‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ review: Nicole Kidman’s swanky drama flatters to deceive
The Hindu
Comparisons with ‘The White Lotus’ are inevitable, but David E. Kelley’s latest show has a central mystery that is rather muddled and silly
It is a shame that the first three episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers streamed the same week that the excellent The White Lotus concluded. Comparisons, as we all know, are odious, but irresistible especially given the similarity of the two shows. Both shows are set in swish resorts in “a version of paradise” as the resort manager says in Old, another tale set in a posh resort. Vacationers in said resorts get more than they bargained for as their lives unravel.
Nine Perfect Strangers shares a creator (David E. Kelley), source material (novels by Liane Moriarty) and star (Nicole Kidman) with Big Little Lies. So, comparisons are inevitable there too. Both the shows have impeccable production values, an ensemble cast, and use a central mystery to reveal big and little lies about the seemingly perfect lives of its characters in a small, closed community.
And there the similarity stops. The central mystery in Nine Perfect Strangers is rather muddled and silly; no And Then There Were None-type scenario happening here. Nine people (very, very stereotypical) come for a retreat to the swanky Tranquillum House in California run by the statuesque Masha (Nicole Kidman).