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TV review
"Nine Perfect Strangers" was one of the promises of the year, but turns out to be a miss from heaven
There's something very artificial about "Nine Perfect Strangers," and not just because of Nicole Kidman's yellow wig and Russian accent.
The unfortunate thing is that every now and then something ignites, the potential hidden behind the story full of possibilities that it unfolds, but the series almost regularly fails to produce something interesting out of it.
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Nine perfect strangers
TV review
Nicole Kidman
Ido Yeshayahu
Thursday, 19 August 2021, 00:00 Updated: 23:35
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Trailer for the series "Nine Perfect Strangers" (Hollow)
From the very first minutes of "Nine Perfect Strangers", it is impossible to disconnect between her and "The White Lotus". HBO's series, populated by a dizzying cast of actors, followed by a number of wealthy guests in a beautiful Hawaiian resort village, ended just this week after taking over the pop culture discourse in the six weeks it aired. And here, as the guests leave on their way, "Nine Perfect Strangers" opens with a host of other affluent guests, also embodied by a phenomenal cast of actors, who arrive at another prestigious and spectacular holiday village.
Whether you have connected to the "white lotus" or not, it is impossible to take the freshness and originality from it. She not only combined the stories of several strangers who met each other in a beautiful spot on the globe, but said through them something honed and cruel about the perpetuation of classes in human society, about how rich whites will always outdo those out of reach, including workers in the same resort.
On the other hand, "Nine Perfect Strangers" - which airs in Israel on Amazon Prime Video every week starting today (Friday), near the Hollow broadcast in the United States - looks like a production line product.
To a large extent it is indeed so.
This is the third series in which creator David E. Kelly and actress Nicole Kidman, who are also among the work's senior producers, collaborate.
It was preceded by "Big Little Lies" and "You Should Have Known," two very successful HBO series.
And just like "Lies", "Nine Perfect Strangers" is based on the book by Lian Moriarty.
In other words, the whole thing screams an attempt to replicate proven prestige and a trap for awards ceremonies.
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Artificial not only because of the yellow wig and Russian accent.
Nicole Kidman, "Nine Perfect Strangers" (Photo: Hollow)
Kidman plays Misha, the director of a convalescent site with the faltering name "Tranquilium," which aims to help visitors recover and get better.
She herself chose nine people most of whom are strangers to each other, and each bears a psychological burden he hopes to shed.
Frances (Melissa McCarthy, "Bachelorette Party") is a writer who was burned out by an internet connection with a crook.
The Marconi family (Michael Shannon, Asher Keddy and Grace Van Patten) are facing the death of their son three years earlier.
Carmel (Regina Hall, "Sharp Falls") wants to be more confident and free from some traumas of her own.
Lars (Luke Evans, "The Hobbit" movies) is marked as a narcissist who has just come out of a relationship where he hit the other side.
In short, you got the idea.
All of these people congregate for ten days in a trokenville, where even the crew - which besides Misha also includes her assistants, Yao (Manny Giaquinto, "The Good Place") and Delilah (Tiffany Boone, "Hunters") - do not exactly overcome their own psychological problems.
And if that's not enough, while they are there Misha receives anonymous death threats on her life.
Who is behind them?
Any of the guests?
From the team?
Anyone from the past?
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Every now and then you lit something.
Melissa McCarthy and Grace Van Patten, "Nine Perfect Strangers" (Photo: Hollow)
The truth is that it is not very interesting. In fact, it seems that this whole plot line is meant to add interest to a story that is aware of its excess airiness, and it also fails to do so. Most of the time, throughout the six episodes submitted for review (out of eight), "Nine Perfect Strangers" is just plain boring. It's even a little funny to see the points where she chooses to end episodes - a kind of highs, or moments that are supposed to be highs, ones that will keep us in suspense until the next episode, and in practice they are not exciting at all and only indicate that the general is in charge.
Too often throughout the viewing the question arises as to why it actually takes eight episodes. Whole minutes of different meditations, dancing, jumping bag competition - these too give a sense that the series is pushing them to add to its volume, and in practice is probably achieving the opposite effect.
The unfortunate thing is that every now and then something ignites, the potential hidden behind a story about the manager of a convalescent site who chose specific guests for her unknown reasons, so that clashes would form between them that would flood something.
The series peels more and more layers of their soul and beyond, revealing the core - both of the guests and the host.
This is a draft for a fantastic dramatic work, one that will sharpen animosity between its protagonists, open up old wounds in order to soothe them and create a meticulous orchestration that will advance all the characters to fascinating places.
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Draft for fantastic work.
"Nine perfect strangers" (Photo: Hollow)
This potential is realized to a remarkably small extent. In fact, only one notable case comes to mind: the fragile relationship that develops between Frances and Tony (Bobby Cannabelli, with whom McCarthy has already collaborated on "Thunder Power" and "Spy"), a man who tends to keep people away from him through his dummies. The connection between them is the only thing that really works throughout the three quarters of the series. The rest of the characters are shuffling and sometimes really annoying, despite the in-depth preoccupation with which some of them fail to maintain volume, and other connections that are forged between them seem forced and unconvincing.
Unsurprisingly in a work that seems like a duplication of being, there is something very artificial about "Nine Perfect Strangers," and not just because of Kidman's yellow wig and Russian accent.
Given all the forces at work, including a book that has already created the world for them, one would at least expect a cohesive and effective series, but even that does not happen.
"Nine Perfect Strangers" looks like an exercise in an unsuccessful drama, shooting in far too many directions in the desperate hope of hitting something, and missing out on almost everyone.
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