“These three women had the audacity to believe they deserved more,” Shailey Woodley enunciates in the trailer for a new Starz series titled, yes, Three Women. It sums up the video and, presumably, what the show is all about. Based on Lisa Taddeo’s 2017 bestselling non-fiction novel, the drama premieres this fall on the cable network.
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At the 2024 Television Critics Association (TCA) summer press tour, Starz unveiled the Three Women trailer and a September premiere date. The show centers on Gia (Woodley), a writer who suffers a personal loss and goes on a road trip across the country to grieve. In the process, she meets three women in different places and digs into their romantic and sexual desires. The trailer spells their plots out to a tee.
Lina (Betty Gilpin) is a suburban mother and housewife stuck in an unhappy marriage. An all-consuming affair changes the course of her life. Sloane (DeWanda Wise) is an entrepreneur in an open marriage, except two sexy strangers could blow the whole thing apart. Maggie (Gabrielle Creevy), a North Dakota school student, is groomed by her married teacher into a relationship until she takes legal action against him.
Gia meets each of them separately on her travels, embeds herself in their lives, and convinces them to share their experiences to help others like them. “More than I wanted to tell their stories, I wanted to hear them,” Gia shares, another indication of how non-stop Woodley’s voiceovers are going to be.
Evidently, Three Women isn’t shy about depicting intense sex scenes as a way to examine its leading women. Wise, who plays a take-charge character, said during the TCA panel that it felt empowering. “The intimacy that shows up on screen required a degree of focused intent from every crew member involved, a project where everyone knew the stakes were high,” she added.
Gilpin, whose Lina is sick of feeling like she’s not desired by her partner, praises Taddeo’s ability to highlight vulnerability. “Lisa treats these women with respect & shines a light on a part of them they were told was a stain or a scarlet letter, and she treats it as if it’s the most special thing. Every woman has something like that.”
Created by Taddeo, who is also an EP, the show boasts other producers like Emmy Rossum and Kathy Ciric. House Of Cards’ Laura Eason is the showrunner. Three Women’s ensemble includes Blair Underwood, John Patrick Amedori, Jason Ralph, Lola Kirke, Austin Stowell, Ravi Patel, and Blair Redford.
The show premieres on Friday, September 13 at 10 p.m. ET.