Nine Perfect Strangers

Great premise, beautiful cinematography, terrific cast. Too bad the plot falls flat towards the end. And the last five minutes are just stupid. Too bad, because it started pretty strong. But then it just lost steam and eventually got ridiculous. To the point that I only gave it six stars and I am being extremely generous.

Now the big question is, why do we need to write six hundred characters to comment on imdb? I have read actual film reviews by real film critics that were shorter than that. I think three hundred words would have been just fine, without risking spoiling anything for people who reads it.

If you liked Big Little Lies and were waiting for something similar let me tell you this show has the perfect ingredients.

Based on a book by the same author, check.

David E. Kelly behind the project, check.

Nicole Kidman as the lead, check.

What else do you need. Just put your trust in these talented people, sit back and wait to be entertained.

Firstly, I think you need to watch the entire season to get what the series is on about, and if you don't like it then, that's alright, but judging this show based off the first couple episodes is nugatory because the the whole season is about what's gonna happen at the end. So don't watch it if you're unwilling to go the distance, which isn't that far, just 8 episodes.

At first, I thought it was going to have a "White lotus" type of ending, just some cliche finale where murder happened and the culprit is revealed, but not in a million years would I have guessed the direction the show was going even though there were several inklings along the way. I don't think it's the best show out there or anything, but it definitely doesn't deserve poor ratings; the first couple episodes weren't bad either, just left you a little all over the place because you don't get to piece together the full story yet, only that something unorthodox is happening so it's definitely worth a wait till the end before making up your mind about it. And if you are prudent when watching each character's story, there could be a thing or two you can learn from it as well.

The storyline was muddy and the point of the story only became clear in the last episode. Melissa McCarthy was the shining star. The relevance of Masha having a Russian accent was unclear, but the accent wasn't convincing and didn't further this confusing story. Nicole Kidman could have benefitted from a dialect coach.

No spoilers just commentary.

A very intriguing tale of lives. The most important thing to me is there isn't one bit of filler in this series, every minute and moment adds something interesting. Each character has their story, their secrets and their vices. As the show progresses and unfolds, the more info is divulged and unraveled, a surreal turn of events makes itself known.

The cinematography and visuals are glorious, views are breathtaking. The contrast of the setting to the unraveling characters.

The fruit smoothies look delicious.

The Russian host (Nicole Kidman) has no need to be Russian, it adds nothing to the plot, and doesn't sound Russian, I am not sure why there needs to be an exotic host from somewhere that isn't the US.. it ends up sounding like a faux, generic European accent and it is annoying. She is very interesting without it, is the perfect ring leader of the ragtag group.

It's hard to not be absorbed in this fascinating, riveting, and captivating series.

Update. My initial review was about half way through the series. After watching the end it's definitely slower as far as pacing goes. Also Nicole Kidman is incredibly hard to watch in this just as she usually is in everything. The bad accent makes it worse.

The momentum just falls off a bit, maybe could have been shortened by an episode? It's worth the watch but it's not groundbreaking by any means.