The Girlfriend Review: Occasionally Entertaining But Mostly Maddening

Amazon Prime's new six-episode psychological thriller series, "The Girlfriend," based on Michelle Frances' novel of the same name, is textbook psycho girlfriend vs. overprotective mother battling it out. Let me put it this way: if you enjoy watching two controlling women fight over a wealthy man-child until they ruin everything and everyone around them, this is your show. The premise here heavily relies on a trope as old as time, and its essentials — manipulation, deception, outrageous twists, and controlled aggression — are played for maximum effect with minor adjustments.

Fair warning, though: "The Girlfriend" is the kind of series that gets off on driving its viewers up the wall to instill tension and create suspense by throwing in neutral dumb-as-fish characters (in the middle of psychological warfare between future bride and mother-in-law), who are simply unaware of all the manipulations that are happening around them. If you can overlook that (and it's a high-order task to do so), you might be in for a good time, watching two terrific actresses at the top of their game, portraying probably the most heinous and unlikable people they have ever played.

Daniel (Laurie Davidson) is a mama's boy. He's a rich British kid — born into wealth without earning any of it — with supportive parents, Laura (Robin Wright) and Howard (Waleed Zuaiter), who spoil him lovingly. He's pursuing a career in medicine, but frankly, with his family's connections, he could literally do anything he wanted without facing many obstacles. But as soon as we meet him playfully tackling his mother from underwater in their luxurious indoor pool, we instantly feel that something's off here. The way Daniel and Laura hug, touch each other, and exchange looks, we can't help but feel an incestuously creepy vibe. We immediately sense that Laura is the type of obsessive, helicopter parent who needs to follow her son's every step, even as an adult. So when Dan tells her that he's falling in love with his new girlfriend, Cherry (Olivia Cooke), Laura's smile rapidly turns uneasy.

Cherry comes from a working-class background but methodically tries to cover her poorness. She buys an expensive dress that puts her bank account in debt, just to make a good impression when meeting Dan's parents for the first time. When she shows up, she's stunning and brimming with confidence. But it's obvious to Laura and us that she's clearly trying to be someone she's not. She acts as if she knows art (although she's just a good observer with excellent lying skills), makes her average real estate job sound more ambitious and lucrative than it is, and most importantly, she's keen to let Laura know that her baby boy just got himself a new owner.

Not that Laura needs much to be suspicious of anyone who dares to date her son, but her intuition about Dan's new girlfriend quickly kicks into high gear. Her mistrust is fueled by the fact that the minute Cherry turns up, both the house cat and one of Laura's gold bracelets go missing. So when she looks into Cherry's past, based on what she told them during that first dinner, it becomes blatantly obvious that this chick is full of it. Now she just needs to find proof and a gentle way to let her son know that the girl he's head over heels for isn't the one for him. If only it were that easy ...

What the series does pretty well is use Laura and Cherry's POVs to tell the same events from crucially different perspectives. It's a tried and true method of storytelling that made shows like "The Affair" fascinating, and "The Girlfriend" derives most of its suspense and intrigue from it effectively. Yet here, the nuances between their feelings and perceptions matter less than the lies these perspectives aim to expose. The POVs always further each other in some way, connecting the story beats and revealing a little more down the line to progress the plot. It's why the show becomes fairly binge-able, because the episodes usually open with a half-twist (something extremely intense and dramatic) that will be fully revealed at the end, giving way to another cliffhanger. It's methodical and painstaking storytelling that works like a charm.

But what drives our curiosity and emotional investment is that at some point, the truth must come out in a likely explosive and chaotic manner after things spiral out of control. There's one rather bold twist mid-way through that effectively delays this (and it's something I didn't see coming at all), but in the end, we're all in this to see the s*** hit the fan. There's a limit to how long Olivia Cooke and Robin Wright can entertain with their tremendous acting chops — and they're truly terrific — before the truth inevitably comes to the surface.

Unfortunately, the writers go far beyond that point, and that's when the series turns from fairly entertaining to infuriatingly stupid. It becomes maddeningly unrealistic how oblivious Dan is to everything happening around him — there's always a dumb excuse and a conveniently placed plot point explaining why he's not seeing the forest for the trees. He's one of the most ignorant man-child characters I've seen in a while, but even Laura and Cherry reach the point in the last two episodes when their actions, from calculating and cunning, turn downright idiotic. So when the finale arrives, you feel like you've been cheated and set up for a climax that fails to deliver on any level. The final note the show ends on feels as if it was ripped from some of the worst psychological thrillers from the '90s. It's so enraging, nonsensical, and sensationalistic that even an overdose of suspension of disbelief is unable to save it from being a total dumpster fire.

"The Girlfriend" premieres on Amazon Prime on September 10.