Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers mixes up a deliciously over the top drama

Ever since the first trailer for Hulu’s new drama Nine Perfect Strangers dropped, it’s been clear that this series is meant to be the streamer’s version of HBO’s megapopular Big Little Lies.

After all, it’s based on a book by the same author (Lianne Moriarty), stars one of the same big-name actresses (Nicole Kidman), and pokes at a lot of the same issues (overprivileged rich people problems). It should surprise no one that this series is equally fun to watch, with the same sort of soapy, indulgent vibe.

Nine Perfect Strangers is perfect summertime television: It’s not too taxing from a narrative perspective, the characters are all a perfect balance of genuinely compelling and vaguely loathsome, and there are plenty of secrets and twists to be revealed about literally everyone over the course of its run. And, of course, there’s Kidman, clearly having a blast playing Masha, the weird and almost aggressively ethereal wellness guru at the center of it all.

Masha is the mind behind Tranquilum House, an extremely exclusive – and one has to assume extremely expensive – wellness retreat that has some, let’s just say unorthodox methods of treating its patients. Yet, it’s equally clear that while Masha may indeed be more than a little bit unhinged, she genuinely cares about the patients in her care, and wants to help them process the varying traumas and griefs they carry. Whether her varying protocols for doing that actually work or cause more harm to those she means to help is a larger question, of course.

Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers may be messy but it sure is entertaining

The retreat’s exclusive brand of healing offers everything from summer camp games such as potato sack races to New Age-y “let the past die” activities like burying yourself in your own grave to achieve rebirth. There are some sketchy medical “protocols” and bizarre self-induced hallucinations that make you wonder exactly what sort of NDA these people signed when they arrived, but even the strangest “treatment” is always used as a tool to reveal more about the (many) secrets these characters carry.

The titular strangers are, to be clear, not all strangers – three of them (Napoleon, Heather, and Zoe Marconi) are a family working through an unimaginable loss while two others (Ben and Jessica) are a couple looking for something akin to relationship counseling. They’re joined by Frances, a popular author struggling through both professional and personal crises; Tony, a cantankerous former athlete with a substance abuse problem; Carmel, a woman trying to process her husband’s infidelity; and Lars, a guest whose reasons for attending Tranquilum are more complicated – and harder to explain – than they first appear.

On paper, this ragtag group may not sound like much, but Nine Perfect Strangers has an all-star cast who puts a positively Herculean effort into making these fairly basic figures feel more complex than they have any right to be. Melissa McCarthy is a standout as Frances whose arc is perhaps the easiest to root for, as is Michael Shannon, whose expressive face conveys about 17 shades of emotion at any given time. It also helps that their characters are given a lot of story to work with, as is Bobby Carnavale’s Tony (though you’ve certainly seen the bones of this performance from that actor before.)

Samara Weaving and Melvin Gregg don’t have a lot to do as the struggling couple looking to Masha to save their relationship, and as much as I love Manny Jacinto and want him to succeed in all things, the role of Masha’s right hand Yao seems ill-suited for him. And then there’s Luke Evans, who gets the most thankless of roles in the generally unlikeable Lars, but whose character still feels the most unfinished in the six episodes available to screen for critics.

But, let’s be real, it’s likely Kidman whose performance we’re all here for, and she does not disappoint. Walking a constantly blurry line between wellness expert and cult leader with an accent that ranges from “absent” to “Boris and Natasha”, her character may not make a lot of sense at times, but remains impossible to look away from throughout. Masha has her own complicated backstory (because of course, she does), and an intriguingly flexible relationship with things like the truth and medical ethics.

She also has her own demons to battle, though Nine Perfect Strangers seems strangely invested in keeping Masha at a certain arm’s length from both the patients in her care and the viewers watching her story. With two episodes still out there that even critics haven’t seen, there’s a pretty good chance that there’s a twist involving all of these factors waiting in the wings. But perhaps the real twist would be if there isn’t, that she’s just an odd woman who’s trying some unorthodox ways to help desperate, hurting people find a way back to themselves.

The first three episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers arrive on Hulu on Wednesday, August 18, with weekly installments to follow. Are you planning to give it a look?