Expats review: Nicole Kidman leads a beautifully devastating drama

Expats is designed to both emotionally wreck and inspire its audience. Prime Video’s six-part series, which premieres January 26, has a keen understanding of womanhood, with the type of brutal authenticity that only comes from having women in front of and behind the camera. Helmed by The Farewell’s Lulu Wang, the all-female writers’ room doles out an affecting hit in Expats. To top it off, the show is led by Nicole Kidman who, not surprisingly, is a force of nature here. She’s the big hook, of course, but Kidman isn’t the only marvel. Her co-stars, Sarayu Blue and Ji-young Yoo, are equally powerful, helping to tell a profound story about grief, loss, and the burden of trying to move on.

The show does risk self-indulgence at times, especially with its luxurious pacing and the way it milks one horrendous incident in the lives of its leading trio for theatrical effect. Luckily, the expected bouts of melodrama are circumvented because Expats grounds itself in an unflinching reality, no matter how sad, shocking, or sublime. Wang’s audaciousness as a creator—and as an artist unafraid to take risks while championing diverse stories—is rewarding, too. She captures Hong Kong beautifully, with some particularly lovely camerawork in the premiere, and the show’s potent, 97-minute penultimate episode is basically an indie movie all its own.

Expats’ overarching thesis is similar to the novel on which it’s based, Janice Y.K. Lee’s acclaimed The Expatriates. The show dwells on three American expats and how they adapt to a tragedy in their tight-knit, fast-paced Hong Kong community. There’s Margaret (Kidman), a mother of three who gives up her career in the U.S. to move across the world for her husband’s new job. Then there’s Mercy (Yoo), a rebellious 24-year-old Korean who recently graduated from Columbia and is hoping for a fresh start. Meanwhile, an ambitious Hilary (Blue) suffers from marital strife as she debates whether or not she wants a child.

But Expats also differs from the book thanks to a few inventive choices. First among them is the decision to make Hilary, a.k.a. Harpreet Singh, a character of Indian origin. This lends a deeper perspective to both Hilary’s storyline and to Expats as a whole. Episode four, for instance, features a masterful guest appearance from British theater star Sudha Bhuchar as Hilary’s mother, with the two going back and forth about Hilary’s solemn upbringing. Their conversation is steeped in honesty and hurt, and the drama hits even harder as the actors seamlessly switch from English to Punjabi.