When Nine Perfect Strangers first premiered in 2021, it might have coasted on the glossy prestige success of Big Little Lies—it was also based on a book by author Liane Moriarty and adapted by David E. Kelley into a star-studded miniseries led by Nicole Kidman.
But the show had the misfortune of debuting mere weeks after the inaugural season of The White Lotus, which also followed an ensemble of rich a–holes who get way more than they bargained for on a luxury getaway. That Mike White’s dramedy exploded into the zeitgeist the way it did in 2021 only made Nine Perfect Strangers’ overstuffed, underbaked approach to such similar material fall that much flatter in comparison.
Four years later, the show’s second season, premiering on Hulu May 21, isn’t just following another buzzy season of The White Lotus that directly skewered wellness culture. It comes after a wave of newer series, such as Apple Cider Vinegar and The Dropout, have further critiqued the ways in which self-proclaimed health experts have scammed the masses.
So what does a Nine Perfect Strangers follow-up that no one really asked for bring to the table? Outside of offering viewers a show full of hot, recognizable people on a beautiful getaway to half-watch while folding laundry, not much at all.
The opening minutes of Season 2 quickly catch everyone up to speed with what Kidman’s elusive Russian wellness guru Masha has been doing since she finished toying with her drugged up subjects last season. It turns out that, despite facing multiple federal investigations, she and her questionable psychedelic therapy methods remain popular enough to pack conference halls. She’s even created a new device that allows patients to return to formative memories from their lives, giving Nine Perfect Strangers a low-grade sci-fi wrinkle and a convenient exposition vehicle in one.
As the show’s title suggests, it practically begs for the anthology treatment. So yes, Masha could very well face criminal charges. Yet she’s still managed to finagle nine more perfect strangers for a highly questionable wellness retreat, this time held at a historic sanitarium-turned-clinic in the Bavarian Alps owned by Masha’s mentor Helena (Lena Olin). As for how they were convinced to do so… you don’t really care about all that, do you?
Brian (Murray Bartlett) the former host of a Mr. Rogers-style children’s show, was recently canceled after a clip of his angry on-set outburst went viral. Ex-nun Agnes’ (Dolly de Leon) past as a wartime nurse has left her with a serious case of Catholic guilt. Victoria (Christine Baranski) is a boozy grand dame whose decision to bring along her latest boy toy, Matteo (Aras Aydın), has further strained her relationship with her estranged daughter Imogen (Annie Murphy).
Woefully underwritten violinist Wolfie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) has brought her girlfriend, lapsed piano prodigy Tina (musician King Princess in her acting debut), in hopes of reigniting both her creative spark and their relationship. And Peter (Henry Golding) may seem like your typical debonair trust fund guy, but his father, billionaire businessman David (Mark Strong), is a key figure from Masha’s past who just so happens to be the ideal investor for her new invention.
Despite Masha’s claims that the group have been carefully selected to complement each other, Nine Perfect Strangers can’t seem to figure out what to do once they’re all assembled in the same room.
The series gestures at using its wealthy ensemble to lampoon cultural discourse, whether it be the half-hearted fallout of “cancel culture” or the pitfalls of millennials embracing therapy speak without reflecting on their personal trauma. But after a few episodes, it falls away in favor of cloying, unearned epiphanies.
If anything, the fact that Nine Perfect Strangers cast a Macy’s heiress whose debut single was tweeted out by Harry Styles as a piano prodigy apparently so talented that she was forced to devote her life to the craft is far funnier than any of the show’s weak stabs at satire could ever be.
As for Masha, she’s scarcely around for the first chunk of the season. While she was often filmed awash in a soft, woozy glow in Season 1, newcomer Frank Lamm’s cinematography helps her nearly disappear into her surroundings. Content to leave retreat duties to her bitter underling Martin (Lucas Englander) for nearly half the season, she spends many of her early scenes melting into the lavish clinic’s shadows. When she does deem to venture outside, Kidman’s new silvery-white wig—a limper take on Lady Gaga’s Fame Monster era—practically blends in with the snow.
Once Nine Perfect Strangers remembers to inject some stakes into its slow-as-molasses narrative, it circles back to Masha’s true reasoning for inviting David back into her life.
While much of Season 2’s social commentary feels like it was generated by an algorithm nearly five years outdated, the show’s third-act musings on how the consequences of billionaires’ greed can bind even the unlikeliest of people together are at least trying to be of the moment. The trouble is, David is presented as so gullible to Masha’s machinations that it’s hard to take him seriously as a threat. And, of course, the series isn’t going to truly hold Masha accountable for her own scamming—this is an anthology in the making, after all!
If this all comes across as a cynical reading, it’s because Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2’s existence feels sinister. Sure, there are fun homages, like a dream sequence of a piano shredding Tina’s fingers clearly inspired by 1977’s House, or a series of shifting title sequences modeled after everything from silent film cards to artist Saul Bass’ Hitchcock title credits.
But it’s impossible to watch the show without wondering whether its twists and turns were driven by outside production issues instead of artistic vision.
Is Masha out of the picture for so long because she’s singularly focused on David, or because Kidman—also an executive producer—had another filming commitment? Was the decision to set most of Season 2 in one location, despite the pandemic restrictions that necessitated this approach in Season 1, a way to afford more recognizable talent? Was this follow-up only made because Hulu wanted to cash in on their Moriarty IP?
After eight episodes, I truly can’t separate the mystery thriller Nine Perfect Strangers from its hollow existence as yet another measly attempt to drive Hulu’s profit margins. If that doesn’t sound like streaming war snake oil, I don’t know what does.
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