Expats Episodes 1-2 Review
If you haven’t seen the trailer for “Expats” yet, it’s best to go in blind into the series, because the suspense over a major sub-plot is tightly maintained in the first episode, keeping viewers confused and intrigued about what the bone of contention seems to be.
Crafted by Lulu Wang, the 2024 series “Expats” is an adaptation of Janice Y.K. Lee’s novel, “The Expatriates.” The series intricately delves into the lives of three American women residing in Hong Kong, each grappling with their distinct and profound existential crises.
Titled “The Peak,” episode one begins like a documentary, with a narrator rapidly describing three unrelated tragedies and emphasizing how such stories typically focus on the victims rather than the perpetrators. The presentation is so cut-and-dried that, for the first few seconds, I mistook it for an ad for a documentary playing on Prime before the series had officially started. After introducing one of the protagonists solely by face, walking down a busy Hong Kong street, the scene shifts to a luxurious hotel meeting. American expat Margaret (Nicole Kidman), a landscape architect, discusses the details of her husband’s 50th birthday party with an event organizer, while her two children lounge around. Margaret is unable to pursue her career in Hong Kong, where her husband is posted—a posting that was initially meant to be temporary, but a tragedy alters their circumstances.
Sarayu Blue plays Hilary Starr, Margaret’s friend, who has hit a rocky patch in her marriage, and there also seems to be significant tension between the friends. Ji-young Yoo is Mercy, the third protagonist, whose accidental presence at Margaret’s party as a waitress ruffles a lot of feathers. How the lives of these three women are intertwined forms the crux of the series. Margaret and Hilary live in the same building, are upper-class married women with house-helps at their disposal, even though their lives diverge in their familial circumstances. Meanwhile, Mercy is a young woman in her early twenties, with a degree from Columbia, but doing different jobs in Hong Kong to sustain her independent life.
The cinematography of “Expats” exudes a modern loneliness, with warm tones and aesthetic settings, sometimes contrasted by the busy bustling streets and markers of Hong Kong. The scenes often change abruptly, especially in the first episode, leaving you confused about where the plot is heading. One second, Mercy is having a drink with her friends; another second, some character is at a church, and within a few seconds, the scene shifts to someone else. The scenarios are like jigsaw puzzles that fortunately fall into place satisfactorily by the end of episode one.
Episode two starts with flashbacks displaying how Margaret met Mercy at a yacht party, their encounter eventually leading to a tragic incident that changes both their lives. The edition dispels most of the mystery and intrigue in the story and ends in a way that just the first two episodes could make up a coherent movie by themselves, but the kind that leaves viewers with an open-ended “figure out what might have happened yourself” kind of climax.
So far, Nicole Kidman pretty much overshadows everybody else with her strong performance as the conflicted expat Margaret, who is torn between two worlds and riddled with grief. There’s a chilling scene in episode one where Nicole switches from dancing gleefully at a small restaurant to freezing when she sees her face in the mirror, as if stunned for allowing herself to be happy. There’s an unexplained subtle violence in the scene, where Margaret looks like she is ready to murder someone, but the only one she kills is herself in that moment.
In terms of themes, “Expats” explores a myriad of issues, ranging from interpersonal relationships between married partners, relatives and friendly peers who are equals to the often awkward relationships between upper-class employers and their domestic staff—whether maids, nannies, or drivers.
It will be interesting to see how the story goes forward in the next few episodes.
You can stream Expat on Prime Video.
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