Cast: Robin Wright, Olivia Cooke, Laurie Davidson, Walled Zuaiter, Karen Henthorn

Length: 6 episodes

Studio/Streamer: Amazon Prime video

Audio Description Produced By:

Audio Description Written By:

Audio Description Narrated By:

What Is it?: A mother’s love for her son knows no bounds. After Laura (Wright) becomes suspicious of her son’s new girlfriend (Cooke), her determination to break them up will pit both women against each other in a game of mutual destruction where only one can win. The show plays with perspective, showing you the same block of time from one of the two main perspectives, before flipping to the other.

Why it Works: At first it didn’t. taking it at face value, I didn’t like our cherry Lane (played wonderfully by Olivia Cooke), and instantly sided with the suspicions of Laura. However, as the series progresses, Laura continues to become deeply involved and entrenched in this conflict, raising the stakes, and pushing things further than necessary. Robin Wright finds just the right balance as her character loses grip on reality.

You do get to see a version of the ending at the beginning, and while cherry certainly does some provocative things, and there’s some backstory that could be seen as troubling, I went from sympathizing with Laura to being OK with her fate. the difference between what these women pull off, is that often what Laura does has direct consequences to Daniel, while cherry’s attacks almost entirely spare Daniel of anything except perhaps his trust. But the betrayal on Laura’s side is somehow more frightening as her extreme measures, coupled by the fact that she is also given the backstory of having already lost one child, make her seem closer to a psychotic break than cherry. Not that Cherry won’t hesitate to cut a bitch, but she does come off as genuine in her love of Daniel, never pushing that to a point where it could be compromised.

The supporting cast mostly just works as pieces of the puzzle that move around as needed, and can’t be settled until the women are. Sometimes it can be a bit too much, and the continuity on what we’re shown in one perspective doesn’t align with another, but in the end it mostly works.

The Audio Description: I can’t figure out what it is, but there’s something about this track I’m not a fan of. I’m not saying it’s a bad track, but if I’m ranking tracks, or grading and scoring, I’d be putting this a notch below and I can’t quite quantify why. I didn’t have a problem with the writing, and while the narrator’s voice and delivery wasn’t my favorite, I certainly don’t think it is the worst.

Why You Might Like it: At only six episodes,it doesn’t require a huge investment. It is twisty, and occasionally a bit extra, but the ride is worth it.

Why You Might Not Like It: It can have silly components, and if you hit and quit after one episode, the pilot just isn’t strong enough to necessarily sustain the audience.

Final Thoughts: Robin Wright is looking to topple the Girlfriend in her path, but along the way she may be responsible for collapsing her own house of cards in this twisty thriller worth the ride.

Fresh: 7.9/10