The Girlfriend (2025), stars Robin Wright, also the top executive producer for the 6-part limited series and the director of the first three episodes. A startling scene occurs 15 minutes into Episode 1. Wright plays Laura Sanderson who has an art gallery hosting a gala opening for a new one-man show of male nudes. We see her son, Daniel (Laurie Davidson) and his girlfriend Cherry Laine (Olivia Cooke) approach a large painting of a man with an extraordinarily large penis. In a long shot without sound, Cherry, clearly taken with the large penis, engage in playful banter with Daniel. We also see Laura looking on at the young couple with concern.
The Girlfriend tells its story through alternating scenes from either Cherry’s point of view or Laura’s point of view, typically including both in each episode. The opening sequence is titled “Laura,” but we see the scene once again near the end of the episode in a sequence titled “Cherry.” This time we hear their dialogue. As she stares at the penis, Cherry says, “Oooooh…oooooh.” Daniel tries to cut her off saying, “Alright. That’s enough,” and he accusingly adds, “Trying to make me jealous,” to which she replies, “No, not at all.”
‘The Girlfriend’
The first episode of a series usually introduces the main characters, premise, and themes. This emphasis on the spectacle of a very large penis points to the cultural assumption that the size of a man’s penis indicates strength and power within a patriarchal culture. Which is why Daniel accuses Cherry of trying to make him jealous and why Cherry is impressed with what she sees. Furthermore, an image of the male nude from the exhibition becomes a visual motif throughout the series, reminding the viewer of that definition of powerful masculinity. We see, for example, a close-up of a magazine cover with a full reproduction of one of the paintings from the exhibit in Episode 2.
These two scenes raise a question not only about what is going on within the scenes but also about what is going on behind the scenes, since Robin Wright and the creators of the series are mostly women. All the episodes of the series are directed by women (Wright and Andrea Harkin), are mostly written by women, and the series is based on a novel written by Michelle Frances.
Why did the creators choose to highlight the representation of the penis and cultural discourses about it? The answer to the first question about Laura in the scene is easy: we never know, since the series offers no answer to the question as to why she chooses a show comprised entirely of a well-endowed male nude. But within the larger creative context of the six episodes the implications are profound since the series foregrounds the failed traditional masculinity of its main male characters, Daniel and Laura’s husband, Howard Sanderson (Waleed Zuaiter). The series hints at this when we see a review of the art show declared “limp.”
‘The Girlfriend’ courtesy of Prime.
The first scene of Episode 1 seems to show a dramatic underwater fight to the death until we see Laura and Daniel surface in a playful exchange indicating such fights are a ritual for them. We learn that he is completing his university medical school degree and has brought his girlfriend with him to meet the family. The spectacle of a grown man interacting with his mother in such a way is a disturbing sign that he has not fully matured in his relationship with her.
Daniel is still heavily under the influence of his mother who cannot let go of her “boy.” From the minute that she meets the girlfriend, Laura is suspicious of her and opposed to Daniel’s plan to marry her. The duel between Laura and Cherry lies at the center of the series, displacing Daniel and his father to the margins. The next sign of Daniel’s weakness occurs when he takes Cherry on a rock-climbing hike. As he demonstrates his dexterity, he slips and falls from a great height and almost dies, miraculously recovering in the hospital. Near the end of Episode 6 he goes home to retrieve some things before leaving. Yet, he succumbs to his mother’s plea that they share a final drink together. She slips a drug into his drink, and he falls unconscious.
Howard is similarly marked as under Laura’s controlling manipulation. Their marriage becomes an “open relationship” at her request. Yet, as soon as she needs Howard back, she requests that they return to a monogamous relationship. He immediately agrees, declaring he never wanted the open marriage. Surprisingly, he never sees through Laura’s manipulations.
This element of male weakness reaches its culmination when Laura secretly renews an erotic lesbian relationship with her college roommate, an artist. She manipulates her friend to agree to a show of her work replacing that of the nude male exhibit. The gala opening of that show is now filled with nude female bodies, one of which is an erotic portrait of Laura. The impressively large penis has gone to a limp penis and finally an absent penis. Women not only don’t need the big penis; they do not need any penis at all.
The climax of the film occurs when Cherry shows up at Laura’s home to join Daniel. Laura pulls a knife out and slashes her, and as they begin to fight they fall into the pool where we once again see brutal underwater imagery. Meanwhile, Daniel regains consciousness and stumbles to the rescue only to fail once again. He tries to stop the fight, ordering Cherry out of the pool. She looks at him and tells him to stop strangling his mother. When Daniel does, he discovers to his horror that rather than saving his mother, he has killed her.
‘The Girlfriend’ • Photo: Christopher Raphael/Prime.
A brief final scene shows Cherry pregnant in the yard with Daniel and Howard. He happily leaves them to go into the house to make drinks only to discover a lost cellphone. He listens to a message from Laura about a hidden aspect of Cherry’s past revealing her as a dangerous gold digger. The series ends without any explanation of Cherry’s actual motives in marrying Daniel; he looks out into the yard in terror, perhaps having fallen under control of another woman.
This series has an unexpected connection to the art film, Sorry, Baby (2025), written and directed by Eva Victor who plays the leading role of Agnes, a heterosexual woman who has had a lesbian relationship with her college roommate. At the beginning of the film, she has an erotic fantasy of having an affair with her doctoral dissertation advisor. When she decides to do so, he brutally rapes her.
Near the end of the film, she has an affair with her neighbor. She lies in the bathtub, and he asks if he can join her. He turns around as he undresses and she says, “You don’t have to hide it.” He replies, “It’s small right now.” She replies, “Men are so weird.” When he gets out of the bathtub, she asks him, “Can I look at it?” and gives him a careful look: “I’ve never seen one that soft…I mean you never get to see them like that. They’re better like this.” This scene departs from film canons where the large penis is represented as an awesome phallic spectacle as in Episode 1 of The Girlfriend, and the small penis as humiliating or comic. In this regard the film and TV series, while sharing and questioning the importance of the penis, offer significantly contrasting views.
Peter Lehman is Professor Emeritus in the Film and Media Studies Program at Arizona State University.
