**This is a spoiler-free review so feel free to read on!**

“Wellness here I come!”

Nine Perfect Strangers is a new mini-series from David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, Big Sky) based on the bestselling novel by Liane Moriarty. The show premiered on August 18th 2021, featuring three episodes available to stream now on Hulu (approximately 45-50 minutes in length). The remaining five episodes will air weekly. The show stars Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Samara Weaving, Luke Evans, Regina Hall, and Bobby Canavale.

Nine Perfect Strangers introduces us to nine people who have been invited to an exclusive wellness retreat with extreme measures. As they all come searching for “transformation” and a wellness of sorts, they quickly learn that they are signing up for a lot more with their eccentric guru, Masha (Kidman), who may be hiding a few secrets as well.

Here is the trailer:

Nine Perfect Strangers has an amazing cast and an interesting premise, but does it do enough to hold our attention? Let’s find out…

The Pros:

A cast to be excited about.

I’m always thrilled to see Nicole Kidman in pretty much anything, but wow this cast is truly fantastic. I am a huge fan of Samara Weaving and I love how she always immerses herself completely in whatever role comes her way. While I have mostly seen her in horror films, she has quite a bit of range and I almost didn’t recognize her at first because this character was so different.

Melissa McCarthy is so funny and while her films are usually hit or miss for me, I am finding her to be the best part of the show right now and she is helping balance out a lot of the heavy emotional parts.

The rest of the cast is very talented and I’m interested to explore each character more (including the staff at the Wellness retreat).

A plot that draws you in.

There is a lot left to be revealed here, but I already have so many questions and theories and that’s usually what happens whenever I watch a David E. Kelley show. There are a lot of secrets embedded within the walls of this wellness retreat and I want to know more about Nicole Kidman’s character and what her true motivation is.

The show is doing a good job at bringing me back for more and I’m excited to find out where it’s going to lead us.

The Cons:

Not my favorite role for Nicole Kidman.

Nicole Kidman is so talented, but I’m not really feeling this new role for her. Some of the other characters are a lot more interesting, but she does have a lot of mystery surrounding her own character.

I think my biggest issue is her Russian accent. I’m not really buying it and it’s throwing me off a little. I think her character is serving as more of a plot device right now, which is slightly disappointing but I’m hoping that we can explore some more layers soon.

Wavering in its identity.

After watching the first three episodes, I’m not really sure what this show wants to be. Is it an emotional drama? Is it a show about self-discovery? Is it a mystery? I’m not really sure and it’s starting to go off in many directions.

That being said, it’s still reeling me in enough with each episode to keep me coming back for more and I tend to always feel slightly unsure of David E. Kelley’s shows initially, but once all of the reveals begin to unravel, things get a lot more interesting.

I’m hoping that happens here too because I would hate to see this show get lost in the void especially since it has such an amazing cast.

So am I in or out?

I’m in about 75 percent…

I’m intrigued by this show and I think that it has a lot of potential. I’m already reading a lot of comparisons to The White Lotus (I still have to watch this) which makes the timing of this release seem slightly problematic.

That being said, I think that the cast is really wonderful and there is a great dynamic between all of the characters. There is a lot left to discover and I think the show has done enough to keep me invested. I’m confident that the reveals will be worth it, but I hope we start to learn more about the mystery behind everything in the next few episodes.

I hope you enjoyed the review and feel free to post your own thoughts and theories on Nine Perfect Strangers in the comments section below. Thanks so much for reading and happy viewing!

Best,

Amy Koto, TV Fanatic Girl

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