bOOnish To make it short: This series will make you feel betrayed.It starts several arcs of suspense that make you continue watching but it finalizes nothing. There is no resolve at all. At the end of the first season the viewer has no answers to questions that seemed to drive the plot. And at the beginning of the second season the viewer realizes disbelievingly that this starts a completely new plot with new characters. Waste of time.

twhiteson In 2002's "Auto Focus," former "Hogan's Heroes" star and all-around perverted sleazeball, Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), is depicted fantasizing shortly before his 1978 murder about making high-end porn films with legitimate actors, directors, writers, and technicians. His friend (and possible murderer) John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) scoffs at the entire idea as ludicrous. Yet, Bob Crane had seen the future because forty years after his death porn has indeed gone mainstream and there is no better example of this trend than Starz' "The Girlfriend Experience." "The Girlfriend Experience" is pornography except "tastefully" done by actual film professionals. Yes, there are plots about boring, high-end, sociopath prostitutes co-mingling with boring A-type sociopaths with high-end jobs and aseptic offices/apartments while meandering through twisted Machiavellian worlds of high finance, politics or law, but the plot and character development seem to be secondary to the three or four pornographic sex scenes/episode. The second season has been even more blatant with the "Erica & Anna" episodes being nothing more than one "hot lesbian action" scene after the next. People claiming they're watching this show for its plot or character development sound about as believable as those who used to claim to read Playboy for its articles.Are actors so desperate for work, money, and fame that they'll do almost ANYTHING? What do Anna Friel and Louisa Krause tell family and friends about their work: "Oh, sure it sounds and looks like I'm making porn, but it's not because Steve Soderbergh's name is attached to it and it's on Starz!" Do they want their children or relatives' children to ever watch this stuff? Undoubtedly, they're telling themselves that they're being "risky" and "artistic," but in reality they're providing the same service to horny heterosexual men/boys that they usually get by cruising the internet. (And undoubtedly many of the scenes from "The Girlfriend Experience" will be uploaded to those internet sites.)In sum: "high-end" porn that lowers the bar.

jon-385 I'v watched a few episodes now and I can't truly follow a story line. This show to me is basically a porn flick. If you have children, you might want to make sure there not watching this because it's always running if you have HBO. Seriously, every episodes I've watched so far seems exactly the same.

pawprintcom I have seen the movie in which this series is based off of. It didn't do much for me, but I was hopeful a series would perhaps elaborate and fill in the blanks where the movie was lacking. Wrong. It is so utterly boring; exhaustively so. I can't believe I made it through the whole first season. I just kept waiting. Waiting for a story-line. Waiting for the titillation I expected. Waiting for the lead actress to crack a smile. I don't know if that was the direction she was given, but if I was a working woman (and I am a woman) I wouldn't expect to get any "dates" if I couldn't even appear as if I was enjoying myself. A decent body will only get you so far. Watch the series if you want to be bored; or save yourself and grab something with a bit more drama or comedy to it. Highly recommend Secret Diary of a Call Girl, for a more enjoyable watch. I can't believe they're doing a S2. It must be cheap to film.