Nicole Kidman in the drama Expats streaming on Prime Video.
Nicole Kidman in the drama Expats streaming on Prime Video.
OPINION:
It may sound like a new sitcom but there’s nothing remotely funny about Expats. The Nicole Kidman-starring limited series is a tough watch and an even tougher sell. That’s because the people who can relate to it the most are the ones who will struggle with its premise.
Expats is about every parent’s nightmare; the disappearance of their child. The series, which begins streaming on Prime Video today, follows three women who for various reasons are all living in Hong Kong and whose lives are connected through this tragedy.
There’s Kidman’s character Margaret, whose young son Gus has been missing for a year, her neighbour Hilary and Mercy, a young Korean New Yorker.
While this would make a great setup for a mystery-thriller, Expats is not that show. Instead, it’s a serious, thoughtful drama and an examination of the various impacts and tolls that Gus’ disappearance takes on each of the three women and how it affects their relationships with each other, their partners and the world around them.
It moves at an unhurried pace, rightly confident in its premium status. The cinematography is gorgeous. It transports you right into the thick of bustling Hong Kong life, from its most exclusive areas right through to cramped street markets, and does so with a cinematic eye. An early episode timelapse of the markets is both artistic and hugely impactful.
The show is based on a book, Janice Y.K Lee’s novel The Expatriates, which may explain its measured storytelling. It’s in no rush to reveal its mysteries, instead luxuriating in the complexities, half-truths and lies of its characters. The tragedy is only hinted at - albeit with all the subtlety of a brick falling on to your foot - for the entire first episode and you don’t actually find out what happened until the end of the second.
But this deliberate pace intrigues and also works to deepen its characters. A teetotaller choosing to spend an afternoon in a bar is more understandable when you’ve spent a great period of time with them and can understand why.
That said, it can get a bit much in the first episode where it’s all questions - What is the event everyone is so concerned about? Why is he blowing up at her? Why won’t she tell him the truth? - and little in the way of answers.
It does all fall neatly into place. Even the one relationship which, when introduced in R-rated fashion, seems far-fetched and way too coincidental in a story that otherwise seems to be striving for realness. This feeling could have been alleviated had the first two episodes been mushed together to make it a feature-length opening. Strange they weren’t, considering they’re both available today and a later episode does exactly that.
But that’s nitpicky stuff. The bigger concern is how the series makes you feel and Expats routinely makes you feel awful inside. You see all the relatable joys of parenting and all the even more relatable frustrations; the stubborn refusals to eat dinner and the tantrums, which makes the young boy’s disappearance that much more gutwrenching.
Clarke (Brian Tee), Margaret (Nicole Kidman) in the drama Expats.
For a parent, the only thing worse than knowing is not knowing. After its first two episodes, neither the characters nor the viewers know of Gus’ fate. Margaret and her husband are stuck in a hellish purgatory, unable to properly grieve or move forward.
The show is sympathetic but also makes no bones about showing the various Hong Kongs its characters inhabit. There’s the expensive, privileged and the working class who serve them. It’s sympathetic but certainly not flattering.
Many will be drawn to the show by Kidman’s star. Rightly so. Her character Margaret offers a lot of emotional range and Kidman is nothing short of believable, even if her Hollywood otherworldliness can be a little distracting.
Nevertheless, Expats drips quality. With its layered drama and core tragedy it’s heavy viewing but engaging. And while you may hope for a happy ending, like the reappearance of Gus after a year, that just seems unlikely.
