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Nine Perfect Strangers centres around… as the title suggests, and takes into account a rag-tag bunch of men and women who are in rather tired relationships, marriages or single lives, and have money to burn.
Circumstances bring them together, whether on their own paths from respective “A”s to B, the latter for each of them being the Tranquillum Beauty and Wellness Centre, created by the enigmatic Masha Dmitrichenko (Nicole Kidman – The Undoing), following a near-death experience which changed her outlook on life.
Those at her disposal include author Frances Welty (Melissa McCarthy – Thunder Force), family man Napoleon Marconi (Michael Shannon – The Shape Of Water) – whose brood are there having gone through a life-changing experience, and Luke Evans from The Hobbit.
Oh, and they’re not even allowed mobile phones whilst there, and that goes for ‘social media influencer’ Jessica Chandler (Samara Weaving – Ready Or Not). In fact, when they take away their handhelds, they’re made to feel like they can’t even leave, like it’s The Prisoner!
As it gets into the second episode, we begin to learn more about each character, and Masha gets a very curious message on her phone.
Oddly, when one character talks about how a relative died, they only refer to them as having “stopped living”. Erm… who talks like that?
From the premise, I thought Nine Perfect Strangers was going to be some sort of girly drama, but it’s no such thing.
So far after the first episode, I felt this is interesting, but rather light, and that it does just feel like it’s only being promoted because of several big names in the cast… but after a second one, I am finding the characters and the interaction between them more intriguing, so I will stick with it.
Nine Perfect Strangers sees three episodes released on Friday August 20th, and then the remainder of the eight episodes are released weekly on a Friday.
Nine Perfect Strangers streams from Friday August 20th on Amazon Prime, but is not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Episode 1 Score: 6/10
Episode 2 Score: 7/10
Director: Jonathan Levine
Producers: Gillian Bohrer, Barbara Gibbs
Creator: David E Kelley
Writers: John-Henry Butterworth, David E Kelley, Samantha Strauss
Novel: Liane Moriarty
Music: Marco Beltrami, Miles Hankins
Cast:
Masha Dmitrichenko: Nicole Kidman
Frances Welty: Melissa McCarthy
Napoleon Marconi: Michael Shannon
Lars Lee: Luke Evans
Heather Marconi: Asher Keddie
Jessica Chandler: Samara Weaving
Ben Chandler: Melvin Gregg
Delilah: Tiffany Boone
Yao: Manny Jacinto
Zoe Marconi: Grace Van Patten
Carmel Schneider: Regina Hall
Tony Hogburn: Bobby Cannavale
Tatiana: Alyla Browne
Lulu: Isabelle Cornish
Glory: Zoe Terakes
Kendall: Les Hill
Zach Marconi: Hal Cumpston
Paul Drabble: Ben Falcone
Sheila Stone: Angie Diaz
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.