"Deadly boring": Nicole Kidman's returning show debuts with poor Rotten Tomatoes score
The second season of Nicole Kidman's satirical drama Nine Perfect Strangers has landed a meagre Rotten Tomatoes score following its first reviews.
The Big Little Lies star returns as mysterious guru Masha Dmitrichenko, who invites nine new strangers to join a transformational wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps.
"Over the course of a week, she takes them to the brink. Will they make it? Will she? Masha is willing to try anything in the interest of healing everyone involved, including herself," the official synopsis reads.
Despite its star-studded cast - including Murray Bartlett, Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, Henry Golding, Mark Strong and Dolly de Leon - season two has struggled to win over critics.
Ahead of its debut in the US tomorrow and UK on 22 May, the season has landed a score of just 38% on Rotten Tomatoes from eight reviews at the time of writing.
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AV Club brutally branded season two as "deadly boring", adding that the new episodes "lack focus, a tight pace, intriguing characters, and, most of all, the self-aware campiness that made Nine Perfect Strangers somewhat amusing when it debuted four years ago".
Here's what some of the other critics have been saying so far:
"Though the eight episodes are peppered with twists — including one late reveal that feels recycled from season one — Nine Perfect Strangers forgot a key ingredient for its storytelling smoothie: Fun."
"It looks glamorous and talks the prestige TV talk, but it's a hollow, self-indulgent emotional vacuum."
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"Nine Perfect Strangers season two has its fair share of effective twists and even more excellent performances, though it can feel limited by its short episode count and the constraints of its premise and genre."
"There are thrills to be mined in a show that's as deep as a puddle of champagne, but, like a microdosed drink, the aftereffects are minimal."
Nine Perfect Strangers season two premieres 21 May on Hulu in the US. In the UK, the new season starts streaming on Prime Video on 22 May. Season one is available on the same platforms.
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