A Daily Mail review says Amazon Prime Video’s six-part psychological thriller The Girlfriend is not inspired by the reported public rift between Victoria Beckham and her daughter‑in‑law Nicola Peltz, and that any resemblance is coincidental.
Christopher Stevens, writing for the Daily Mail, called attention to the series’ origins as an adaptation of Michelle Francis’s bestselling novel and highlighted Robin Wright’s dual role as lead actor and director. Wright plays Laura, a controlling gallery owner; Olivia Cooke stars as Cherry Laine, the brazen outsider who becomes involved with Laura’s son, Daniel, played by Laurie Davidson. All six episodes are available exclusively on Prime Video.
Stevens’s review focuses on the series’ exploration of wealth, class and manipulation within a super‑rich family. He describes Laura as a cold, practiced manipulator and Cherry as fearless and devious, noting that the drama deliberately complicates viewers’ sympathies by replaying the same incidents from both women’s points of view. That narrative device, the review says, forces audiences to revise first impressions as each episode switches perspective between mother and girlfriend.
The critic cites several striking scenes that underline the show’s theatrical and sometimes surreal tone: a sequence in which Cherry sabotages an ex‑boyfriend’s wedding with a pig’s heart hidden in the cake, a confrontation in a family sauna and escalating acts of petty revenge such as Laura dousing Cherry with coffee and Cherry dumping the family cat out of a bathroom window. Stevens also notes an undercurrent of Oedipal tension in Daniel’s relationship with his mother, illustrated by intimate domestic moments that blur boundaries.
Wright’s portrayal of Laura drew particular attention in the review. Stevens wrote that Wright, who previously played a politically ruthless First Lady in House of Cards, is well suited to characters with "smiles as cold and hard as marble." He credited Olivia Cooke with upending the archetype of the insecure outsider by giving Cherry a predatory self‑possession that men find alluring but other women find destabilizing.
The series contrasts Laura’s lifetime of practiced manipulation with Cherry’s more volatile, working‑class resourcefulness. Stevens emphasized that, unlike the wealthy family she upends, Cherry is not from the same privileged background but is adept at concealing her roots and using sexuality and cunning to gain influence.
The review situates The Girlfriend within a broader cultural appetite for psychological thrillers that probe elite circles and domestic power dynamics. By foregrounding the rivalry between two women vying for influence over a wealthy, passive man, the show interrogates class resentments and the performance of status as much as it chronicles a conventional love triangle.
Prime Video and the producers marketed the series as an adaptation of Francis’s novel, and Stevens’s column explicitly distances the plot from tabloid‑style comparisons to public celebrity disputes. The reviewer framed the Beckham‑Peltz link as a predictable reference point in tabloid conversation but said the series’ themes and character dynamics are rooted in its literary source and in the performances of its principal cast.
The Girlfriend is available to stream now on Prime Video. The review by Christopher Stevens was published in the Daily Mail.