It's all heating up on Prime Video with the release of The Girlfriend.
The new six-part series, based on Michelle Frances' novel of the same title, dropped on Wednesday, 10th September, and centres around wealthy businesswoman Laura (played by Robin Wright).
When her doctor son, Daniel (Laurie Davidson), brings home a new girlfriend named Cherry (Olivia Cooke), Laura’s life is turned upside down. She becomes convinced that Cherry isn’t who she claims to be, and that her son may be dating someone far more sinister than she’s letting on.
From the beginning of the series, Laura and Daniel are shown to have an unusually close mother-son relationship - one that at times borders on uncomfortable. In episode one, we see them wrestling and cuddling in the pool before sharing a beer in the sauna, while Laura rests her feet on Daniel.
But it’s in episode two, during a family holiday to Spain, that things really start to push the boundaries when Laura kisses Daniel on the lips.
Speaking exclusively to Cosmopolitan UK, Wright who also directed three episodes of the series, revealed that the incestuous undertones were "deliberate".
"It was deliberate. It was totally deliberate. We talked about it. We added things, like 'Mum's going to kiss him on the lips. Could be a tongue involved' - I remember that conversation," she explained.
"We had to up the ante a little bit. But yes, of course, it's in the book too. Laura Sanderson still treats her 29-year-old like he's 14 emotionally."
Like the book, the Prime Video series is told from both Laura and Cherry's perspectives, which means events may shift slightly depending on whose point of view we’re seeing.
The kiss scene, for example, is shown from Cherry's perspective. We see Daniel walk over to his mother while everyone is outside dancing by the pool. As he smiles at her, she grabs his face with both hands and plants a kiss on his lips - one that seems to last just a little too long.
"I love you," Daniel then tells his mum.
On this scene, Davidson explained: "Because of the dual perspective, any of those things that are like an ick for cherry, we can lean into more because we're shooting it through her perspective. You know, we can lean on those things and not exaggerate them, but emphasise them because they are through the eyes of Cherry. So, they would be even more heightened."
For the more sensitive and physical scenes, the cast collaborated closely with intimacy coordinator Jenefer Odell, whose previous credits include Netflix's Sex Education and Baby Reindeer.
"She was fantastic," Cooke said. "The way intimacy coordinators work is they talk to the director, so Robin, and they talk about what they want for the scene. Then we get told what the parameters of the scene may be and we say what we're comfortable showing, not showing, doing, not doing, and then that gets relayed back to the director, and then we sort work through all our boundaries and what makes sense for the for the scene and for the characters."
She added: "It sounds convoluted, but it weirdly just streamlines the process because everyone's being honest and comfortable with what they will and won't do, because it's a weird f**king part of our job."
All six episodes of The Girlfriend are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
