fear of being replaced by someone she considers socially inferior, and Cherry's resentment of those who inherited what she must fight to attain.
Mother-Son Relationships
The series explores the unhealthy dynamic between Laura and Daniel with uncomfortable intensity, presenting what many reviewers have described as a Jocasta complex. Their relationship is physically charged in ways that suggest emotional incest, with Daniel telling his mother that Cherry reminds him of her—a statement that Laura interprets as confirmation of their special connection rather than a concerning romantic projection. The series raises questions about appropriate parental boundaries and the damage caused when children become substitutes for emotional partners.
Perception vs. Reality
Through its shifting perspective structure, The Girlfriend continually explores the subjectivity of truth and the ways in which our perceptions are shaped by our desires and fears. Simple actions—a received bouquet, a glance across a dinner table—become loaded with completely different meanings depending on whose perspective we're experiencing. This narrative approach effectively immerses viewers in the psychological experience of both women, creating empathy even for their most questionable actions.
🎥 Production Elements
Visual Style and Direction
The series boasts a consistently fluid visual style with beautiful locales, exquisite set design, and high-fashion costume work that emphasizes the wealth and privilege of the Sanderson world. Wright's direction in the first three episodes establishes a tense, elegant atmosphere that gradually gives way to more chaotic energy as the characters' actions become more extreme. The use of aerial shots of London and the Sandersons' luxurious properties creates a sense of both beauty and isolation within privilege.
Soundtrack and Score
The series features an unreal soundtrack that doesn't just sit in the background but actively shapes the mood of every scene. From the obligatory slowed-down, plaintive cover of a familiar 20th-century song (Lorde's take on Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World") to perfectly timed needle drops ranging from The Kinks to PJ Harvey, the music becomes a character in itself. Ruth Barrett's original score effectively underscores the psychological tension without overwhelming the performances.
- | Episodes | 6 (all released simultaneously) |
- | Episode Length | 45-52 minutes |
- | Directors | Robin Wright (eps 1-3), Andrea Harkin (eps 4-6) |
- | Cinematography | Mattias Nyberg, Paul Morris |
- | Music | Ruth Barrett |
- | Based on | The novel by Michelle Frances |
👍 Final Verdict and Recommendation
Strengths and Weaknesses
The Girlfriend's greatest strength lies in the electrifying performances of its two leads, with Wright and Cooke delivering some of the best work of their careers. The series successfully maintains suspense and psychological complexity throughout its six episodes, though some viewers might find the mid-season twist requires substantial suspension of disbelief. Some secondary characters feel underdeveloped, functioning primarily as props to reflect the main characters' perspectives rather than fully realized people.
Audience Recommendation
This series is highly recommended for viewers who enjoy psychological thrillers exploring class dynamics and complex female characters. Fans of Big Little Lies, The Undoing, A Simple Favor, and similar "Crazy Rich White Woman" genre entries will find much to appreciate here. The series earns its mature rating through intense psychological manipulation and occasional violence rather than explicit sexual content, making it tense without being gratuitous.
Overall Assessment
The Girlfriend is a wickedly entertaining psychological thriller that transcends its potentially sensational premise through sharp writing, exceptional performances, and thoughtful exploration of class, family, and obsession. While it occasionally veers into melodrama, the series remains compelling throughout its six episodes and builds to a truly shocking conclusion that will leave viewers contemplating the nature of love and manipulation. It's glossy, richly satisfying television that provides both escapism and genuine psychological insight.
Where to Watch: All six episodes are available for streaming on Prime Video