The Girlfriend Experience

The name Steven Soderbergh will probably not immediately appeal to everyone, but Ocean's Eleven, Traffic and the masterful series The Knick should ring some bells anyway. Not everything this American film hobbyist touches turns into gold. Every now and then he misses the point. With his 2008 film The Girlfriend Experience, for example. He is cracked on IMDb and also at Rotten Tomatoes they only give a scant amount of money for it. Steven doesn't get any warm or cold about that. In fact, together with the Starz, he has revived everything, albeit as a series this time. Christine Reade, played by Elvis Presley's granddaughter, is a promising law student and intern at an authoritative law firm. All beautiful things, but potential does not pay the rent. Knaken pay the rent and you can earn it by working. For example, flipping burgers at the Mac or sticking asparagus until your flames start to bleed. The only problem is that it does not yield a bag. Reade doesn't know exactly how many newspapers she has to deliver for a new Birkin bag, but there are too many anyway. So there will have to be a different tap. A friend suggests that it might be a good idea to suck off balding men in their fifties with insane bank accounts in a random suite at the Waldorf Astoria for a royalty. You must have it from your friends. After a somewhat hesitant start, Christine gets the hang of it and in no time lives in a greasy apartment. For a moment it seems like the best career move ever, but soon the dark sides of the escort world also force themselves on her. The Girlfriend Experience has something nice and haunting and ominous about it, but emotionally the story never quite gets going. It kind of gets stuck with a girl who climbs on top of someone else every episode. I never thought I would ever say this out loud and it might be a bit naive with a series about an escort girl, but there is just too much sex in it. Even during the average women's party at Roland Garros there is less moaning. It seems as if the makers have adhered to an “at-least-one-boob-every-10-minutes” maxim. I know I sound like an old bastard now, but all that stuff just distracts. The fact that an escort girl does it with all kinds of influential men who have all kinds of secrets to hide could have been worked out much better. Missed opportunity. The episodes only last about twenty minutes, so watch three in a lost hour and form your own opinion. Or not. That's fine too. Do not miss a lot of special.

As good as I think season 1, I find season 2 less so. In season 2 you are really just watching sex scenes. Not bad in itself, but then again, I didn't turn on porn, I thought. In season 1 that was much better balanced. I think the 2 storylines are both weak too. This way, season 3 doesn't have to come for me.