Well, well, well. Liane Moriarty made the right friend in Nicole Kidman. I say that because she’s chosen another one of Moriarty’s novels to adapt to the screen. And I don’t know how well your memory serves you, but it worked out really well with Big Little Lies. I’m a little surprised that Moriarty’s most recent novel, Nine Perfect Strangers got selected to be adapted so quickly. As an author I’d want the material to sit with readers a little longer. In any case, I was looking forward to this mystery/drama.
In the show, Masha runs the highly coveted Traquillum House, helped out by her right-hand employees/lovers, Yao and Delilah. Being a guest at this resort is usually reserved for the wealthy, but this time around Masha has hand-selected her guests. It’s clear early on that they’re going to be the key to her achieving something for her own personal life, but the real question is how far is she willing to go to get there? First things first, these guests are out of their minds for agreeing to stay after learning they are being micro-dosed. Haven’t they heard of therapy?! But before I get too far into anything else, let’s talk about the guests and their litany of issues.
Frances is a seasoned author who is reeling from being catfished and scammed out of a good deal of money and Tony is on the brink of taking his own life after his football career ended far too soon. Those two spend a considerable amount of time together while at the retreat. There is actual couple Ben and Jessica whose lives have been uncomfortably altered after winning the lottery. They’ve lost sight of each other and spend most of the time trying to reconnect. Then there is the Marconi family consisting of Napoleon, Heather, and daughter Zoe. They are struggling with the loss of Zoe’s twin, Zach, by suicide three years prior. Finally, Lars is a journalist at Tranquillum more on assignment than anything, but he connects with desperately sad Carmel. She’s lost the love of her life to someone else, along with her kids.
A majority of Masha’s time seems to be spent with Carmel, because they actually have a bit of shared history that isn’t revealed until a bit later in the season. She also spends a great deal of time with the Marconi’s. She wants to be able to help them reconnect with Zach, but for her own selfish needs that become apparent about half way through the season. It’s a shame Masha is manipulating these people, but they all sort of seem like gluttons for punishment. They clearly don’t know a healthy way to deal with there problems and this woman is taking advantage of them. At least Frances, Tony, and even Delilah catch on eventually and try to remove themselves from the chaos.
As entertaining as the show was, I couldn’t help but compare the events of the show to the details of the book. Let me tell you what, you do not have to have read the book. In a lot of ways they are almost two completely different stories! I understand some aspects need to be changed (how interesting would five days of silence really been?), but they changed key components of some of the characters. Especially Masha! Some of these stark differences were really hard for me to look past, and so for that I probably enjoyed the show less than I could have. I’m bummed about that, so for those of you that haven’t read the book yet, I would encourage you to wait. Enjoy them as separate entities first before harshly comparing the two like I did.