The excellent Season 1 (7/10*) of 'The Girlfriend Experience' related how a law student ventured into high-end prostitution while interning at a big-city legal firm in order to pay the bills. Riley Keogh's portrayal of the main character Christine won a Golden Globe nomination, as her understated performance depicted the psychological cost of pretending affection to entitled executives while selling them her body. The scripts for each episode remained focused on the escort work throughout, with Keogh's micro-expressions betraying inner conflicts and guarded emotions as Christine subtly adjusted her persona to please various clients, lovers and employers. The series revealed how prostitution affected her personal life and law career, and ultimately derailed both. By contrast, Season 2 (1/10*) lost almost all meaningful connection with the call-girl theme as it followed three different protagonists in two separate narratives. In the first, an escort named Anna embarked on an obsessive lesbian love affair with a corrupt campaign finance operator called Erika. In the second, former escort Bria got marooned in witness protection limbo as she awaited the trial of her gangster husband. The characters failed to generate any sympathy, the plots were neither believable nor interesting, and subtlety was entirely absent.

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