Starz ‘Girlfriend Experience’ Renewed for Season 2 With New Story

Starz’s efforts to take Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience to TV appear to have paid off, but don’t get too attached to any characters from Season 1. The network has officially confirmed an extended renewal for Season 2, albeit one with “entirely new characters and plotlines.”

The Hollywood Reporter first announced the 14-episode renewal, which follows the first season’s 13 episodes, most of which were made available to binge along with the weekly airings. Soderbergh will return as executive producer with showrunners Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz, though the “focus on entirely new characters and plotlines” leaves it unlikely Riley Keough will again take a central role.

Says Starz:

The first season of The Girlfriend Experience allowed us to accommodate all viewing appetites with the traditional weekly episodic premiere schedule as well as a binging option for the entire 13-episodes. We’re excited to offer Starz subscribers a second season that will explore new GFEs, clients and relationships as we take viewers back into this world that questions the price of intimacy and its emotional consequences.

Starz’s “Anthology Series” The Girlfriend Experience followed Christine Reade (Riley Keough), a second year student at Chicago-Burnham Law School and a new intern at the prestigious firm of Kirkland & Allen. Reade’s quickly shifted when a classmate introduced her to the world of transactional relationships. Known as GFEs, they are women who provide “The Girlfriend Experience”—emotional and sexual relationships at a very high price. Juggling two very different lives, Christine quickly found herself drawn into the GFE world, attracted to the rush of control and intimacy.

The original film arrived in 2009, directed by Soderbergh and starring then-adult film actress Sasha Grey. Watch the first trailer for The Girlfriend Experience below, and stay tuned for more on the all-new second season.