Nicole Kidman Leads Amazon’s Thought-Provoking New Drama, Expats

Nicole Kidman can’t seem to get off our TV screens: from the miniseries version of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, Faraway Downs to upcoming Netflix mystery series The Perfect Couple, the Australian actress is popping up everywhere at the moment. Continuing this streak, she’s set to star in Expats, a new series from Amazon Prime based on the book by Janice Y. K. Lee, later this month.
Kidman stars as Margaret, an expatriate in Hong Kong living in a close-knit community of people in similar circumstances to her, and the show follows their interconnected lives and problems.
What is Expats about?
Set in Hong Kong, Kidman plays Margaret, a woman who moved to the city along with her family and lives a comfortable, well-off life as she socialises with other expats. This largely serene lifestyle however conceals the fact that Margaret experienced a devastating tragedy, one which looms over her as a person. The series’ trailer opens with her quietly pining for the chance to live “alone…where I’m not defined by tragedy.”
Neither the trailer nor the official synopses produced by Amazon give answers as to what this tragedy was or how it came about, but there is a hint it has to do with her child. “The minute our feet leave Hong Kong soil, we are abandoning our son” she responds to her husband (Brian Tee), when he suggests that they move, feeling that their situation is “drowning them.”

Who else stars in Expats?
Kidman is the miniseries’ star draw, but there are two other main characters that we follow: Hilary (played by Monday Morning’s Sarayu Rao), a wealthy career-driven woman who is trying to have a child and worries her marriage to David (Jack Huston) is on the rocks and will soon fall apart, and Mercy (played by Smoking Tigers’ Ji-young Yoo), a young Korean-American graduate who feels her life needs turning around – “a fresh start, really? At 24?” teases Margaret in the trailer. Each of their lives and the string of events that shape them intertwine as the six-part series goes on.
What else do we know and is there a release date?
Expats is created and directed by Lulu Wang, the filmmaker behind movies like Posthumous and The Farewell, and also stars Bonde Sham, Flora Chan and Will Or. The series is set to release on 26th January on Amazon Prime, and you can watch the trailer below.