At the TCA’s: Starz The Girlfriend Experience Returns for Season 2

“The Girlfriend Experience” returns to Starz for a second season of the edgy and sexy anthology series.

At the TCA’s, Louisa Krause (Anna Garner), Carmen Ejogo (Bria Jones), Lodge Kerrigan (Co-Creator/Executive Producer) and Amy Seimetz (Co-Creator/Executive Producer) sat on a panel to explain some of the major changes to the series for season 2.

Executive producer Steven Soderbergh (the series is based on his 2009 film) returns as “The Girlfriend Experience” will feature two parallel storylines — each written, directed, and executive produced by Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz. Kerrigan and Seimetz served as writers, directors, and executive producers on Season 1 of the limited series.

Breaking with last season’s format, and following two parallel stories this season, “The Girlfriend Experience” will focus on entirely new characters, relationships, plotlines, and locations while exploring the price of intimacy and its emotional consequences. One storyline for the 14-episode scripted anthology series will be set in Washington, D.C., and the other in New Mexico.

One storyline follows storyline follows a woman, Bria, played by Carmen Ejogo, who is forced to go into witness protection and be relocated and create a new identity.

The second explained Logan Kerrigan, “…takes place against the backdrop of the corruption and influence of dark money in the 2018 midterm elections. It focuses primarily on the relationship between Erica Miles, played by Ana Friel, who is a finance director for a Republican Super Pac, who enlists the help of a GFE at the top of her game, played by Louisa Krause. Louisa helped to blackmail a dark money fundraiser in order to get his donor list. Erica and Ana then cross the professional line and start a personal relationship, a sexual relationship, and the season or storyline examines really the shifting power dynamics in their relationship, primarily expressed through sexuality.”

“I think in spirit with the whole show and the initial discussions that Amy, Steven Soderbergh, and I had, was to try to push the boundaries of television a little bit.”

Carmen Ejogo shared, “I think our show also speaks to, you know, an exploration of emotional truth. So in both ways, we both are dealing with the bravery of these women, if that’s what you want to call it. But also the duplicity of them, the manipulation of them, the — whether they are proactive, reactive. There’s so many colors to these personalities that we delve into that I think it’s probably not smart to put one label or one sort of tag on this kind of a woman.”

The complex exploration of “The Girlfriend Experience” returns to Starz on November 5th at 9 pm ET. Check your local listings.