Prime Video’s 6-Part Psychological Thriller Proves A Harsh Reality About Book Adaptations

Although Prime Video’s The Girlfriend changes the story of the original novel completely, this is a surprisingly good thing and one of the main reasons that the series works. Released in September 2025, The Girlfriend is a campy psychological thriller starring Robin Wright as the possessive mother, Laura Sanderson, and Laurie Davidson as her golden child son, Daniel.

Laura is uncomfortably close with her adult son when the show’s story begins, and she is soon horrified when his new partner, The Girlfriend’s Olivia Cooke character Cherry, gets between them. Laura becomes convinced that Cherry wants to steal her son away from her, leading to an increasingly tense rivalry between the two women.

To say more would be to give away too much of the story, but suffice to say, the two women never get to settle their differences before their feud turns deadly. Based on author Michelle Frances’ 2018 novel of the same name, The Girlfriend is a psychological thriller in the vein of ‘90s hits like Poison Ivy or The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

Prime Video’s The Girlfriend Changes Its Book Story Completely

However, one thing that makes the adaptation stand out is the many changes that the show makes to its source material. By the time The Girlfriend’s TV show ending rolls around, the show scarcely resembles the book that inspired it, and this proves to be a surprisingly good thing.

Despite what innumerable online comment threads might claim, not every adaptation benefits from maintaining fidelity to its source material. In fact, The Girlfriend is arguably only a good show because the series massively changes the source material, not despite these changes.

In the original novel, Cherry is portrayed as a villain from early on, and her evil nature only becomes more blatant as the story progresses. She starts out by gaslighting both Daniel and Laura within a few weeks of meeting them, and soon, her behavior escalates to cartoonishly vile acts like killing an innocent puppy.

There’s little in the way of psychological complexity in Frances’ book, particularly when the story constantly excuses Laura’s smothering doting on her son and her creepy Oedipal relationship with him. As the reader is constantly encouraged to view Cherry as a villain and Laura as a victim, the plot becomes increasingly plodding and predictable.

In contrast, The Girlfriend’s TV show adaptation is a much more morally ambiguous show. Where the book often talks about the lavish wealth of the Sanderson family, the show exposes the ways that this wealth makes them thoughtless, callous, and morally bankrupt in their treatment of Cherry and others like her.

Where the book stops short of giving Laura much in the way of major character flaws, the show allows a superb Wright to play up her discomfiting obsession with Daniel. The House of Cards star relishes the chance to play such a creepy character, and viewers are often left wondering whether Cherry or Laura is the worst influence on Daniel’s life.

The Girlfriend’s Book Changes Saved The TV Show

As far as psychological thriller shows go, The Girlfriend is a stellar example of the genre at its best, thanks to the show’s playful sense of humor, its strong trio of central performances, and its unpredictable plotting. However, a more faithful adaptation of the source novel wouldn’t have been able to boast any of these qualities.

In contrast, the book is painfully predictable and boasts a tension-free ending, as it becomes clear within a few chapters that the author’s attachment to Laura and dislike of Cherry make it obvious who will live and who will die. The show is way campier and more shocking, with a far darker ending that complicates the morality of all its main characters.

The Girlfriend Proves That Book Adaptations Shouldn’t Always Be Faithful

Frances’ The Girlfriend might have some appeal for readers who want a comfortable, predictable story about a besieged rich woman successfully defeating a working-class psychopath. However, as a psychological thriller, the book is a flat disappointment that constantly excuses the actions of one character while rendering the other so evil that the outcome feels painfully obvious.

In contrast, Prime Video’s TV show is a rare adaptation that proves TV shows sometimes should change their source material completely. Olivia Cooke’s version of Cherry is so much more human and relatable that her desperate acts of violence take on a new level of horror, and viewers are likely to be rooting for her right until she crosses a terrible line.

Similarly, where Daniel is a human prop in the novel, existing to be bounced between Laura and Cherry, he is a fully realized autonomous character in the show, and his unique outlook colors the story with more nuance and complexity. The result is a series that works not because of its source material, but despite it.

While some psychological thrillers like HBO’s masterpiece Sharp Objects benefit from sticking close to their source material, The Girlfriend proves that this is not always guaranteed to be the case. Sometimes, a show can excel by taking the opposite approach, as evidenced by Prime Video’s The Girlfriend.