With an Oscar, Bafta and six Golden Globes to her name, you’d best believe that when Nicole Kidman signs up for a project, we add it to our watchlist without question. And as luck would have it, her new series, Expats, sounds like it has the potential to be one of the biggest dramas of 2024.

Set against the complex tapestry of Hong Kong residents’ lives, Expats “depicts a multifaceted group of women after a single encounter sets off a chain of life-altering events that leaves everyone navigating the intricate balance between blame and accountability,” reads the official synopsis

Watch the trailer for Expats below:

If you’re interest has been well and truly piqued, read on. We’ve got everything you need to know about the much-anticipated Prime Video series.

What’s Expats all about?

Based on the bestselling novel The Expatriates by Janice YK Lee, the series takes us back to 2014, when Margaret moves from the US to Hong Kong with her husband and their three kids.

There, she forms a connection with some of her fellow expatriates in the city – like Hilary, a housewife, and Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate. All of them are wealthy and privileged; all find themselves drawn closer to one another in the wake of an unspeakable family tragedy.

“As each woman struggles with her own demons, their lives collide in ways that have irreversible consequences for them all,” promises the synopsis.

Expect, then, a powerful exploration of grief, loneliness, friendship, marriage, and surviving trauma.

Who stars in Expats?

Nicole Kidman takes on the role of Margaret, while Ji-young Yoo stars as Mercy and Saray Blue as Hilary. 

Brian Tee, meanwhile, plays Margaret’s husband Clarke, and Jack Huston stars as Hilary’s husband, David.

What are people saying about Expats?

Director Lulu Wang – who gifted us The Farewell in 2019 – has shared that her series plays against cultural stereotypes, instead gifting us something far more nuanced and astute.

“I always wanted to explore the intersectionality of class and race and gender, and I think that often in America, we talk about these things in a separated way,” she tells The Guardian.

“Hong Kong is so great, because it’s this intersection of very different walks of life, and you get to see all of the nuances. And I just wanted not to vilify anybody, but really just take the audience through a journey on which you might sympathise with someone and then they’ll do something that you disagree with, or you might hate them, but then come around to loving them. We’re at this moment in time where everything is so polarised, people are either heroes to be worshipped or they’re cancelled, so I wanted to show that these characters are all human and that everyone, regardless of their circumstance, is fighting their own battle, which in their world is a huge one.”

When can we watch Expats?

Expats will premiere on Prime Video with two episodes from 26 January. New episodes will then launch weekly until the finale on 23 February.

Images: Prime Video