Expats

At its core, though, Expats is a meditation on womanhood and the ancillary pressures placed on them by society, parents, children, partners, and even themselves. a deeply heart-wrenching drama, Expats is not always an easy watch. But Wang has gifted us with a truly formidable show, the kind that sticks with you long after the credits roll.

Although slow at certain points, Expats is otherwise exactly what we’ve come to expect from a Kidman-led drama: It’s full of twists, complex female characters, and an engrossing enigma of a plot.

“Expats” is a deeply nuanced and dark narrative about the things women sweep under the rug, and what happens when they become too weary to cover them up.

What elevates the series beyond a potentially maudlin plot is the nuanced sense of connectedness Wang conjures, not just among central characters plucked from their home countries, but also between the expats and the diverse, teeming, politically precarious urban island they’ve chosen to inhabit.

“Expats” is a richly layered, beautifully photographed and profoundly affecting work.

Wang’s storytelling abilities and talent for showing the nuances of everyday life ground this tale of wealth and trauma while taking it in a fresh direction. A bold new step for a consistently exciting director. Just so you know, whilst we may receive a commission or other compensation from the l

Expats is an unusual beast. Its deliberately piecemeal approach makes it seems unlikely that Wang will offer us a neat and tidy ending, preferring instead to present a tale that is frequently hard to pin down. Which, for a story about people far from home, might be precisely the point.

Expats is patient in its storytelling, which is not to suggest it’s boring — rather, it trusts in the compassion of its writing and the rawness of its performances to hold our attention as its three leads circle around their unwieldy feelings or flail in their ugly fallout.

The series, adapted and directed by Lulu Wang, plays out like the novel on which it is based: there are no neat conclusions, just overlapping stories and messy relationships, and a sense of melancholy. At its heart is Hong Kong itself, captured by cinematographer Anna Franquesa-Solano.

The middle hours of Expats hit the most roadblocks—after a flashback second episode neatly and carefully laying down all the tension bubbling up in the first, the show spins wheels in too obvious ways, the lowest point being a fourth episode where all our characters are trapped in single locations and are forced to directly and ineffectively voice their trauma. It’s imperfections like these that chip away at Expats’ merits, giving us a worthy but imperfect next step in Wang’s career.

“Expats” is too initially engrossing to ignore, write off, or not recommend. It’s often fascinating even when seemingly overburdened by all the vast journeys its multi-narrative takes.

Powerful as the show can be, at six hours, the slow-burn pace and tonal bleakness can take their toll if you’re binging this all at once. “Expats” is best experienced in the week-to-week cadence in which Amazon plans to roll this out.