Robin Wright has a steamy relationship with her son as he embarks on a new romance with Olivia Cooke. This drama is the perfect show – and I say this with love – for perverts
T
he thriller genre is amazingly malleable. You can start with an escaped monkey, a mystery corpse in frozen tundra, or just two women who can’t bear to be in a room together. You can make your own rules, as long as you do it with style, and take us somewhere surprising. Like using a tricycle to break into the Met Gala.
The Girlfriend (Prime Video, from Wednesday 10 September), is a great example. It takes a relatable premise – what if your mother and your partner don’t get on? – and pushes it to extremity. When privileged surgeon Daniel takes new girlfriend Cherry, played by Olivia Cooke, to meet his family, things are tense from the outset. Daniel’s mother, Laura, is extremely protective, and senses Cherry is hiding something. The women strain to remain outwardly polite while their real relationship grows into one of covert threats, secrets and lies, outmanoeuvring and betrayal. There are chills. But it’s also hot.
The show will appeal, and I say this lovingly, to perverts. Much of its steam comes from teasing the relationship between Daniel (Laurie Davidson) and his possessive mother, played by an imperious Robin Wright. Even Daniel’s father – with whom Laura has an open arrangement – remarks that it’s weird. We first see mother and son together when he surprises her in her private pool, practising her stroke. They wrestle underwater, and later relax in the sauna, her foot resting on his thigh. Cherry sees them kiss on the lips. There are many scenes where Laura and Cherry lock eyes while one or the other is having an intimate moment with Daniel.
