If you’re ever in a situation where you’re following up a hit, here’s a tip: find a location as different as possible from the original, and set the exact same story there.
Based on a bestseller by Liane Moriarty and starring Nicole Kidman (who also led the other recently Moriarty adaptation, Big Little Lies), the first season of Nine Perfect Strangers was a frenzy of sun and smoothies set in California (but filmed in Byron Bay). Season 2? Top of a frozen mountain. Maybe a rain forest for Season 3?
After the – debacle seems like too mild a term – at Tranquillium House last season, Masha Dmitrichenko (Kidman) has become something of a celebrity in the world of wellness. But fame alone won’t pay the (hefty legal) bills, so while her ‘psychedelic delivery system’ – read: lots and lots of drugs – remains somewhat dubious, when an offer comes along to reteam with former cohort Dr Helena (Lena Olin) and Helena’s scientist son Martin (Lucas Anglander), she’s off to the Austrian Alps to do it all over again.
Watch the Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 trailer.
Her fame does mean that the new crop of strangers have a pretty good idea of what to expect as far as her use of drugs to dredge up memories and trauma goes. Or at least, they think they do, as Masha is always keen to push the boundaries to get results. Whether those results are what her patients wanted or expected remains to be seen.
Her services – and the stunning location – don’t come cheap, so once again it’s a collection of the rich and famous that have fallen under her spell. Billionaire David Shaw (Mark Strong) has a mysterious connection to Masha’s past, and bringing his son Peter (Henry Golding) feels like a bad move.
Peter soon bonds with Imogen (Annie Murphy) over the shared burden of awful parents; she’s come along to spend time with her mother Victoria (Christine Baranski), only to learn she’s brought along her much younger lover Matteo (Aras Aydin).
Then there’s Anges (Dolly de Leon), a famous nun facing a crisis of faith so things will no doubt go smoothly there, and troubled couple Wolfie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) and Tina (King Princess). Last but in no way least, there’s Brian (Murray Bartlett), a depressed children’s TV show host and puppeteer –so expect a fair amount of puppet hijinx there.
That’s a lot to cover in eight episodes, especially as it rapidly becomes clear that there’s more going on beneath the surface. Well, there’s already plenty going on beneath the surface – that’s the whole reason why these people are here – but even beyond the visions and past horrors being dragged up by Masha’s methods, there’s something sinister going on.
Nine Perfect Strangers: Masha’s past
The first season dug deep into Masha’s own past; this suggests there’s even more to uncover. Masha isn’t just our vaguely unsettling host, she’s a player in the game of ‘whose past is the most haunted’. Did we mention that everyone’s taking loads of experimental hallucinogenic drugs? With all that coursing through your system, you’d hate to be someone who works with a creepy puppet …. oh, wait …
With a big cast and not a whole lot of time, not everyone is going to get the big character arc they’ve come for. Fortunately the performances are strong across the board even during the stretches where some characters are just spinning their wheels.
Just as in real life, not all traumas are created equal. While it’s easy to invest in some characters – or just enjoy their snippy one-liners – some probably could have wandered off into the woods for a few episodes to give us all a break.
As is often the case with her television roles, Kidman gives Masha more than the character really deserves. Her performance is always compelling and often surprisingly funny despite playing someone who seems to become less interesting the more we know about her.
The striking outfits help, the harsh ice-blonde hair even more so; it’s like having a human icicle at the heart of proceedings.
Kidman’s seemingly constant appearances in this kind of prestige trash can feel a little like she’s searching for a role that she can really cut loose with. This isn’t quite it – the whole show isn’t quite it – but at times she comes close.
On a good day, she can make even dosing up on magic mushrooms to communicate with the dead seem like a lot of fun.
