PremiumExpats Season 1 on OTT - Here's when and where to watch the expatriate tale of grief and connection
Expats is an upcoming series that explores the inherent homesickness that gnaws inside expatriates and their families as they undergo trying situations and yearn for comfort and safety.
Last Updated: 12.33 PM, Jan 22, 2024
-Expats is Nicole Kidman’s upcoming OTT venture, which she executive produces as well. Based on Janice Y.K. Lee’s bestselling novel The Expatriates, Expats comprises of six episodes and aspires to drop two upon premiere, before releasing the rest once a week. Directed by The Farewell fame Lulu Wang, Expats Season 1 is set to premiere on Prime Video on January 26, 2024.
What is Expats about?
Set against the socio-political and chronological fabric of 2014 Hongkong, the show revolves around the shades of grief that envelop the lives of three women whose happy connection turns into a tragic one after an unfortunate incident. Following the story of Margaret (Nicole Kidman), Hilary (Sarayu Blue), and Mercy (Ji Young Yoo), Expats takes us on a riveting journey through their lives.
The show explores the illegible line between victimhood and culpability, exploitation and privilege, as well as social dynamics of the employer-help relationship. A poignant tale on loss and grief, Expats sees a bemused Nicole Kidman as Margaret, who has everything in life but still feels the loss of something.
The three leading women and how their lives intertwine
Despite being a trophy expat wife who lives with full-time help and a doting husband as well as two beautiful children, Margaret feels the burden of all these identities as too heavy. She believes she is a good person.
Also read: Expats Season 1 trailer- Nicole Kidman endures shades of privilege and grief as an expat trophy wife
And perhaps she is, since she has always been kind to her help Essie, considering her family and not an employee. But her lack of clarity towards her privilege might be what earns her the terrible fate of losing her young son.
Her best friend Hilary might develop a drinking problem, not to be confused with her marital problems though. Her husband is distant, they might be getting a divorce, and Hilary has no idea what she is doing in Hongkong, especially since she had shifted here for her expat husband’s sake.
As for Mercy, she is a 24-year-old looking for a new start, doing odd jobs to survive her one chance at a better life. But her blooming friendship with Margaret is ruined when on a market outing, the crowd separates Mercy, Margaret, and her son from one another.
It is only when they find each other do they realize that the little lad is not with either of them. The guilt and culpability haunts Mercy, no matter what she does and where she goes. As for Margaret, death would have been an easier fate for her than losing her child. It is the story of maneuvering through the haze of loss to emerge on the other side, preferably not alone.