The Girlfriend: (Unhealthy) Love, Obsession, and Other Games

Olivia Cooke and Robin Wright are irresistible, each drawing you in while quietly warning you not to trust them. It’s messy, a little implausible at times, but somehow that just adds to its appeal.

I didn’t expect to enjoy The Girlfriend as much as I did. It’s the sort of show where you think you’ve seen it all before: emotionally unstable women, tangled relationships, a fragile household on the verge of collapse but then it veers off just enough to feel fresh. Not original, necessarily, but sharp. Its energy is what kept me watching. Even when it becomes a little ridiculous, it never stops being entertaining. I found myself starting episode after episode, half-laughing at some of the turns, half-anxious about what might happen next.

What really works is how Olivia Cooke and Robin Wright play off each other. Their performances have a strange magnetism. Neither of them is entirely good, neither completely to blame. You feel for one, then the other. Then you don’t. Then you do again. They take turns being pathetic, manipulative, charming, lost. Just when you’re ready to decide who to trust, the balance shifts again.

At the centre of their volatile dance is the son. He’s the one being tugged back and forth, used, protected, clung to. His presence is constant, even when he barely speaks. Wright’s character — the mother — clearly loves him, but in a way that feels suffocating, even possessive. Her need for him overrides everything else. And Cooke’s character, while perhaps better intentioned, isn’t above using him to secure her place either. He becomes both battleground and prize. The story keeps circling around him, quietly asking what kind of damage is being done.

Robin Wright directs the first three of the series' six episodes, and her involvement early on sets the tone for what follows. The mood she establishes — tense, intimate, slightly off-kilter — carries through the rest of the show, shaping its rhythm and emotional texture even when she’s no longer also behind the camera.

I had my theories about how The Girlfriend would end. I was convinced it would take a darker turn into something more bloody and final. But the ending the show chooses is a bit more subtle. It works and you’ll love it even if you see it coming.

If I’m honest, there are moments where things stretch plausibility. Characters make decisions that feel oddly convenient. Certain scenes rely on coincidence more than logic. But I didn’t really mind. It’s not trying to be tidy. It’s too much fun for that. The emotional messiness feels deliberate, and maybe that’s why it works.

I wouldn’t call The Girlfriend profound or even especially refined. But I would call it compelling. Funny, how a show can be absurd and addictive in equal measure.