Expats

[Anonymous]

I’m enjoying the first episode. However, Nicole Kidman’s uncanny valley face is irritating! Why can’t people just be human? Aging is part of being alive, being human, we need to quit denying it.

[Anonymous]

Nicole Kidman is morphing into Naomi Watts - they look so similar now it's odd.

[Anonymous]

Love Expats! Watched the first episode

[Anonymous]

I watched the first episode and will watch another but I'm annoyed that they are being so circumspect about what happened to Gus at this point. I don't like when every character knows key facts I don't know. Why? You don't have the hit me over the head with it but could you just tell me the central premise of the show in the first episode?

I don't care about the Kidman age/face issue anymore because she makes a lot of limited series like this and I've just accepted this is what she's doing and this is what she looks like while doing it. This is like the 5th show like this I've watched her in. It's fine. I actually think it is kind of similar to us all collectively pretending Tom Cruise isn't also super old. They've probably had similar amounts of work done and likely work equally hard at looking as well preserved as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I watched the first episode and will watch another but I'm annoyed that they are being so circumspect about what happened to Gus at this point. I don't like when every character knows key facts I don't know. Why? You don't have the hit me over the head with it but could you just tell me the central premise of the show in the first episode?

I don't care about the Kidman age/face issue anymore because she makes a lot of limited series like this and I've just accepted this is what she's doing and this is what she looks like while doing it. This is like the 5th show like this I've watched her in. It's fine. I actually think it is kind of similar to us all collectively pretending Tom Cruise isn't also super old. They've probably had similar amounts of work done and likely work equally hard at looking as well preserved as possible.

Sure.

But wouldn’t you think it’s weird if Tom Cruise played the father of a 4 year old?

[Anonymous]

Agree with everything said so far. Margaret is very unlikeable, as is Mercy. And the cheating husband. And Daisy is a horror. Well pretty much all of them! I hope that's not the cross-section of expats. Aholes, the lot?

I hate the allusions to Gus as well. We know he's not dead but he's gone, which is worse. I don't know if I can continue to watch a show about a kid who got kidnapped and maybe trafficked to live a miserable life. I would not want to continue living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm two years younger than Nicole Kidman.

When is she going to start playing the grandmother instead of the mother of elementary school aged children?

That role was starting to slip away for her in The Others (2001) when she was already 34 years old.

And then she played the same role in Big Little Lies (2017-2019) when she was 50 years old.

This isn't sexism, but realism. I don't know why she's doing this to herself. She's not her exDH Tom Cruise.

But did you like Expats?

I would have liked it better with younger actresses. And again, I am a woman. I didn't read the book The Expats.

The premise is very interesting enough. I actually don't like the focus on her. I don't like her character at all. I don't like how she got a smaller apartment to be away from her children. I wondered what she was doing scrubbing the floor and taking a bath in that plastic bath tub. And then I don't like how the two women in their 50s are supposed to be reminiscing about karaoke contests and dancing and how much fun they used to have, not in their 20s, but like, last year. LoL.

I also didn't like the storyline about the younger Asian American woman who did a negligent thing and wants to understand why.

The plot is like Downton Abbey with wealthy and servants class meets the film The Deep End of the Ocean about a missing child.

I don't think we're supposed to like her at all, or really most people in it. I think the direction is fantastic, the landscapes, the decor. I love the thriller premise of the little kid gone missing, learning about that weird lifestyle and how the expats/help relationship is so messed up and odd. The expats are supposed to be vapid people who don't do anything beside live in luxury and socialize, as maids and drivers do the most basic tasks for them. To me the karaoke fits with that, and Nicole Kidman's desire to feel "real" by doing menial tasks in her little secret apartment. I find it all fascinating.

[Anonymous]

I’m shocked more people don’t lose their kids given how distracted everyone is.

[Anonymous]

My guess is the nanny was following them and took him.

Am I right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess is the nanny was following them and took him.

Am I right?

That would be nice.

There's also the older man neighbor who died. It could be a coincidence. Or he could have been involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess is the nanny was following them and took him.

Am I right?

That would be nice.

There's also the older man neighbor who died. It could be a coincidence. Or he could have been involved.

In the book you never find out what happened, right?

But the show is supposed to have a surprising ending, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess is the nanny was following them and took him.

Am I right?

That would be nice.

There's also the older man neighbor who died. It could be a coincidence. Or he could have been involved.

I had thought the old man did it, but the nanny makes total sense. It was interesting how Nicole Kidman tells her no dinner tonight, then she throws the onions away and turns off the light and looks sad when they all leave, like she feels discarded by the family despite being a crucial part of its functioning, especially for Gus. I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

[Anonymous]

I couldn’t tell some of the people apart. But did Hilary’s husband have an affair with Mercy? I was thinking that the nanny was distracted by the husband and lost the kid. That’s what his lying was about, where he was that night, and why Margaret doesn’t like Hilary's husband.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I couldn’t tell some of the people apart. But did Hilary’s husband have an affair with Mercy? I was thinking that the nanny was distracted by the husband and lost the kid. That’s what his lying was about, where he was that night, and why Margaret doesn’t like Hilary's husband.

Tell them apart isn’t what I meant. But they weren’t introduced properly so I wasn’t following the first scene or two and then I was supposed to make connections from it later. Maybe I don’t watch enough tv lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I couldn’t tell some of the people apart. But did Hilary’s husband have an affair with Mercy? I was thinking that the nanny was distracted by the husband and lost the kid. That’s what his lying was about, where he was that night, and why Margaret doesn’t like Hilary's husband.

I think Hilary's dh started the affair with Mercy after meeting her at the crime scene, and he lied about the fact that he went to get drunk after work (he is an alcoholic), and perhaps something else we are not aware of yet (if just the drinking, Margaret is out of line for being so pissed about the lie: who cares?) Mercy seemed like she was just distracted by a dumb text she was sending.