“Don’t you ever miss it? Home?”
“I like our life here. The help, the drivers, it makes everything easier.” – Exchange between a wealthy American couple living in Hong Kong in “Expats.”
You have to go into the supporting cast lineup in Lulu Wang’s six-part Amazon Prime drama series “Expats” to find characters who are truly and instantly likable, but the more we know about the sometimes off-putting leads — where they’ve been and what they’ve gone through — the more compassion we feel for them. Even as we sometimes recoil at their selfishness, at their tone-deaf inabilities to read many a room, we understand it. At times, we find their actions absolutely heartbreaking for them and for the people in their lives.
Adapting the 2016 novel “The Expatriates” by Janice Y.K. Lee, showrunner Wang (who directed one of the best films of 2019 in “The Farewell,” which explored some similar themes of cultural and family issues) takes us through a time-jumping series of events involving the lives of three American women now living in Hong Kong:
- Nicole Kidman is the affluent and tightly wound Margaret, who has three children with her husband Clarke (Brian Tee), a successful businessman whose job is the reason the family relocated to Hong Kong.
- Sarayu Blue is Margaret’s friend Hilary, who lives in the same luxury apartment building as Margaret and is married to the hard-drinking David (Jack Huston) and is finding it increasingly difficult to keep her relationship with David afloat due to escalating tensions over their lack of success in having a child.
- Ji-young Yoo’s Mercy is a 24-year-old Korean American graduate of Columbia who explains she has moved to Hong Kong for “a fresh start,” but feels adrift.
We will not go into details about all the ways in which these three lives intersect and at times collide in devastating fashion. Wang and her creative team deftly navigate between flashbacks and “present day” sequences, with the story primarily taking place in the Hong Kong of 2014.
After Margaret’s youngest son goes missing, she cloaks herself in her pain and grief — which is understandable, of course, but is also threatening to destroy her marriage and permanently alienate her from her two older children, who come across as entitled and whiny even before tragedy strikes the family. Through it all, Margaret leans heavily on the Filipino live-in nanny, Essie (Ruby Ruiz), who keeps the home running while Margaret checks out emotionally for long stretches. As Margaret likes to say, “Essie’s family,” but her friend Hilary finally calls her out, noting, “You know you always say that, right? You’re her employer, not her friend.”
When “Expats” was in production, there was considerable controversy and criticism in the press and on social media about a series focusing on wealthy, elite expatriates, but in the nearly feature-length (96 minutes) fifth episode, titled “Central,” the emphasis shifts to Essie, as well as Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla), who is Hilary’s “helper,” and other migrant domestic workers who gather together on their Sundays off. They form a community of their own as they gossip about their employers (“We know everything about these people, things their closest friends don’t even know”), share laughs and talk of their loved ones. With Ruby Ruiz doing magnificent work as Essie, we see that while Essie truly does love Margaret’s children, she longs for the day when she can be reunited with her own family.
“Expats” also takes note of the political tenor in Hong Kong, with a subplot involving the sit-in street protests known as the Umbrella Movement, with Mercy and some new friends committing to the movement. (We also see glimpses of TV news coverage of the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370, which seems of particular interest to Margaret’s daughter, perhaps because she’s trying to make some sense of random tragedy following her youngest brother’s disappearance.)
The production team makes great use of the Hong Kong locales and sets, from the night markets to Victoria Harbour to the Mido Café to the upscale high-rises to Mercy’s tiny walk-up apartment. Weather also becomes a character of sorts, from the driving rains to the almost blinding sunshine.
“Expats” contains some stunning twists and turns, but this is much more of a character study than a mystery. Nicole Kidman delivers searing work as Margaret, who is consumed with pain that is taking her to a place from where she might never return, and her work is matched by the performances of Sarayu Blue, Ji-young Yoo, Ruby Ruiz, Brian Tee and Jack Huston. Each of these actors is given showcase moments in which their stories are front and center, and there’s never a false note in their respective performances. “Expats” is a richly layered, beautifully photographed and profoundly affecting work.
