![]() No matter what flaws viewers may find, the look won’t be one of them. (See also: Sasha Grey in the original film.) Julia Goldani Telles on the set of “The Girlfriend Experience” Aimee Spinks / Starz Telles’ performance feels pulled straight from executive producer Steven Soderbergh’s playbook of unreadable blankness, where a lead’s stoic turn invites key questions from the audience more than it provides easy answers. Anyone who found previous seasons too cold or detached to invest in will likely feel similarly here. Iris is given an uncomplicated backstory to justify her initial interest in the study of desire, but whether her character is expanded or complicated remains to be seen. That’s not to say NGM would love to discover their latest recruit is a sex worker, but there are times during the first two episodes where you might wonder if the two shady companies are one in the same.Īfter such a small sample size (just two episodes out of 10), plenty of questions remain, many of which feel purposeful. Her work at NGM and The V aren’t meant to satisfy different demands they’re meant to benefit each other, and in turn benefit her. But Season 3 sees Iris pursuing the same end by different means. Risk was always a huge factor, whether it was the physical risk taken by isolating yourself with a stranger or professional risk of having one job conflict with the other. Past seasons focused on how sex work compared to other professions, calling out unwanted parallels between “respectable” careers in law and politics, while also establishing the kind of independence provided by working for yourself. While the latter encounters are easily recognizable to anyone who’s seen the first two seasons, it’s Iris’ motivation that sets Marquardt’s “Girlfriend Experience” apart right away. And then she seduces them, playing whatever “girlfriend” she needs to be in order to discover the kind of person they really are, behind closed doors. After passing a cloak-and-dagger VR interview, Iris becomes Cassie, an ultra high-end escort who works for a mysterious company called “The V.” Through a voice on the other end of the phone, she books immaculate dinner dates and private lunches with notable public figures. What people say they want doesn’t always line up with what they actually want, and hearing them talk about it openly isn’t the same as seeing desire transform someone first-hand. They may not know exactly what they’re looking for, but they know giving people what they want is always something people are willing to pay for.Īt NGM, Iris is given lots of data to break down, but there’s always something missing. If that sounds a bit vague, it is NGM describes itself as “a human desire company,” and it appears to be gathering data to create various theories that can then be turned into profitable applications. Head-hunted by a London tech company, she’s hired to study human behavior and form predictive analysis, so she has to learn how to talk to anyone, evaluate their identities, and then connect the dots between who they claim to be and what they really want. An American neuroscience major played by Julia Goldani Telles (“The Affair”), Iris is, if nothing else, adaptable. ‘Painkiller’ Review: Netflix’s Vicious Retelling of the Opioid Crisis Is Effective but Familiar ![]() Marquardt’s slick direction makes the thoughtful psychological studies she writes into one woman’s quest to define desire all the more intriguing - and the early results are as magnetic as they are mystifying. It’s about how that app could (or perhaps couldn’t) be built. (Or, it at least feels that way.) Season 3 isn’t about what happens when an app from the future picks your life partner. Unlike “Black Mirror,” “Soulmates,” or other TV attempts to turn instinctual feelings into a salable algorithm, “The Girlfriend Experience” is working in R&D, not science fiction. Data acquisition, accumulation, and analysis are massive fields, growing to digitize just about every facet of our lives, and Season 3 creator Anja Marquardt’s story posits one more: “What if desire could be quantified?” ![]() In the first season not written or directed by creators Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan, “ The Girlfriend Experience” Season 3 is dealing with at least two themes familiar to the Starz anthology series, yet the latest twist is also its most intriguing. ![]()
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