The Girlfriend Experience Has Become Disconnected from Desire
The third season of the Steven Soderbergh-produced escort drama dives deep into tech and science and loses some of its spark along the way.
Starz
Welcome to
Up Next, a column that gives you the rundown on the latest TV. This week, Valerie Ettenhofer reviews Season 3 of the Steven Soderbergh-produced Starz series The Girlfriend Experience.
The latest season of The Girlfriend Experience opens with a VR job interview at an escort agency. Everything in the near-empty virtual room is pristine and white, and the anthology series’ new protagonist, Iris (
Julia Goldani Telles), looks like a matching porcelain doll. The digital form of her future employer lays down the rules for this tech-based take on sex work: the platform that matches her with dates takes a thirty percent commission, and as with other gig economy apps, users will rate Iris based on their experiences with her.