TV Review: "Nine Perfect Strangers" (Season 2, Episodes 5-8)
The second half of the Hulu drama's sophomore season lags a bit and wears out its welcome but still makes for deliciously soapy viewing.
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Warning: Spoilers for the series follow.
It’s always hard to know just where to start with a show like Nine Perfect Strangers. To say that the second season is even more bonkers yet also more boring than the first doesn’t feel quite accurate. There are some moments of genuine pathos and dramatic payoff, but at the same time this season really does feel like something of an afterthought, an effort of the powers-that-be at Hulu to wring as much as they can from a series that was only ever intended to be a single outing. While I certainly didn’t hate it, the last four episodes made me think that, if they absolutely had to make a second season, they should have kept it at four episodes rather than eight.
The last four episodes take a few detours, giving us more insight into these characters, their backstories and motivations and, as it turns out, their connections to David, the sinister but suave and handsome billionaire played by Mark Strong. It all comes to a head when Masha, in typical Masha fashion, ends up drugging him so that they can all confront him. For her, this whole mission is, as it was in the first season, driven by her desire to get some sort of vengeance for her daughter, whom she believes was the product of a one-night stand with David and whom she also believes was murdered because of her investigative reporting.
Clearly, things are as gonzo on this show as they were the first season. Whatever hopes we might have had that Masha might be less out-there than she was in the first season are clearly in vain. This is a woman, after all, who has been spending the first half of the season talking to a figment of her imagination. Yes, it turns out that Lena Olin’s Helena has in fact been dead the whole time.
I told you this season was nuts.
To be sure, this continues to be a show that succeeds largely thanks to the performances of its cast, and I remain particularly captivated by what both Christine Baranski and Anne Murphy were able to pull off in a script that doesn’t really give any of the characters that much to do other than to snipe at one another. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I would gladly watch a spin-off that was exclusively focused on the relationship between the two of them, particularly since both Murphy and Baranski managed to dig deep into their thinly-drawn characters and give us a mother/daughter bond that is as loving as it is damaged. The wrenching revelation that Victoria has ALS sends Imogen into a bit of a tailspin, but it also provides the daughter the chance to finally reconcile with the mother whose love she has so desperately desired.
The second half of the season really doesn’t give the other characters much to do other than to engage in some more drug-addled antics. This is really a shame, since it strips them of the things that actually make it interesting. Kidman gives it her all as Masha, of course, but the second season gives her even less to do than the first one. For most of the second half of the season she’s hovering in the background, at least right up until the moment when she heavily doses David so that she can essentially hold him on trial for his various misdeeds, most notably the fact that his companies invest heavily in weapons that wreak destruction on the world.
There’s only one episode that really gives Kidman much to do, and that’s the fifth outing, “Prague,” which is an extended flashback that shows us just how it was that Masha and David encountered one another and had their little encounter in Prague. In addition to being overly long–I’m not sure that we needed an entire episode devoted to this particular storyline, especially since I remain totally uninvested and uninterested in the relationship between David and Masha–it also features some of those zany twists and turns that Nine Perfect Strangers uses when it needs to throw a curveball at both the viewer and the characters. Among other things, it’s revealed that Masha took up a profession as an investigative reporter, which led to her discovering some unsavory things about David that, she thinks, led to her daughter’s death. It’s all quite silly and overcooked, but that’s what you expect from Nine Perfect Strangers at the midpoint of a season.
If there is one thing to be said about the second half of this season, it’s that it does finally give Masha at least a bit of closure where her daughter is concerned. It seems that getting her revenge on David–and very nearly dying from a fall, which happens as a result of Martin going a bit crazy and taking a shot at her–is enough to show her that she doesn’t have to cling onto the poor girl’s memory as she moves forward in her life. Of course, Masha isn’t really the type to let anything go, and the season (the series?) ends with another fateful confrontation with David, one which sees him getting revenge for her humiliating him (she recorded his mushroom-induced stupor, in which he said his company would no longer sponsor weapons). He neatly turns the table, essentially stealing her mushroom therapy business and fobbing her off with an NDA and a paltry sum. Masha’s steely smile, and the fact that they’re united by their dead daughter, suggests that this won’t be the last he hears from her.
It of course remains to be seen whether Hulu will give this series another season. It’s hard to see how they’d be able to replicate the story setup that has worked so far, considering how tired the concept has become. To be honest, though, I’d almost certainly watch it. I’m nothing if not a glutton for punishment and, when it comes down to it, Nicole Kidman can do no wrong in my book. Even when she’s in a show as lackluster as the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers, such is the power of her star text that you can’t help but feel yourself drawn into her orbit.
Perhaps Nine Perfect Strangers isn’t so much of a failure, after all.