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Expats (miniseries)

Expats is an American drama television miniseries created and directed by Lulu Wang, based on the 2016 novel The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee. It premiered on Amazon Prime Video on January 26, 2024. It stars Nicole Kidman as Margaret Woo, an American expatriate living in Hong Kong when tragedy befalls her family.

Premise

Expats follows "the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community: where affluence is celebrated, friendships are intense but knowingly temporary, and personal lives, deaths and marriages are played out publicly—then retold with glee."

Cast

Main

Nicole Kidman as Margaret Woo, a housewife and former landscape designer
Sarayu Blue as Hilary Starr, whose birth name is Harpreet Singh
Ji-young Yoo as Mercy Cho, a Korean-American Columbia University graduate and youngest of the three women
Brian Tee as Clarke Woo, Margaret's husband
Tiana Gowen as Daisy Woo, Margaret's oldest child and only daughter
Bodhi del Rosario as Philip Woo, Margaret's older son
Ruby Ruiz as Essie, the Woo family's Filipina nanny
Amelyn Pardenilla as Puri, Hilary's Filipina housekeeper
Jack Huston as David Starr, Hilary's troubled British husband

Guest starring

Blessing Mokgohloa as Pastor Alan Mambo
Flora Chan as Olivia Chu
Bonde Sham as Charly, a protester in the Umbrella Movement
Will Or as Tony Ng, a protester in the Umbrella Movement
Lesley Chiang as Philena Song
Grace Wong as Priscilla
Kenneth Chan as Max
Maggie Lee as Wen Ng, Tony Ngʻs mother, a local grocery store worker

Production

Development

On February 7, 2017, it was reported that Blossom Films had optioned the screen rights to Janice Y. K. Lee's novel The Expatriates with the intention of developing it into a television series. Alice Bell was attached to write the adaptation. Executive producers were expected to consist of Nicole Kidman, Per Saari, and Theresa Park with Lee set to serve as a consulting producer. Alongside Blossom Films, production companies involved with the production were slated to include POW! Productions. On July 28, 2018, it was announced that Amazon had given the production a series order. On January 11, 2019, it was announced that Melanie Marnich had joined Bell as co-showrunner and executive producer for the series. In December 2019, it was announced Lulu Wang would serve as an executive producer on the series, while also writing and directing multiple episodes.

Alongside the initial development announcement, it was reported that Nicole Kidman would star in the series. In May 2021, Ji-young Yoo was cast in the series. In June 2021, Jack Huston and Sarayu Blue joined the cast. In September 2021, Brian Tee joined the cast.

Filming

Filming locations included luxury restaurants in The Murray, PMQ, Sevva in Prince's Building. Other locations included Mei Foo Sun Chuen, Lok Wah Estate, Ladies Market in Mong Kok, Cheung Sing Restaurant in Tai Hang, Victoria Harbour and the historic Mido Café.

Release

The series premiered on January 26, 2024. It is, though, not available in Hong Kong itself.

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 84% approval rating, with an average rating of 7.1/10, based on 55 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "By turns emotionally devastating and icy, Expats is a challenging drama made riveting by an ace cast and creator Lulu Wang's deft direction." On Metacritic, the series holds a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The series received generally positive reviews from critics who praised the performances of the cast; however, Nicole Kidman's performance divided critics. While Isabella Soares of Collider called it was "Nicole Kidman's Best TV Performance", Lucy Mangan of The Guardian commented that "the feeling that [Nicole Kidman] is running on the fumes of her talent is hard to avoid". David Tusing of The National News noted that while Nicole Kidman "shines as Margaret", "the star of the show" is Sarayu Blue, "who delivers a career-defining performance as someone torn between expectations and her own desires".

Saloni Gajjar of The A.V. Club said "Nicole Kidman is the big hook, of course, but Kidman isn’t the only marvel. Her co-stars, Sarayu Blue and Ji-young Yoo, are equally powerful, helping to tell a profound story about grief, loss, and the burden of trying to move on". Gautam Sunder of The Hindu recommended that "Expats should make the case for Nicole Kidman to cement her reign as the queen of current-day prestige television dramas". Steve Murray of Arts Atl criticized the casting as "Nicole Kidman is playing a character at least 10 years younger than her actual age. It strains credibility in a show that already feels synthetic".

Ben Travers of IndieWire said "Expats expertly breaks life down into parts, before bringing it all together again in a moving, unshakable portrait." Fletcher Peters of The Daily Beast observed that this show “continues to present Kidman as one of the most gripping actresses in TV—if not the most gripping. This won’t be the first review — nor the last — to praise Kidman in particular. But it must be said: She’s an absolute revelation as Margaret. Insecure about her living situation but confident about her wealth, emotional but never over-the-top, understated but powerful, Margaret has a handful of intricacies that Kidman perfectly balances.”

One of the most common criticisms of Nicole Kidman's performance was that her playing a depressed middle-aged white woman had become a tired trope. Joel Keller of Decider said, "Nicole Kidman feels like she's in the phase of her career when she playing one depressed, wealthy, touched-by-tragedy middle-aged wife and mom after another, and while her performances are always terrific, the trope has gotten old"; "the only thing we can think of is Big Little Lies or The Undoing, and that it's the same story in a different locale". Josh Bell of CBR concurred and noted that "Nicole Kidman has now played variations on this same fragile upper-class housewife several times, and she doesn't bring a new approach to this particular character", and "Amazon's Expats is more of a luxurious soap opera than a crime drama, and its meandering focus is one reason it ends up a disappointment". Janet Paskin of Bloomberg said of the series that "it’s bleak, and it’s boring. Not a lot happens. The characters agonize, make predictably unfortunate decisions and say things they regret. Overall, they hold themselves apart. Their deepest thoughts are expressed in voiceover, not to other people".

Controversies

Amazon Prime's decision to produce two series in Hong Kong about expatriates – the other one being Exciting Times – was criticised as being insensitive towards the city which was suffering from a rapidly deteriorating political situation under the Hong Kong national security law imposed by the government of the People's Republic of China. Hong Kong's newspaper of record, the South China Morning Post, referred to the series as "tone deaf" and out of touch, because author Janice Y. K. Lee is the daughter of Korean immigrants who left Hong Kong for the US with her family when she was 15.

Leading actor Nicole Kidman's exemption from the city's mandatory 21-day in-hotel quarantine regime was also criticised as she arrived by private jet with bodyguards on August 12, 2021, while the Hong Kong authorities responded that the quarantine exemption was granted "for the purpose of performing designated professional work, taking into account that it is conducive to maintaining the necessary operation and development of Hong Kong's economy". Residents objected to what they considered grossly unfair treatment, and internet users also reacted negatively. Several lawmakers expressed concern over the exemption inside the legislature. Responding to the controversy, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau denied that the exemption violated existing policies, and said that the crew would have to be fully vaccinated and comply with quarantine exemption requirements identical to those made available to bankers. While one person said that the series would bring good publicity and jobs to Hong Kong, dissident artist Badiucao said that "the communist-backed regime would use it as a soft propaganda program that will sugarcoat the lies in Hong Kong".