S01.E01: The Peak

[AnimeMania]

Three expat women living in Hong Kong cross paths at a birthday party where it becomes evident they share a mysterious connection from their past.

Premiere Date: January 26, 2024    Prime Video     

[Snazzy Daisy]

Expats has similar vibes to Big Little Lies and The Undoing where we get to see a beautiful, upper-middle class, depressed and wounded Nicole Kidman again. 🥱😵😴

The 3 protagonists carry a lot of emotional burdens. Something is missing from Margaret’s life. Hilary is unhappily married. Mercy is boinking Hilary’s husband and is terrified of Margaret and Clarke.

The premiere withholds a lot of information about “the tragedy”. But by the end of this episode, the viewers can guess who Gus is, something terrible has happened to him but details are still unknown. The storytelling is choppy and quite frustrating.

The atmosphere in a busy Hong Kong - the crowdedness and the continuous chatters in the background are a bit suffocating for me.

This is one captivating shot. You can feel the isolation, longing and hopelessness.   
 

[aghst]

It's getting poor reviews but I decided to give it a shot because maybe it will show a HK that no longer exists.

The setting is 2014 and in the background is news coverage of missing MH370, though they don't identify the flight in this episode.

But the episode starts with a preamble about people who unintentionally hurt others.  I forget the first one but the second one is about US military pilots who cut a gondola cable in Italy killing 20 people who were in the gondola.  I remember that story.

The third case are young identical twins and while rough housing it, one pushes his brother into a coffee table, causing him permanent paralysis.

The narrator cites these examples to show the people who are responsible for these tragedies, because their story is never told.

There is also a description on the Amazon Prime app about the story being set in 2014  a tumultuous time in HK.  The one thing that comes to mind is the Umbrella Revolution, which occurred in the last 3 months of that year.  The MH370 flight disappearance occurred in March.

Yeah I did get annoyed at them not wanting to talk about the big tragedy.  Is there something else than Gus, apparently another son of Margaret, apparently dying or gone somehow.

Margaret's in-laws and acquaintances wonder why they stay in HK after this event.  But she insists HK is their home.  So much that she has a secret dingy apartment, where she spends time alone, away from her family.  Quite a contrast from her luxurious apartment up in Victoria's Peak, not to mention quite a distance, as Kowloon is on the other side of the harbor and not sure it would be easy to sneak away to unless her private driver is keeping her secret from her husband.

Other thing is they go out of their way not to show the beauty of HK, certainly not the usual tourist shots of the Harbour or the view from up in the Peak.  No views from the luxury apartment nor from the hotel where they hold the birthday party.

Well it seems to be a lugubrious tale, at least at the beginning, so glamour shots which the HK Tourism Bureau would approve would not fit the tone that they're trying to establish.

 

I didn't realize Mercy's f buddy Dirk is David, Hilary's husband.  Seemed like he was younger.  Given the history she has with Margaret, who was once very close to Hilary, that seems like a weird choice.

Margaret sees Mercy and is triggered, while Mercy has a panic attack, runs out of the party and pukes.  So given the intense connections, why would she go there with Hilary's husband?

Other thing is, apparently Hilary and Margaret socialized when they were very young, when a Blondie song was more current enough for them to memorize its lyrics.  So they were friends in college or so?  Yet they both end up in HK, married and very wealthy, enough to have a luxury apt in HK, one of the most expensive cities for housing in the world, with private limos?  And they live in the same building, though different floors!

 

 

[sadie]

Very Big Little Lies vibe. It was enough that I’ll keep watching. Hoping ep 2 we get a little more. NK looks very odd to me, don’t know if it’s intentional, the scene at the end when they’re in the car and she doesn’t know if the ambulance is there for her family, her face just looked so odd that I was distracted and her “thank god” when she realized it was someone other than her family really rubbed me wrong, which I think was the intention. I can’t tell if the character is supposed to be unlikable or if we’re supposed to feel sorry for her. As someone who has had extreme tragedy I don’t get when people in these shows just act like aliens the whole time because something bad happened to them.

[bigmag]

I'm having a hard time focusing on the story due to Nicole Kidman's odd look.  Her mouth is so weird.  Why do these women do that to themselves?!  OT - I saw Cher on the Graham Norton show recently and she just looked grotesque!

[abbyzenn]

Not sure how i feel about this show - I find it rather slow but enjoying seeing Hong Kong.   I'm not finding Margaret (Nicole) very likable.  Nitpicking - is Hilary wearing the same pants in every scene?  It's not an attractive look on her.

Glad it's not just me thinking that Nicole Kidman is odd looking.  Seriously if I didn't know beforehand I wouldn't recognize her.

[Cementhead]

I'm liking the show fair enough but I almost did not watch solely because of Nicole Kidman.  I am unable to watch anything she is in because her face has become too much of a distraction. We aren't alone in this because I see it discussed every time she stars in something.  It's the chin implant along with the cheek & jawline filler that I have a hard time seeing past and even her eyes look different in this one. 

I will keep watching in spite of her because I am intrigued with the story and I like the way they are telling it and I will just distract myself with all of the cool scenes of Hong Kong.

[aghst]

It's too bad that she felt she had to, in her mid 50s, do all that work.

But I guess she wanted to play younger roles?  In this she's younger than Clarke so maybe Margaret is suppose to be in her mid 40s, which is about right with the children characters.

She has a lot of other high-profile projects lined up, including BLL Season 3 so maybe viewers get used to it.

[QQQQ]

NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour Review of Expats by Linda Holmes - Possible Spoilers

 

From the review: "During filming in 2021, Kidman and several crew members got an exemption allowing them to avoid the COVID quarantine rules that applied to everyone else upon arrival in Hong Kong. As The New York Times reported at the time, there was anger not only among the city's residents, but in its legislature. It was a bitter pill, it seems, that this production about rich outsiders who paid little attention to the lives of ordinary people in Hong Kong was being given a blessing to hand-wave regulations meant to protect those same ordinary people."

[Anela]

I recognized Nicole.  

[Bluesky]

On 1/27/2024 at 6:55 AM, sadie said:

Very Big Little Lies vibe. It was enough that I’ll keep watching. Hoping ep 2 we get a little more. NK looks very odd to me, don’t know if it’s intentional, the scene at the end when they’re in the car and she doesn’t know if the ambulance is there for her family, her face just looked so odd that I was distracted and her “thank god” when she realized it was someone other than her family really rubbed me wrong, which I think was the intention. I can’t tell if the character is supposed to be unlikable or if we’re supposed to feel sorry for her. As someone who has had extreme tragedy I don’t get when people in these shows just act like aliens the whole time because something bad happened to them.

When you wrote NK I thought you meant North Korea. I was thinking did they show Korea?

yeah Nicole Kidman face is a mask.  And a scary one at that.  I think a lot of people get distracted by it and can’t really get into certain scenes.  

[Bluesky]

On 1/27/2024 at 6:11 PM, aghst said:

It's too bad that she felt she had to, in her mid 50s, do all that work.

But I guess she wanted to play younger roles?  In this she's younger than Clarke so maybe Margaret is suppose to be in her mid 40s, which is about right with the children characters.

She has a lot of other high-profile projects lined up, including BLL Season 3 so maybe viewers get used to it.

They should have hired a natural looking 40 year old then she would have matched better with the husband.  He’s got a normal aging face and she has a face without a single mark that shows she’s human.  It’s confusing.  

[aghst]

But NK is a big name for these limited series.

In fact is she still doing movies at this stage of her career, since BLL hit big?

[chediavolo]

On 1/27/2024 at 6:55 AM, sadie said:

Very Big Little Lies vibe. It was enough that I’ll keep watching. Hoping ep 2 we get a little more. NK looks very odd to me, don’t know if it’s intentional, the scene at the end when they’re in the car and she doesn’t know if the ambulance is there for her family, her face just looked so odd that I was distracted and her “thank god” when she realized it was someone other than her family really rubbed me wrong, which I think was the intention. I can’t tell if the character is supposed to be unlikable or if we’re supposed to feel sorry for her. As someone who has had extreme tragedy I don’t get when people in these shows just act like aliens the whole time because something bad happened to them.

It’s the cosmetic work , that is why you can’t tell. She looks like a wax figure. It’s disturbing. Everyone in this show is unlikeable as far as I’m concerned. Rich bastards complaining about too much help, etc. Get a job Nichole’s character if you’re so bored. And you’re doing a shit  job of mothering.