By Ryan McCarthy. After enduring production in the pandemic age, Season 3 of the critically acclaimed Starz series The Girlfriend Experience finally returns on May 2nd. This season, true to form, you can expect a fresh story, characters and setting with accomplished Berlin-born Independent filmmaker Anja Marquardt at the series helm. With an introspective and engrossing directing style, Marquardt immediately sets her iteration of the GFE format apart, crafting a narrative that combines big tech with clandestine sex work in the most stylish season yet.
Past seasons of The Girlfriend Experience focused on the unseemly parallels between sex work and the industries of law and politics. This time around, the story is set amidst the sleek and sterile backdrop of the London tech sceneβ mixing debauchery with data, VR and AI. Naturally, Marquardt was kismet for the roles of Writer and Director this season in which she incorporates her vast knowledge of future-facing technology into the world of GFEs.
Viewers can look forward to an exciting and provocative approach to the familiar paradigm of the show in a more global setting. This version of Girlfriend Experience supposes that the secret life of the lead character could benefit her professional life instead of hindering itβ or so she thinks. Set in the stark corporate surroundings of London, this is the first season depicted internationally. The impersonal environments seem especially befitting of the social-distance era.
However, the show often depicts realistic sex and nudityβ posing an especially heightened risk for production during the pandemic. Even with the physical limitations of production, Season 3 of The Girlfriend Experience proves to be more cerebral with plenty of sci-fi overtones, observing human behavior through the lens of tech.
These days every facet of our lives is digitized, aggregated and catalogued, creating massive amounts of dataβ fueling a growing concern with digital privacy. The sleek and sexy cinematography of this season can be accredited to Zack Galler. Together Galler and Marquardt depict sterile luxury apartments, glimmering skyscrapers, offices devoid of humanity and the blank digital space of VR, resulting in an enveloping sense of futuristic danger and eroticism.
