“Nine Perfect Strangers” review: Season 2 isn’t worth the trip

The first season of Nine Perfect Strangers premiered four years and a lifetime ago, in the summer of 2021. Based on Liane Moriarty’s 2018 book and starring Nicole Kidman as a mysterious Russian wellness guru, the limited series was weird, narratively wobbly at times, but ultimately entertaining — bolstered as it was by an excellent cast (including Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Regina Hall, and Bobby Cannavale) and the signature snappy flair of showrunner David E. Kelley.

Moriarty’s book ended, but the show did not. Much like HBO — which is still hoping to squeeze more monetizable blood out of Big Little Lies — Hulu chose to reanimate Strangers for another batch of episodes assembled by new writers. (Kelley is still listed in the credits as creator.) While Kidman’s Masha is back, this time lording over a group of needy and neurotic folks in the Bavarian Alps, the dull and draggy new season (premiering May 21) has little of the humor and emotional weight that made the original worth watching.

Years after dosing a bunch of people’s smoothies without their consent at her Tranquillum House resort, Masha Dmitrichenko is a global celebrity, the inspiration behind a bestselling book called Nine Perfect Strangers, and the target of several federal investigations. When her former mentor, Helena (Lena Olin), invites her to run a retreat at Zuberwald, her sprawling mountaintop resort, Masha agrees — partly to evade subpoenas, and partly to test her groundbreaking new “psychedelic delivery system” that she says will allow patients to revisit and reprocess “formative memories.”

Her new subjects converge on the winter wonderland boasting all manner of dysfunction. Brian (Murray Bartlett) is a former children’s TV-show host reeling from a public scandal; depressed piano virtuoso Tina (King Princess) is hoping for a relaxing spa vacation, though her smothering girlfriend Wolfie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) has other plans; Peter (Henry Golding) wants to reconnect with his aloof billionaire father, David (Mark Strong); former nun Agnes (Dolly de Leon) seeks absolution for something in her past; and wine-guzzling grand dame Victoria (Christine Baranski) arrives with her handsome young lover, Matteo (Aras Aydin) in tow — much to the chagrin of her estranged daughter, Imogen (Annie Murphy). Overseeing them all is Helena’s wary assistant Martin (Lucas Englander), who is there to place “boundaries” on Masha’s methods — lest Zuberwald become the center of another headline-making debacle.

The original Nine Perfect Strangers came loaded with the early revelation that Masha was using psychedelic drugs to force her patients to confront their emotional wounds. In season 2, Masha’s subjects — and viewers — know her methods, so the writers must try to find new ways to surprise us. Masha announces that she’s “carefully selected” each member of the group for maximum therapeutic effect, and over time it’s revealed that they’re all connected by more than just psychic trauma. Other mysteries involve Masha’s history with Helena, and the real reason she invited David to Zuberwald over Helena’s fierce objections.

Meanwhile, Peter and Imogen bond over their neglectful parents and begin a tentative romance, and everyone spends their days tripping, as Masha’s “protocol” progresses.  Expect multiple scenes of the characters engaging in psychedelic frolics and freak-outs, some of which illustrate their backstories through sweaty, surreal vignettes.

Watching other people get high isn’t all that interesting, so it’s up to these backstories — the wounds each stranger came to Zuberwald to heal — to keep us engaged and invested in the story. As each episode progressed, I kept thinking back to the first season, and the devastating speech Napoleon (Michael Shannon) gave about his son at the end of episode 3. For me as a viewer, that was a watershed moment: This show isn’t perfect, but I need to see what happens. This time around, that moment never came. There’s a flatness to the writing that leaves the characters feeling like types rather than people, and despite the talented cast, moments of emotional resonance are rare.

Bartlett gives the most compelling performance as Brian; the actor evokes the pain of his character’s crushing regret, resentment, and grievance as a man redefined publicly as the worst thing he’s ever done. And Brian’s burgeoning friendship with Agnes — after their acquaintance gets off on an extremely awkward note — is one of the most effective arcs in the series.

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An underused Baranski delivers her usual dazzle as Victoria, and Kidman once again commits fully to the steely Russian enigma known as Masha. Swanning around in a chic platinum bob and offering her clients guidance in the form of comically vague doublespeak, Masha is a character with a capital C. Season 1 leaned into the camp elements of its scheming heroine, but this season is darker — tonally and literally, as all the action plays out against a backdrop of a slate-gray Bavarian winter.

Though the eight episodes are peppered with twists — including one late reveal that feels recycled from season 1 — Nine Perfect Strangers forgot a key ingredient for its storytelling smoothie: Fun. Dramas about the unhappy upper classes need some degree of comedy to make them palatable — otherwise it’s just a bunch of self-serious one-percenters complaining about their bespoke trauma. TV doesn’t need that, and viewers don’t need the diminishing creative returns that result when networks insist on reconstituting old ideas rather than supporting new ones. A humble suggestion for the folks who make television: One book equals one season, period. As Masha tells her clients, “This won’t be easy, and it might be painful. But you will grow from this.” Grade: C

The first two episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers season 2 premiere Wednesday, May 21 on Hulu.

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