Stream or skip?

Three women is a series with an interesting story. Showtime produced the series and dropped it in 2022 after all ten episodes were completed. Then in January 2023, Starz picked it up. However, the network held it back for almost two years before finally airing it in the US in September 2024. Why did they hold it back for so long? The first episode might give us a clue.

THREE WOMEN: STREAM OR SKIP?

Opening shot: A long disclaimer appears, explaining that one of the stories is based on Maggie Wilkens' testimony about an inappropriate relationship she had with a teacher when she was a student, and that the teacher denies it. “There are many sides to every story. This one is Maggie's.” We then see the feet of a woman walking down a New York street.

The essentials: Journalist Gia Lombardi (Shailene Woodley) is writing a book about sex in America. When her publisher essentially asked her to revise the manuscript, she sought advice from one of her journalistic heroes, Gay Talese (James Naughton). He advised her to travel the country and “fuck married men.” She decides to write the first part to get the off-shore perspective, but not the second. And in her travels, she met three women who reclaimed their lives, both sexually and emotionally.

Lina Parish (Betty Gilpin) lives in Indiana, and although she has an almost adolescent desire for love, her husband doesn't even want her to touch him. She seems to be in constant pain and wears gloves to keep the joints in her hands warm. She is referred to Dr. Henry (Ravi Patel), who has a Southern accent and calls her “darling.” He doesn't believe her pain is imaginary, and he believes he can help her be more in tune with herself, especially sexually.

Sloane Ford (DeWanda Wise) lives in Massachusetts. She is so gorgeous that she arouses jealousy among her friends. She runs a very successful event company with her husband Richard (Blair Underwood). But they also have an open marriage, at least open enough that they watch each other have sex with other people. After a party they threw, she takes someone she met there to bed while Richard watches. But the session is interrupted because Sloane gets sick from a dubious oyster. But when she meets a sexy oyster farmer named Will (Blair Redford), she realizes that her philosophy of watching Richard have sex with lesser men isn't working for her.

Maggie Wilkin (Gabrielle Creevy) is a waitress at Perkins in North Dakota. She dropped out of college, lives with her parents (Brían F. O'Byrne, Heather Goldenhersh), and generally feels aimless. Then she learns that Aaron Knodel (Jason Ralph), the teacher she had a relationship with in high school, is receiving an award, and it brings back memories of those days. However, friends convince her that Knodel has been taking advantage of her, and she decides it's time to call him out on having such an inappropriate relationship.

What shows will it remind you of? Created by Lisa Taddeo based on her non-fiction book of the same name, Three women has a bit the same feeling as the first season of Love life. (Laura Eason and Emmy Rossum are executive producers.)

Our opinion: There is something incoherent Three women this makes it seem even more disorganized than the story structure suggests. Woodley's character, a stand-in for Taddeo herself, is the common thread, having met all three women while researching her book. But in the first episode, we only see her briefly in the other women's worlds, in just one of the three stories. The rest of the time she's narrating to Bruce Springsteen and/or dancing to him in her car.

Using the journalist's travels as a framework might work for a nonfiction book, but for a television series, at least so far, it seems pointless. Taddeo could have simply told the stories of the three women, going back and forth to each of them without needing Woodley's presence or narration to connect them together.

The stories themselves have the potential to be compelling, and Gilpin, DeWise, and Creevy all do a great job in their respective roles, but we don't know if we want to spend ten episodes with all of them. Essentially, the three of them are reclaiming their lives, emotionally and sexually, but the stakes aren't high in two of the three stories.

As the disclaimer before the first episode suggests, Maggie's story is the one with the highest stakes. But in the other two? They're certainly journeys, but are they ones that viewers will want to take for ten hours? The gorgeous Sloane wants to have sex with a gorgeous man in front of her gorgeous husband? Lena is sexually awakened after years of being ignored by the man she loves? Are these really the ingredients for a compelling television drama?

Maybe that will become clear as the first season progresses, but from what we've seen so far, it feels like we're dealing with three disconnected stories that – in at least two cases – don't have a particularly interesting dramatic arc.

Sex and skin: There are some nude scenes and simulated sex, as well as a moment where a condom is put on, which made us wonder what the purpose of this scene was to actually show that. We also see Lina sitting on her toilet and trimming her pubic hair.

Farewell shot: We see evidence that Knodel received the email from Maggie saying she wanted answers about their relationship.

Sleepy Star: We give this award to Blair Underwood because the man has been on our screens for over 30 years and he looks like he hasn't aged a day. LA Law.

Most pilot-y lines: The extended sequence in which Gia sits in her car and dances to “Human Touch” by The Boss seemed even more pointless than the journalist’s presence on the show at all.

Our call: SKIP IT. Three women might have worked better as an anthology, but in its current format it contains too many superfluous elements and not enough real drama.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but he makes no mistake: He is a TV junkie. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and elsewhere.