The Girlfriend Experience 3.4: “There is clarity in realizing what isn’t working”

An excellent episode 3.4 of The Girlfriend Experience, with an excellent quote from a researcher that tells us at least what part of the series is really about:  “There is clarity in realizing what isn’t working.”

That quote is in response to Iris's question, not as a call girl, but as a researcher into human behavior herself, her alternate persona, to another researcher touting what she's been pursuing.  Iris asks her, let's say you find you've been on the wrong track?  And she gets her answer,  “There is clarity in realizing what isn’t working.”

That answer comes right out of Karl Popper, the philosopher of science, and one of his bedrock principles of how we attain knowledge:  we not only learn from our mistakes, but our mistakes may be our own way of really learning.  If we see a hundred white swans, and see another hundred white swans, that doesn't and cannot prove that all swans are white.  But the instant we encounter a swan that is not white, we have learned something very profound: all swans are not white.

Of course, they could be complications in our observation of the non-white swan.  Maybe we are having a problem with our eyesight.  Maybe the bird we saw is not really a swan.  But the principle still remains: we learn by discovering our errors, and subtracting them from our possible knowledge.

Now, the fact a philosophy this astute can be part of The Girlfriend Experience tells us a lot about this show.   It's not all about or just about sex.  Iris, as prominent as that it is in her life, is more than that. She has a brain that quests for knowledge.  That's why she has her day job, that's why she can have a conversation that gets at the root of Karl Popper's falsificationist philosophy.

And no, that's not the only reason I watch this show, but it's one of things that make The Girlfriend Experience  intriguing.

See also The Girlfriend Experience 3.1-2: Intertwining Desires ... The Girlfriend Experience 3.3: Real Fakes

And see also  The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One ...  The Girlfriend Experience 2.3-4: Hard to Come By ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.5-6: In and Out ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.7-8: Sundry Seductions ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.9-10: The End of Illusions ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.11-12; One and One Is Less than One

And see also The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Girlfriend Experience 3.3: Real Fakes

The Girlfriend Experience 3.3 on earlier tonight on Starz is entitled "Deep Fake" -- a good name for this episode and for the series in general, because:

1. The very essence of the girlfriend experience kind of call girl is that the woman provides not only the real sex, but illusions that she likes of even loves the client.  We saw this literally tonight when Iris says "I love you" after her john tells her "I love you".

2. Iris's day job is about deep fakes, too, as she and her colleagues try to boil down sexual attractions to a series of algorithms.   (Algorithms, by the way, have a way to go in our reality to match human intelligence, let alone emotions.  I know someone whose video, a critical report on Trump's lies about winning the election, was taken down from YouTube, because algorithms flagged it as spreading disinformation because it had a clip of someone spouting Trump's big lie about winning the election.)

But back to Iris, who is much more fun and for that matter interesting to consider, she also in this episode talks about a video clip of a German politician being a deep fake.  So what we have is someone who is a deep fake in her reality, in two jobs, at all hours of the day and night, recognizing deep fakes in our off-screen reality, as she looks at a clip on a television or computer screen.

And I was writing this, I was thinking of a good theme song for The Girlfriend Experience -- Simon and Garfunkel's "Fakin' It", released in 1967, written by Simon, one of his/their lesser-known but I always thought very best songs.   Now there were certainly prostitutes back then -- "man's oldest profession" -- and algorithms, too, but they were mostly used in slide rules.  I don't know if there were girlfriend experiences for sale in the 1960s, though.

See also The Girlfriend Experience 3.1-2: Intertwining Desires

And see also  The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One ...  The Girlfriend Experience 2.3-4: Hard to Come By ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.5-6: In and Out ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.7-8: Sundry Seductions ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.9-10: The End of Illusions ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.11-12; One and One Is Less than One

And see also The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Girlfriend Experience 3.1-2: Intertwining Desires

Well, The Girlfriend Experience is back on Starz for a third season, and of course I had to watch it.  Not for the reasons you think.  Well, maybe it is for those reasons, though I don't know you, and you don't me, so guessing at reasons is always a risk.  Ok, I liked the first two seasons for two reasons, the obvious one, and I also liked the stories.

But let me start by saying I liked the first season a lot more than the second season, whatever I may have said at the time I saw them (see links to my reviews at the end of this review).  I thought the first season was a strong, more unified story than either of the two parallel stories in the second second.  And, so far, I'm liking the third season as much as the first season.

There are some obvious, cliched parts, though.  I've seen narratives on television devoted towards perfecting a dating app at least twice in the past year, and have even been quoted as saying these kinds of coincidences are not coincidences in the usual sense of the word, but are either an expression of Hegel's spirit of age or a result of industrial espionage in the movie/television business.  So Iris leaving a PhD program in the U. S. to work at a company in the U.K. devoted to discovering and encoding why people are attracted to one another is fun enough to see, but so far not all that original.

The other part of Iris's life, though, joining "V" to give men "the girlfriend" experience, is more original and assisted by Iris played by The Affair's Julia Goldani Telles who looks and acts just fine.  Telles in the first episodes projects a complex persona comprised in almost equal measure of vulnerability and confidence.  The fact that, in this story, Iris's day and night jobs both draw on the same body of knowledge (apologies for the pun) works very well.  In both jobs, Iris needs to discover what men like and want, and parlay that into different kinds but related dividends.

It will be good to see where these stories go, and I'll be back here with reviews.

See also  The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One ...  The Girlfriend Experience 2.3-4: Hard to Come By ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.5-6: In and Out ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.7-8: Sundry Seductions ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.9-10: The End of Illusions ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.11-12; One and One Is Less than One

And see also The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Affair 5.7: On Montauk, Now and Later

And tonight's episode of the The Affair - 5.7 - was the best Noah segment, so far.  He's back in Montauk, with Whitney to help her prepare for her wedding at her grandparent's house.  But the circumstances lead to a crucial conversation between the two, culminating with her asking him why he left the family that he loved and loved him.  His answer: I don't know.

By the way, Julia Goldani Telles, who plays Whitney, has really come into her own as an actress.  The scenes between her and Dominic West, one of the best actors around, were really top notch.  My guess is she'll do great in third season of The Girlfriend Experience, for which she's already been announced.

Back to Noah: a new plot turn was introduced.  His former publicist is saying he made unwanted advances towards her.  If recollection serves, I'm pretty sure he didn't.  Will be good drama, though - excruciating for Noah - when all of that plays out in the episodes ahead.

As for the second segment - a half-hour of Joanie - for once I didn't like that too much.  It was a crucial interlude.  She confronts Ben.  It was not only unsatisfying to see how he got the better of her, but it was not well developed in the narrative.  She shouldn't have just gone over to confront him, with no real, apparent plan.  But excellent acting by Tony Plana - who did well on Mayans MC last year - in that important role of Ben.

And so The Affair continues on.  It still has some punches.  I'm still sad to see it end.  But not as sad as the characters, none of whom ever seem to be able to catch a break.

See also The Affair 5.1: Death, Nobility, and Science Fiction ... The Affair 5.2: Tears and Floods ... The Affair 5.3:  The Raya App ... The Affair 5.4: 2053 ... The Affair 5.5: No One Happy ... The Affair 5.6: Best Episode of the Season So Far - Finally, About Joanie

And see also The Affair 4.1: Quakes and Propaganda ... The Affair 4.2: Meanwhile, Back on the Island ... The Affair 4.3: Dire Straits (Not the Band) in California ... The Affair 4.4: Ben ... The Affair 4.5: B'shert ... The Affair 4.6: "Good News and Bad News" ... The Affair 4.7: Noah and Janelle ... The Affair 4.8:  I Don't Believe It ... The Affair 4.9: Two Alisons ... The Affair Season 4 Finale: Best Scenes

And see also The Affair 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... The Affair 3.2: Sneak Preview Review: Right Minds ... The Affair 3.3: Who Attached Noah? ... The Affair 3.4: The Same Endings in Montauk ... The Affair 3.5: Blocked Love ... The Affair 3.6: The Wound ... The Affair 3.7: The White Shirt ... The Affair 3.8: The "Miserable Hero" ... The Affair 3.9: A Sliver of Clarity ... The Affair 3.10: Taking Paris

And see also The Affair 2.1: Advances ... The Affair 2.2: Loving a Writer ... The Affair 2.3: The Half-Wolf ... The Affair 2.4: Helen at Distraction ... The Affair 2.5: Golden Cole ... The Affair 2.6: The End (of Noah's Novel) ... The Affair 2.7: Stunner ... The Affair 2.8: The Reading, the Review, the Prize ...The Affair 2.9: Nameless Hurricane ... The Affair 2.10: Meets In Treatment ... The Affair 2.11: Alison and Cole in Business ... The Affair Season 2 Finale: No One's Fault

And see also The Affair Premiere: Sneak Preview Review ... The Affair 1.2: Time Travel! ... The Affair 1.3: The Agent and the Sleepers ... The Affair 1.4: Come Together ... The Affair 1.5: Alison's Episode ... The Affair 1.6: Drugs and Vision ... The Affair 1.7: True Confessions ... The Affair 1.8: "I Love You / I Love You, Too" ... The Affair 1.9: Who Else on the Train? ... The Affair Season 1 Finale: The Arrest and the Rest

 

The Girlfriend Experience 2.13-14: One and One is Less than One

The Girlfriend Experience just concluded it's oddly double season tonight on Starz.

Erica and Anna end up both prone, but not together.  Erica's on the floor of some kind of building, utterly distraught and drunk, her life falling apart, her last defense gone, as the FBI has a recording proving she was lying.  Anna's on a bed on her back pretending to sleep, as a john takes off her high heels.   You could say Erica has gotten her just desert, after what she did to Anna, and Anna's doing what she loves.  But, still, it was sad to see.

Over in the Bria story we get, maybe, a better ending for her.  But it's not what she imagined when she's at the side of the lake, her white outfit suitably soaked in blood.  Because although she killed the bad guys, it's not at all clear what Ian and the authorities will now do to her.   Still, unlike Erica, at least Bria has a fighting chance.

Bria's story was always stronger than Erica and Anna's, but even Bria's wasn't as good as the first season of The Girlfriend Experience.  And two stories are not the kind of thing you can add together and say they're better than one, unless each or at least one of them is better than the one you're comparing them to.  (Same for the performances of Anna Friel and Louisa Krause and Carmen Ejogo, which were all good, but not as good as Riley Keough's in the first season. But the comparison is also apples and oranges, because the season 2 acting had much less screen time than first.)

So, although I'd watch another season of The Girlfriend Experience, and admire the outrageous chances it takes and the style with which it shows us all of this, I'd recommend and hope that a third season returns to a single, more focused story.

See also  The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One ...  The Girlfriend Experience 2.3-4: Hard to Come By ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.5-6: In and Out ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.7-8: Sundry Seductions ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.9-10: The End of Illusions

And see also The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Girlfriend Experience 2.11-12: Cinematography and Future

One of the best things about The Girlfriend Experience - both stories - is the cinematography.  In tonight's 2.11-12 double feature, we get Bria escaping from the courthouse and walking into sheer white aka outside before she catches a cab.   And we get Erica's office looking even starker than usual, even though it's looked like that from the outset.  But it fits perfectly with her mood and situation.

As to the stories, well, it's a little hard to believe that Bria could just walk of the courthouse like that - almost right under Ian's nose.   Or that the judge or bailiff of whoever's responsibility it is would not be standing outside the door of the restroom (ok, it wouldn't be the judge, but it would be someone, right?)

And though Erica's heartbreak is understandable, would she be in such bad shape as to miss the next day at work?  But there were at least two good moments in Erica's story (with, alas, little Anna tonight).  First, the calendar says October 2018, which means this is taking place about a year into the future, and I don't think we knew that before (or maybe we did, but I got distracted).  And, second, her incredibly helpful secretary turns out to be a spy.

That explains both why she was helpful to Erica when she was so drunkenly out of it, and why she didn't take advantage of Erica when she was in that condition and state of undress.  The other explanation, that the secretary's not gay, seems unlikely, since just about every other major woman apparently is in this story.

Next week's the season's double finale.  And, despite my sarcasm above, I'm sorry to see it end so soon.  Both stories do have a lot going for them.

See also  The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One ...  The Girlfriend Experience 2.3-4: Hard to Come By ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.5-6: In and Out ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.7-8: Sundry Seductions ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.9-10: The End of Illusions

And see also The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Girlfriend Experience 2.9-10: The End of Illusions

A doubly-powerful double episode of The Girlfriend Experience last night - 2.9-2.10 - with both Erica & Anna and Bria's separate stories delivering game-changing punches.

Anna's decision last week to have a baby with Erica - by getting impregnated by a client - predictably leads Erica to end their relationship.  But she does it in what we've now come to recognize as Erica's predictably ice-cold sadistic, shattering way.  She leaves Anna waiting in the office.  This was Anna's fault.  But Erica could have come out and talked to her, rather than calling in security.  And then, when Anna comes to Erica's apartment, Erica taunts Anna by kissing her, only to set up the revelation that Erica's former girlfriend is now on hand.   Well, she's clearly no longer former.  But Anna is stronger than Erica thinks, and I have feeling she'll have the last word on this (at least, I hope so).

Meanwhile, in Arizona or whatever part of the Southwest Bria is in, things are heating up, too,  Bria confides in Paul.  Maybe I was wrong about him.  Maybe he's not out to kill Bria.  Maybe he's just an a-hole.  In any case, he deserves what Bria brings to him - a rifle with which she shoots up his car.

Also of significance is Ian, and the lack of his much vaunted protection. The way he lets Bria and her "daughter" go off the grid is ridiculous - unless he's a double agent - nah, that doesn't make sense - but there's something about him that doesn't seem quite right, either.  That's what I've been saying about Paul, and last night we saw that he's been playing some kind of peculiar game, too. (Did he tell Bria that he was married? I can't recall, but I don't think so.)

Pretense is of course what The Girlfriend Experience has always been about.  But it's reaching new levels in this split-personality season.

See also  The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One ...  The Girlfriend Experience 2.3-4: Hard to Come By ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.5-6: In and Out ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.7-8: Sundry Seductions

And see also The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Girlfriend Experience 2.7-8: Sundry Seductions

A scorching hot episode 2.7-8 of of The Girlfriend Experience last night, at least insofar as the Anna-Erica story, which is where the heat usually is.  And this time, it was mostly with Anna.

She wants to have Anna's baby.  And how exactly will she do that?  By having sex with a guy, urging him not to wear a condom, and doing her utmost to get pregnant.  As to how that will be Anna's baby, I'm not sure.  Is the guy some relation to Anna - a cousin? - and I missed that?

Before that, Erica gets her kicks by watching Anna and guy go at it against the wall.  This reveals an aspect of Erica - almost a sadism - we haven't seen before.  And to top it off, Erica blithely lies to Anna when she asks if Erica if she's seeing anyone else who means something to her - when we the audience have just seen that Erica's still half in love or more with her former girlfriend.

Meanwhile, the Bria story is finally beginning to move forward on the Ian front.  He finally succumbs to Bria's seductions from previous weeks and sleeps with her.  I'm still finding this witness-protection story more intriguing than the political intrigue of Erica and Anna.

In particular, Ian resisted sleeping with Bria so far because he correctly saw that doing that would weaken or compromise his ability to protect her.  So now that he's let himself go with her, what will happen to the quality of his protection?

I'm still suspicious of Paul.  It's impossible to tell what Paul really wants from Bria.  Fortunately, Ian is usually not too far away.  But sooner or later, Ian and Paul will meet, and then all bets are off.

See also  The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One ...  The Girlfriend Experience 2.3-4: Hard to Come By ... The Girlfriend Experience 2.5-6: In and Out

And see also The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Girlfriend Experience 2.5-6: In and Out

The hottest episode of The Girlfriend Experience so far this new season - episode 2.5-6 - in the Erica and Anna action.  But the Bria segment made up for it with a more compelling narrative.

Indeed, the political backdrop of Erica and Anna is, at this point, too much in the background, or too literally backdrop.  Many of the scenes are even shot this way, long shots of people sitting a tables, which could almost be still-shots to accompany the conversation.   Fortunately, Erica and Anna are both captivating characters, especially Erica, who carries the story with her irrepressible seductions, especially what she does to Anna at a counter in a crowded venue.

Bria's attempts to seduce men are, alas, not irrepressible at all.   She struck out last week with Ian, and still can't much more than a kiss from Paul, and not even that when the "children" aka Kayla are around.   None of this is Bria's fault.  Ian's calling on all his strength to be professional, and he'll likely to surrender to Bria before the end of this season.   As for Paul ...

Well, obviously, there's something wrong with him.  His playing the perfect gentleman is just that - an act.  It's not that he doesn't want to sleep with Bria, it's that he's pursuing the relationship for some other reason.  Either his idea of the girlfriend experience is literally a friendship and nothing more - not very likely - or he has some other motive in all of this.  Maybe he's connected to the case in some way, working for the people Bria will be testifying against?  But if that, how did he find out about Bria?

That's what I meant about the Bria story being more compelling at this point.  And I'll be back next week with more.


See also  The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One ...  The Girlfriend Experience 2.3-4: Hard to Come By

And see also The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Girlfriend Experience 2.3-4: Hard to Come By

The Girlfriend Experience continued its second season of split hour stories in 2.3-4 with two stories having almost nothing in common other than the girlfriend experience and sexual fulfillment being hard to come by.

Bria leads off with a guy who doesn't want to rush things, and resists her sweet offer of sex at least twice.   At this point, it's not clear if this is actually not a true girlfriend experience, in which the experience leads to, or frames, the sex, or just a longer lead time than usual (I suspect the latter).  And then, when she seeks some comfort in her witness protection protector, he says no, too, after they get all to the verge.  That, I guess, makes sense, since he takes his job seriously.  But Bria can't be happy that her powers seduction have failed with two men, in so short a time.

Meanwhile, Anna (I think) let's Erica make her come (I say I think, because I'm assuming faking it is a big part of her job), but Erica says she can't reciprocate.  Actually Erica's inability comes first, which makes it even more likely that Anna's faking it to keep Erica engaged.  But, who knows, we don't Anna well enough, as yet, to tell.

Given that each hour consists of two separate stories, it's reasonable to ask or wonder or whatever the right verb is about which of the stories is better.  It's pretty even, so far.  Bria's story is one hell of a witness protection tale so far, and all the characters, especially Kayla, have not yet come into play.  And you couldn't ask for a more relevant story that Anna and Erica's, given what we're seeing on the news every day.

More to follow.

See also  The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One ...  The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Girlfriend Experience 2.1-2: Two for One

Well, The Girlfriend Experience has returned to Starz for its second season, and its very different from the first.

To begin with, each hour contains two separate half-hour stories, with different characters, which so far have no connection to each other.  And no discernible connection to the first season, either.

And the specific storylines are also different in tone and texture from the compelling attorney/call girl (the same person) who was the central character in the first season.  Now we have a political story in the first - maybe, I don't know, like The Good Wife, or its political parts.   And in the second we have a Homeland kind of story, or at least a call girl (actually two) put into some type of high-tech witness protection set-up on an offshore island.

The common thread, of course, is all the call-girls are providing girlfriend experiences, or will provide them, for whatever reason.  And this still makes the stories more interesting than just a call-girl or prostitute story (not that those can't be interesting, too, as demonstrated by The Deuce this year on Showtime).  But the desire for not just sex but a girlfriend for the money makes the men inherently more unusual, ranging from almost verging on decent to sick sadistic bastards.

It's tough to be new or original on television these days, with so much already done, and so much new coming out on every streaming service, as well as cable and the ancient networks.  But Starz is giving us a good run for its (or rather, our) money, and The Girlfriend Experience is part of this, and looks to still be well worth watching.

See also The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It (my review of Season 1)

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

My List of the Top 10 Television Series of 2016

Continuing the tradition - just started last year - here is my Top 10 list for 2016,  from who knows how many series I've seen this past year on network television, cable, and streaming (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Acorn):

Honorable mention (narrowly not making the list, for a variety of reasons):  On the list last year: Rectify concluded its run this Fall, and although it was still excellent and unique in many ways, some of the episodes lacked the intensity of the earlier seasons.  The Affair has just begun a new season on Showtime, and so far it's too soon to know if this will be another Top 10 season.   Returning in honorable mention: Chicago Fire is still superb, but still suffers from the limitations of network television.  Nordic noir:  Case, The Department Q Trilogy, Dicte - all outstanding, subtitled Scandinavian police drama that almost made the list.  Apples and oranges: Veep is hilarious, but it's impossible to rank a comedy with dramas, so I put it here in honorable mentions. Closest runner-up: The Fall's third season (BBC, streamed on Neflix) was its best yet for this sociopathic crime drama, with an Emmy-worthy performance by Gillian Anderson.

And now the Top 10:

10. Designated Survivor (ABC TV):  The only network series on my Top 10, which says how far cable and streaming have surpassed traditional network TV in the U.S.  But Designated Survivor is a worthy exception, in effect a blend of 24 and House of Cards - or Jack Bauer in the White House. Fast-paced, dangerous, and unafraid to address current controversial political issues.

9. Vikings (History Channel):  Moving up from honorable mention last year to #9 on my list this year, Vikings is superbly rendered historical drama.   What and how the Vikings managed to conquer is fascinating just as straight history, but this series brings these stories alive with unforgettable characters and breathtaking battle scenes.

8. Colony (USA Network):  Near-future Los Angeles under totalitarian alien control - aliens from outer space not other countries - debuted in 2016.  A taut, excellent mix of action and intelligent political philosophy.

7. House of Cards (Season 4) (Netflix): Back on the list, down one notch, but that's because of the tougher competition, not because of any loss of quality.  Frank and Claire Underwood remain brilliant templates of American Presidential politics and governance, becoming less hyperbolic and more in tune with our reality with every passing year, and not because House of Cards is changing.

6. Narcos (Season 2) (Netflix): We streamed seasons 1 (2015) and 2 (2016) in 2016, and loved them both.  Irresistible, brutal (how's that for a combination) docu-drama about Colombian drug-lord Pablo Escobar.

5. 19-2 (Acorn).  This is among the best beat-cop shows ever on television.  All three seasons are streaming on Acorn, with Season 3 first airing in the summer of 2016.  Originally a French-Canadian series, my wife and I enjoyed the English version so much we'll probably see the French sooner or later too. Indelible characters.

4. Travelers (Netflix).  Ok, I love science fiction, but I especially love time travel.  I said in my review of this Canadian series, now streaming on Netflix, that it was in some ways as good as 12 Monkeys.  Now that it's settled in, I think it's even better.  The thing is, Travelers starts out very slowly, so much so that I wouldn't have kept watching if I didn't have an insatiable interest in time travel stories.  But Travelers gets better very quickly, and the last four episodes are pure, incandescent genius.

3. The Girlfriend Experience (Starz): Both a lawyer and a call-girl show, and a gem of a drama.  The "girlfriend experience" gives the customer not just sex but a girlfriend for the rented time, and the situations this engenders make for an outstanding portrayal of life in the fast lane.

2.  Westworld (HBO): There's going to be more science fiction this year than last year.  I am indeed a science fiction fan (as well as author), but these series were extraordinary, and should be very appealing to everyone who doesn't dislike science fiction.  In the case of Westworld, it was a very close second to The Man in the High Castle, offering the best depiction of the profound issues in human-like artificial intelligence I've ever seen on television or in the movies.  (Humans was #9 on my list last year - its new season will be on in 2017.  I found Westworld better than Humans, as good as it was.)

1. The Man in the High Castle (Season 2) (Amazon):  This was #1 on my list last year, and this year's episodes were even better.  Goes well beyond Philip K. Dick's masterful novel in intelligent, relevant, vivid, and riveting ways.   And speaking of relevant, never more so, given the support President-elect Trump received from white supremacists in the recent election.

See also My List of the Top Ten Television Series of 2015

The Girlfriend Experience: Eminently Worth It

If it had to pick the best new 2016 television series on any medium - network TV, cable, or streaming - it would be The Girlfriend Experience on Starz.   And though it's hard to compare The Girlfriend Experience to the science fiction, crime, and historical drama I usually review here, it may well be the best series now on television, period.

What's it about?  Well, the girlfriend experience is offered by call girls who not only provide sex, but companionship, dinner, affection, conversation, attentive listening during the time that is purchased, for a thousand dollars or more an hour.   The purveyor of the experience thus needs to be not only beautiful, but intelligent and empathetic.

In order for a series like this to work, the lead actress has to not only be gorgeous, but convey that intelligence and sensitivity.  That would be Riley Keough, who gives a virtuoso performance as Christine Reade.   She's Elvis Presley's granddaughter, by the way.   I don't how she sounds on record, but she has more acting talent than everyone in her family combined - and I liked Elvis in Jailhouse Rock, and Priscilla was pretty good in Dallas, too.  But their granddaughter is something else again on screen.

The story's excellent, too.   Christine has a day job as a law student and legal intern - which is also why she needs to be so intelligent - and this puts The Girlfriend Experience on a continuum with Secret Diary of a Call Girl on Showtime (about a straight-up prostitute) and every lawyer show ever on television, including The Good Wife, and for that matter in a different way with Girls on HBO and The Devil Wears Prada in the movies, too.

But the subject of The Girlfriend Experience is something all its own, and the narrative does a good job of mining its possibilities and complications. Christine's clients range from obsequious to savvy, from brutal to sweet to even sometimes cool.   One of them realizes he can't afford to continue shelling out the big bucks for this and asks for a discount.   Another drops dead (off camera).   A third craves the jealousy part of any real relationship, and asks Christine to set that up.

The pacing in the 13-episode season, each 30 minutes, took a little getting used to, and wasn't helped by the fact that Cablevision didn't have all the episodes up on Starz On Demand as advertised - maybe I should pay for a more satisfying cable experience (wait, I thought I was already doing that) - but in the end and in retrospect I rather like the way the story is rolled out, especially the unconventional season finale.

There's astute use of media in the story, with smartphones and videos playing crucial roles, thus giving the media scholar a great excuse to watch this.

But you don't need an excuse.  The Girlfriend Experience is brilliant, provocative, appealing television, and a unique addition to the screen.

 

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