“What I would like to see happen is what we did on ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ and what we did on ‘The Knick’ which is auteur driven TV. Filmmakers and directors that really take on a whole show and do the whole thing. I just think you get a better result, you get something that’s more unified and more specific, as opposed to having multiple directors coming in,” Steven Soderbergh recently shared about the TV landscape. And while the rest of the industry is largely following writers first, directors second approach, Soderbergh is continuing to see his vision realized of how the small screen should work.
READ MORE: Steven Soderbergh Talks ‘The Knick’ Season 3, Wants More Auteur Driven TV
Starz has renewed the Soderbergh-produced series adaptation of “The Girlfriend Experience” for a second season, but with a bit of a twist. Filmmakers Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan will return to write and direct all 14 new episodes — one more than the 13-episode first season — however, Riley Keough and the rest of the cast wont’ be back. Instead, there will be an all new ensemble telling an all new story.
The change fits into the current trend in TV toward more contained, anthology style narratives and also Soderbergh’s own idea of switching gears on the small, something he hopes to do for the still brewing “The Knick” season 3, which will reconfigure the medical drama with a new setting. But it’s all good news for fans of “The Girlfriend Experience.” No word yet on if the new season will be ready for 2017, but I’ll bet Starz will be pushing to bring it back sooner rather than later. [THR]
Interesting move. I was slightly curious as to whether it would get a renewal at all (and this is despite the critical adoration it had) so that comes as a surprise but the decision to turn it into an anthology style series is the bigger one.
It was always intended as an anthology series from the beginning
You’re correct and not long after I posted my previous comment I’d remembered an old article on Collider (or another site, the location isn’t the important bit) that mentioned it as one before it actually started to air, but then either every other article I read afterward I must’ve mentally blocked it out or the people responsible for the articles I’d been reading felt it was a less important aspect to continually remind their readers about.