We could all use a little healing, and sometimes you have to use unconventional means to achieve serenity. That’s the philosophy of Masha Dmitrichenko (Nicole Kidman), a glamorous wellness guru who invites the wealthy and emotionally brittle to indulge in yoga, detoxes and micro-dosing, whether they like it or not. After the, uh, success of her previous retreat, she has moved shop to the Alps and invited a new group of seemingly unconnected strangers to the snow-covered mountains to receive her help.
Their consent to such treatment is, as always, optional.
Hulu had a major hit with “Nine Perfect Strangers,” becoming its most-watched original programming of all time upon its premiere. Of course, that meant a follow-up would be greenlit, even though it was initially intended as a miniseries. Fortunately, this is a concept that lends itself well to an anthology format: take a bunch of dramatic rich people, stick them in a scenic locale and let Nicole Kidman mentally torture them until they achieve nirvana. Season 2 goes bigger and sillier, but fails to address the problems of the first season.
Kidman has found an interesting creative partnership in Liane Moriarty, the Australian novelist whose stories of women in domestic peril have given the actress a sturdy foothold in the crowded world of prestige TV. The first season of “Big Little Lies” deservedly rejuvenated Kidman’s reputation with an oft-skeptical public that has frequently dismissed her incredible talents or fallen out of step with her more challenging cinematic choices. Kidman turned out to be an excellent fit for these tales of glamorous women with monied lives but plenty of secrets ready to be exposed.
But “Nine Perfect Strangers” was never as good a book as “Big Little Lies”, which, despite some of its more soapy trappings, was a very serious study of domestic violence and the struggle of escaping an abusive spouse. This time around, David E. Kelley (who has also enjoyed the bounty of the Kidman Prestige TV era, penning several of her series, including “Big Little Lies” and “The Undoing”) is trying to juggle a lot of balls in the air while maintaining an easy-going glossiness to very muddled material. There’s a lot going on here. How could there not be when you have a minimum of ten lead characters, some of whom are evidently more interesting than others?
She’s also, it must be said, extremely funny, a far more capable comedic actress who’s in on her own joke than she’s typically given credit for. “Nine Perfect Strangers” allows her to be both serious and ridiculous as Masha, the wellness guru with ramrod straight grey hair (another excellent Kidman wig), a faintly parodic Russian accent and the steely gaze of a cult leader. For all of the awards and Serious TV acclaim she’s received over the past decade, there’s a lot of proudly soapy thrills in Kidman’s small screen repertoire. Look at last year’s “The Perfect Couple”, which wore its champagne fizziness on its sleeve with a dance number credits sequence. Kidman’s savvy enough to know that audiences will only take rich people drama so seriously, and “Nine Perfect Strangers” certainly doesn’t encourage wholehearted empathy towards its ensemble. They’re all too wealthy and eventually too high for that.
Masha sees herself as a ground-breaking figure of psychiatric ingenuity, an idea that has only strengthened in her mind following the madness of what happened in California. But she’s also in need of money and more dependent on psychedelic drugs to tap into her and her clients’ troubles. Her newest crop of patients is certainly ripe for picking.
And you certainly can’t fault this cast, which is as jam-packed with talent and scene stealers as the first season. Mark Strong plays David, a billionaire with anger issues whose money Masha needs as much as he desires a life change. Christine Baranski could play Victoria, impeccably glamorous and armed with a one-liner even as she faces troubling health issues, in her sleep, but you can’t fault an expert for being the best at what she does, even if the material doesn’t live up to her abilities. Singer King Princess proves herself to be a charming on-screen presence while Lena Olin is particularly intriguing as Helena, Masha’s new business partner, a welcome foil to the guru’s glacial performativity in the face of her increasingly crumbling mission. If “Nine Perfect Strangers” has one great thing going for it over other Kidman shows, it’s that willingness to be a true ensemble piece that lets everyone shine as much as, if not more, than the undisputed star with their name over the title.
Comparisons to “The White Lotus” remain difficult to avoid. The first season of “Nine Perfect Strangers” had the disadvantage of being released right as Mike White’s series became watercooler TV. Things aren’t much different now that we’re still recovering from Season 3 and all of its hot-button themes. Where “The White Lotus” delved into morally twisty ideas and developed a grander scope through the interplay of its ensemble, “Nine Perfect Strangers” keeps things simpler and soapier. This season is utterly divorced from the source material, much in the same way the second season of “Big Little Lies” was, and like that season, you can sense that the well of inspiration is drying up.
It’s not all totally predictable, but the set-up, near-identical to the first season — strangers are actually intimately connected in ways that have left a lifelong impact on their psyches — does leave the viewer more aware of the tricks being played. It also exposes the timidity of the so-called satire, which was a problem with the prior season. The series doesn’t have much to say about a system that is overwhelmed with easy targets.
Perhaps it was a smart move for “Nine Perfect Strangers” to get more daft in its second season, if only to differentiate itself from that other show about luxury getaways and mental breakdowns. It certainly doesn’t seem as concerned with appearing as prestigious as “The White Lotus” or “Big Little Lies,” which is welcome given how often Season 1 stumbled into overlong ponderousness that struggled to conceal thin characterization. But many of those issues remain here, whether it’s the lack of punch in its satire of wellness and the elite embracing of quackery or the sheer length of it all (this is yet another show that could have been two episodes shorter, at the least, without losing anything of note.) There are thrills to be mined in a show that’s as deep as a puddle of champagne, but, like a microdosed drink, the aftereffects are minimal.
“Nine Perfect Strangers” Season 2 premieres Wednesday, May 21, on Hulu.
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