Well-cast ‘Strangers’ isn’t close to perfect
Uneven tone mars limited HBO series despite captivating Nicole Kidman role
“Nine Perfect Strangers,” the loopy new Nicole Kidman-Melissa McCarthy limited series set at an exclusive wellness retreat, premieres its first three episodes on Hulu on Wednesday, Aug. 18 — three days after the finale of HBO’s Hawaiian-resort-set limited series, “The White Lotus.”
Both feature strong ensemble casts and senses of foreboding. But viewers hoping to transfer their tropical schadenfreude high from “Lotus” to this new series will be disappointed.
Created by David E. Kelley (HBO’s “Big Little Lies” and “The Undoing”) and adapted by Kelley and JohnHenry Butterworth from a novel by “Big Little Lies” author Liane Moriarty, “Perfect Strangers” lacks the consistent satirical edge of “Lotus.” Its tone veers from romantic comedy to “Big Little Lord of the Flies” bedlam to hallucinogenic horror.
Unlike “Lotus” creator Mike White, Kelley does not disdain his privileged characters. Judging by the six episodes of this eight-episode series offered for review, Kelley likes all his characters, sometimes to a fault.
He saves his love for Kidman’s Masha, owner and resident guru at Tranquillum — the wellness retreat — and a keeper of secrets, taker of lovers, pusher of smoothies and
wearer of fine linens. Kidman plays Masha with a relish missing from her previous Kelley collaborations on “Little Lies” and “The Undoing.”
In both shows, Kidman played a woman married to a terrible husband when she should have played the terrible husband. She thrives in the dark and murky, where she can play devious (“To Die For,” “Birthday Girl”) or morally compromised (“Destroyer”). The less conventional the character, the more engaged her performance.
She goes all in as Masha, who handpicks guests based on her own mysterious, world-building logic and monitors them through an elaborate camera system running throughout her gorgeous, eco-friendly, forestnestled estate.
Like most legendary characters, Masha takes her sweet time making it to screen. Instead, the series opens with her guests tittering with anticipation of her entrance.
The guests include Frances (McCarthy), a romantically unlucky but famous author; Tony (Bobby Cannavale), a pill-addicted ex-athlete; Carmel (Regina Hall), who is smarting from a painful divorce; Lars (Luke Evans), who just broke up with his boyfriend; and Napoleon (Michael Shannon), a loquacious husband and father whose family has been upended by grief.
It’s 30 minutes in before Masha greets the group, looking like a hippie-fied mashup of Moira Rose and Norma Desmond. Emanating an intriguing mix of perfect inner peace and absolute megalomania, Masha regards whomever she addresses with an unblinking, laser-focused stare.
Her guests, in turn, can’t look away. Nor can the audience. This jolt of Kidman charisma helps explain why the guests remain at Tranquillum despite unnerving developments early in their stays.
Acupuncture treatments come with unexpected needle pricks so guests’ blood can be drawn for analysis. Masha’s staff rifles through the guests’ luggage to confiscate contraband, including cell phones and chocolate. What the Goop?
But by the second episode, Masha has established some guru bona fides. She either genuinely feels or can manufacture a believable facsimile of empathy, and she quickly identi
fies her guests’ problems and proposes workable paths forward.
McCarthy, a delight as always, gets loads of screen time but also seems disconnected from the main story. She shares most scenes, and great chemistry, with Cannavale.
Frances and Tony start off as classic romanticcomedy antagonists before growing fond of each other through slapstick moments and genuine emotional exchanges. Cannavale swings for the fences in most roles but is nuanced here, as the initially surly Tony weans himself off pills with
Masha’s help and starts to envision a brighter future.
Casting Shannon, who often plays brutes, as a sunny guy seems inspired for a few episodes, before his family’s story line stretches out too long. That story line, unnecessarily and unbelievably harrowing despite authentic performances by Grace Van Patten as Napoleon’s daughter and Tiffany Boone as a Tranquillum employee doing her best to soothe, does not belong in the same universe — much less the same series — as McCarthy’s and Cannavale’s banter.