No. 79 Nine Perfect Strangers (TV) (2021) 87 of 100

 

I watched this show when it came on Amazon TV last year. I wasn’t going to re-watch all 8 episodes for the purposes of this blog as I wasn’t that impressed by it, but I did skip through the series again to refresh my memory.

The series starts with a pile of fruit and ice in a blender which then switches on. It’s reasonable to assume that this serves as a metaphor for what is to come. The blender in question is a tranquillity retreat, run by Nicole Kidman’s character, Masha. She takes in the titular group of strangers with the plan being to aid them with their own struggles. As you’d likely have guessed they all have secrets and the invitees are not as random as you’d been led to expect.

The first guests we meet are Michael Shannon and his family. He plays a high school teacher called Napoleon, and he and his wife Heather are struggling following the death of their son. They bring along their daughter Zoe, who is a twin to the dead boy.

The rest of the group are a colourful mix with the always watchable Bobby Carnivale doing a great turn as Tony, a former pro-football star now struggling with drugs and Melissa McCarthy as Frances a writer with various issues. There are also others with obvious secrets including staff members with agendas and an undercover reporter keen to lift the lid on the exclusive resort.

Things start out OK with the slightly submissive Shannon grateful that he has been invited at a reduced cost, commensurate with his teacher’s salary. His wife and daughter don’t share his elan for the project and generally mope around a lot – until the smoothies start flowing.

Over the 8 episodes the characters all learn about themselves and others due to the therapies and the psychotropics drugs that they are being surreptitiously fed. We learn that Kidman’s story is not as straightforward or worthy as first thought and the pieces start to shake, with the whole edifice ready to fall – or was that always the plan?

I sat through this whole series over a few nights and although it was decent I didn’t really buy into it and a lot of the content seemed like padding. Not many of the characters were fully rounded and some of the revelations where more of the ‘so what’ kind than the type you would gasp at.

It does look nice with a luxury setting with a talented cast and good direction. It kept ticking along but the plot developments were meted out like treats at a health farm and you were always after more.

This blog is probably biased but I’d say that Shannon was probably the star turn, although he was run close by his ‘Boardwalk Empire’ co-star Carnivale. His character Napoleon did suffer from floppy hair but he had the best character arc, with his early optimism replaced with despair before he got sorted out by the end. His tragic backstory, with a dead son to contend with, belied his jolly exterior and it was good to see that torn down and rebuilt. I’m not sure if feeding someone drugs so they hallucinate the return of a dead child is a measured approach, but it did work here.

Overall this would probably have made a decent two hour film but over 8 episodes there wasn’t enough meat on the bones to keep me fully engaged. I see that a second season has been commissioned with a new cast so it’ll be interesting to see where it goes next.

When is Shannon-On? - 02.07

Outcome? Leaving with his revitalised family

TV Mini Series 3/5

Shannon Stars 3.5/5