Since its publication in 2019, Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women, an explosive non-fiction exploring female sexuality and desire has been a bestseller in both the UK and the US, and hailed as a “vital document of 21st century sexual politics”. The Observer’s review described it as “the best book on women and desire I have ever come across” and even Gwyneth Paltrow admitted that she “literally couldn’t put it down”.

Now, the book is finally coming to the small screen in an adaptation led by Taddeo herself, and starring the likes of Shailene Woodley, Betty Gilpin and DeWanda Wise. And based on the first trailer, the show is set to be just as explosive and empowering as we could have hoped.

The best news? The first episode is available to stream today.

As the synopsis explains, Three Women tells the true stories of Maggie, Lina and Sloane, each of whom, for utterly personal and yet profoundly relatable reasons, has a complicated understanding of their own needs. Maggie alleges she had a sexual relationship with her high school teacher, Aaron Knodel, and we meet her as she’s dealing with the emotional and legal aftermath. After being raped by three classmates as a teenager, Lina married a cold, undemonstrative man and is now, as a mother of two, embarking on a frantic affair with an old boyfriend. Elegant, privileged Sloane has sex with other people so her husband can get a thrill from watching.

Betty Gilpin is a co-lead opposite Big Little Lies’ Shailene Woodley and DeWanda Wise in the adaptation.

Gilpin will star as Lina, the homemaker who, after a decade in a passionless marriage, embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming and transforms her life. Wise will take on the role of Sloane, a glamorous entrepreneur in a committed open marriage.

Woodley will play Gia, a writer grieving the loss of her family who persuades each of these three spectacular “ordinary” women to tell her their stories, and her relationships with them change the course of her life forever. Gia’s storyline mirrors Taddeo’s own journey with Three Women, which took her a decade to research, report and write, often moving to the towns of her subjects to achieve complete authenticity.

Gabrielle Creevey, star of In My Skin, takes on the role of Maggie, the student weathering an intense storm after accusing her married English teacher of an inappropriate relationship.

Rounding out the cast, we have Blair Underwood, Jason Ralph, Blair Redford, Heather Goldenhersh and Ziva Jane.

The show is set to premiere on Starz on Friday, 13 September, and episodes will be released weekly.

The trailer offers a first glimpse of Creevey, Gilpin and Wise as the titular three women and Woodley as Gia, the woman who is telling their story. “These three women had the audacity to believe they deserved more,” says Woodley’s Gia in a voiceover as the trailer opens, adding, “More than I wanted to tell their stories I wanted to hear them myself.”

Images: Getty/Bloomsbury/Starz