Streaming on: Prime Video
Episodes viewed: 5 of 6
In her first major outing since her profound, autobiographical hit The Farewell, Lulu Wang brings her astutely observational eye to this broader, starrier venture. Based on Janice Y.K. Lee’s multi-voice novel The Expatriates, the show follows three women: Mercy (Ji-young Yoo), a young Korean-American wrestling with the guilt caused by a terrible incident; Hilary (Sarayu Blue), a moneyed housewife struggling with fertility complications; and her friend Margaret (Nicole Kidman), whose life was recently shattered by the disappearance of her youngest child Gus while under Mercy’s care.
Through their interweaving storylines, the six-part series interrogates the dynamics of the über-wealthy community and the largely female domestic workforce hired to clean their homes, cater their parties and care for their families. The collective trauma that has rocked their small orbit following Gus’ vanishing brings bubbling tensions and politics to the surface. Hilary’s marriage with troubled husband David (Jack Huston) leads to infidelity. Margaret finds herself at odds with Gus’ father Clarke (Brian Tee) as they try to stay afloat for their remaining two children. Co-written by Wang, their stories form a broad and privileged spider’s web. Meanwhile, the city’s 2014 Umbrella protest movement is underway, highlighting deeper turmoil between local citizens and their government.
Expats is at its best when it pulls away from the central melodrama and falls in with the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong’s street life. The standalone penultimate episode is the show’s strongest hand, with Wang swapping in nuanced and beautiful shots of local women fanning themselves, playing cards and swapping gossip, painting a more robust picture of the story’s setting than all the other episodes combined. Yet weighted by a trio of formidable, textured lead performances, this series makes for a vivid multi-character study that lays bare the power of motherhood, grief and guilt.