- Network: Prime Video
- Series Premiere Date: Jan 26, 2024
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
As clever and poised as Expats is, it leans too hard into arty longueurs, making it interesting but hard going. Nor, apart from the fifth episode, is there that much of a feel of Hong Kong.
-
It looks great and there are some fine performances – especially from Yoo and Blue – but we have seen it all before. Sometimes with Kidman, sometimes without. But many times before.
-
If The Farewell felt like a lived-in experience, Expats too often feels like a glimpse at something greater that the show never quite captures.
-
This is not a missing-child mystery, and like life, the series doesn’t offer viewers clear resolutions or easy closure. Oddly enough, that may be the most cohesive thing about Expats, which feels, in the end, like many separate stories looking for a home.
-
If anything, the fifth episode feels like Expats apologizing for being another series about the inner lives of the wealthy. It touches on the political backdrop of Hong Kong, but does so in the vaguest of ways, with none of the assured over-emphasis visited upon its other themes. Despite having entirely too much time on its hands, Expats only tentatively steps outside of its bubble.
-
Expats is a show that should be better than it is, given its cast and Wang’s pedigree. But its storytelling is frustrating and its characters are ones we feel we’ve seen on TV a whole lot over the past few years.
-
A viewer may be inclined to blame the relentless tone of misery on the script, and there's plenty in it to earn blame. But the actors are an unpleasant group to hang out with, having apparently been directed by Ms. Wang to give everything from a Chinese crackdown to a crack in a ceiling (a metaphor for Hong Kong's collapsing independence, one presumes) the same emotional weight. When everything is treated as a tragedy, everything becomes trivial, which is not a bad description of "Expats."
Awards & Rankings
There are no user reviews yet.