The drama series “Expats,” starring Nicole Kidman, is currently the fourth most-watched series on Prime Video in the US and worldwide, according to FlixPatrol. The first two episodes of the show arrived on the platform on Jan. 26, and its popularity has grown.
Lulu Wang, known for her critically acclaimed film “The Farewell,” directs the show, which is based on Janice Y.K. Lee’s 2016 novel The Expatriates. The series also stars Sarayu Blue, Ji-young Yoo, Brian Tee, and Jack Huston.
The series follows a group of three American women living in Hong Kong, played by Kidman, Blue, and Yoo, whose lives are forever changed by a single tragedy. With three episodes out, there’s still time to start watching.
When do new episodes of ‘Expats’ come out?
Wang takes us back and forth in time to reveal how these three women are linked and how everything went wrong. The three following episodes will be released weekly every Friday, with the finale coming out Feb. 23.
In an interview with NPR, Wang explained that one of the reasons she made the show was because she, as an immigrant in the US, connects with the themes of the story. “I saw that parallel in the journey of Hong Kong and what my family had experienced. It’s the reason that I’m here today. So are you grateful for it? Do you resent it? I mean, there’s no easy answer, but it certainly has influenced so much,” she said.
Wang also explained that, unlike other series with rich people at their center (Succession, for example), she wanted to also give space for the working-class characters and servers. “I think that it’s difficult to make a show about privilege and in a world of privilege without feeling like you’re celebrating it,” she said.
However, while she said she is “very conscientious” about that, she also tried “not to judge the privilege.” She wanted to break “the bubble,” but also asking the audience “to make their own” judgements.