Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers delivered eight episodes of the strange world at Tranquillum House, a wellness retreat set in the fictional town of Cabrillo, California. Tranquillum House is run by a haunting and enigmatic guru named Masha Dmitrichenko (played with absolute perfection by Nicole Kidman). Masha has some unconventional methods of healing her clients’ trauma. Tranquillum House accepts nine guests per session and each comes to the retreat with enough baggage to sink the Titanic.
Nine Perfect Strangers is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Australian author Liane Moriarty (who also wrote the novel Big Little Lies), and was filmed at a spa in Byron Bay, Australia called Soma. The nine guests signed up for a 10-day retreat that promises to transform and heal them. Of course, Tranquillum House and Masha are not what they seem to be, and the guests are in for a bumpy and mind-altering ride. Along the way secrets are exposed, crimes are revealed, and each of the guests learns about themselves and the other guests.
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Nine Perfect Strangers has been renewed for a second season, but given the ending of season one — where could the storyline possibly go?
How Closely Does Nine Perfect Strangers Follow the Novel it is Based On?
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While Nine Perfect Strangers has the basic premise in common with Liane Moriarty’s book, it does stray from her original vision quite a bit. The book, for instance, was set in Australia, and for the Hulu adaptation, the location was moved to California. The production was supposed to be filmed in California, but just weeks before filming was set to start, the U.S. started shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the producers pivoted quickly and moved the production to Australia, producer Bruna Papandrea revealed to Financial Review. So, weirdly enough, the show takes place in California but was filmed in Australia, where the novel is set.
In the book, the wellness retreat was set in a Victorian mansion, while in the television series it is an open-air structure that feels very Zen. Also in the book, during the first five days of the 10-day retreat, each of the guests are sequestered from each other and instructed to do silent meditation. They didn’t meet each other until after that. Obviously, this would not have translated well to a movie or television series.
A number of details about the characters’ traumas have been changed as well. Masha’s near-death experience is different, undercover journalist Lars Lee (Luke Evans) has a different career and reason for coming to Tranquillum House, Ben and Jessica’s marriage is on the rocks for a different reason, and in the book, the Marconis don’t receive a discount on their stay and Masha doesn’t know about their loss before they arrive. There are a number of other changes from the book to the television series as well.
The Traumas of Each Perfect Stranger
Each of the guests (and the proprietor Masha) have descended upon Tranquillum House to heal a trauma that is either ruining their life in some way or holding them back. Melissa McCarthy plays novelist Frances Welty, who is struggling professionally and financially after she was catfished by a man she believed loved her (played by McCarthy’s real-life husband Ben Falcone), Bobby Canavale plays Tony Hogburn, a former NFL star who has become addicted to drugs, Regina Hall plays Carmel Schneider, a single mother whose husband left her for a younger woman, and Luke Evans is Lars Lee, a journalist with a hidden agenda (who ends up revealing his trauma as well).
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Meanwhile, Samara Weaving and Melvin Gregg play Jessica and Ben Chandler, a young married couple who won an enormous lottery and found the money caused cracks in their marriage. The great Michael Shannon and Asher Keddie play Napoleon and Heather Marconi, who, together with their daughter Zoe (Grace Van Patten), are grieving the death of their son Zach (and Grace’s twin), played by Hal Cumpston.
The Excessive and Non-Consensual Drug Use
Throughout both the book and television series of Nine Perfect Strangers, Masha is micro-dosing her clients with psychedelic drugs without their consent. In the book, it is LSD; in the series, it’s psilocybin mushrooms, which she mixes into her clients’ smoothies. When they discover this, she reassures them that the dose is only 1/10th of a recreational dose of mushrooms. If Masha had kept to just micro-dosing her clients, there would not have been much drama. But she ups the doses again and again, forcing the guests of her wellness retreat to hallucinate without their consent. In the end, Lars, an undercover journalist, writes an article about his time at Tranquillum House for The New Yorker called “Psychedelics to the rescue.”
The Storylines of Nine Perfect Strangers’ Finale
The eighth and final episode of season one of Nine Perfect Strangers is called Ever After. It strays from the end of the novel considerably. Masha and Carmel are in an intense discussion in which we learn that Carmen is the one who shot Masha in the past and Masha is who Carmel’s husband cheated with. Francis and Bobby kiss and make up and leave the retreat together. While Masha is heading to meet up with the Marconi family, Lars informs them that the entire reason they are all there and were subjected to all the drugs and psychological terror was so that she could connect with her dead daughter. Masha denies this and begins to meditate with the Marconis, while Lars films them from a distance. The Marconis and Masha have all taken powerful hallucinogenic drugs. The Marconis each connect with Zach in their own ways.
Frances and Tony are trying to find their car so they can leave. They run into Ben and Jessica. When they hear Carmel scream they try to get her out of the room she’s locked in. Masha leaves the Marconis in their drug-induced hallucinations and locks Frances, Tony, Ben, Jessica, Carmel, and Lars in a room. They begin to smell smoke and are convinced that the building is on fire. This brings about a conversation about what they were each like before the retreat and what they intend to be like if they survive. Tranquillum employee Yao frees them and tells them they were never in any danger, but rather it was an extreme method of motivating them to make changes in their lives. In the meantime, Masha has left the Marconis and is reuniting with a hallucination of her dead daughter.
While all of this is happening, Tranquillum House employee Delilah has gone to the police to report Masha’s unconventional methods. Delilah and the cops arrive and Masha is taken in for questioning.
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At this point, the story flashes forward a bit, Frances and Tony’s relationship is blossoming, and she gets her writing groove back. Carmel is happy and in group therapy. Ben and Jessica buy Tranquillum House and decide to run it as a true wellness resort. Lars has reunited with his husband. The Marconis are happier than before they arrived for the retreat, but they will always miss Zach and carry the burden of their grief with them. Masha was released from police custody and is driving away from Tranquillum House with a smile on her face and Francis’ latest book, Nine Perfect Strangers, on the dashboard of the sports car.
Where Can it Go in Season 2?
Nine Perfect Strangers is produced by Nicole Kidman and David E. Kelley (who also created the series, along with Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and The Practice); the two were part of the same team that adapted Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies for HBO. That is another stand-alone book that spawned a series with multiple seasons, so it would not be a surprise if this team can get another season out of Nine Perfect Strangers. After all, at the end of season one, Masha was a free woman who could take her brand of unhinged self-help to a whole new roster of clients. Considering it’s already renewed for season two, that seems to be the most likely direction.
Nine Perfect Strangers could pull off what The White Lotus is attempting to do, take the same premise, move the setting, but center it around one key character to base the second season on. In The White Lotus that character is Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya McQuoid. In Nine Perfect Strangers, that character would be Nicole Kidman’s Masha Dmitrichenko. There is no release date for Nine Perfect Strangers’ second season as of this writing, but it will certainly be interesting to see if they can pull it off once again when it is released.
