Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 Review: Between Secrets and Effect Trips We Face Masha’s Psychedelic Therapy?
From 22 May, Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 is available on Hulu and Prime Video streaming. After the first two episodes came out on the first day, and one a week until the final, scheduled for July 3rd. After the global success of the first season, Nine Perfect Strangers returns with a second highly anticipated season that moves away from the warm tranquility of the Californian wellness center to immerse yourself in the icy and majestic silence of the Austrian Alps. The series, created by David E. Kelley, is based on Liane Moriarty’s novel and confirms Nicole Kidman as the enigmatic Masha Dmitrichenko, the controversial guru who guides her guests on “radical healing” paths, between psychedelics, emotional catharsis, and inner transformations. If in the first season the doubt was: “Can we change in nine days?”, now the question is deeper: “Can we escape from ourselves?”.
As in the first season released in 2021, the Russian Masha Dmitrichenko, the healing guru of this therapeutic retreat interpreted by the divine (and Australian too), also directs everything in Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 Nicole Kidman. The references and parallels with The White Lotus already accompanied the release of the first season of Nine Perfect Strangers, and it is inevitable to withdraw them out today; however in the cast there is Murray Bartlett, who in addition to the beautiful episode of the first season of The Last of Us owes its recent popularity to the first season of The White Lotus in which it was the hotel manager. But unlike on the HBO show (which produced another David E series. Kelley from a Moriarty book with Kidman protagonist, Big Little Lies), here the story does not revolve around mysterious murders, but the traumas of the guests who turn to Masha to overcome them. And she, as now known, treats them with massive doses of hallucinogens and natural drugs of various types. But let’s go into the detail of the plot (without spoilers) and the review of this second season of Nine Perfect Strangers, of which you can find the trailer at the bottom of the article.
Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 Review: The Story Plot
Set in an exclusive chalet isolated in the snowy mountains, the new season follows an unprecedented group of guests, each bearer of a cumbersome past and ambiguous motivations, who rely on Masha with the hope of finding balance, inner peace, or, perhaps, simply a sense of control over one’s elusive lives. But the rarefied atmosphere of the well-being retreat, apparently serene, conceals underground tensions and truths ready to emerge with disruptive force. Masha’s techniques, increasingly radical and controversial, dig into the fragility of the participants, highlighting their deeper shadows. And while the boundaries between care and manipulation become increasingly blurred, she, too, begins to falter, a prisoner of her contradictions and the desperate need to believe in her vision. The immaculate white of the landscape thus becomes the perfect mirror of a process of “purification” which has little peaceful nor very disturbing. In this suspended, almost mystical setting, every step towards healing seems to coincide with an inexorable step towards the abyss, where the line between redemption and perdition thins until it almost disappears.
Thanks to the article by Lars Lee (the character of the first season played by Luke Evans) on the New Yorker, Masha and her methods have become famous: we see her participating in a conference, in which she shows an image of the Marconi family at the Tranquillum and talks about their healing path. But, with fame, there are also investigations and causes brought by the authorities due to the violations of the laws that administering drugs to unsuspecting people entails. During the conference, Masha, who still sees the image of her late daughter Tatiana, finds Martin (Lucas Englander), an old pharmacologist friend of who he learned the first rudiments of the art of treating hallucinations, precisely to overcome the trauma of the death of his little girl. Martin offers Masha the chance to return to those mountains where cell phones don’t pick up and court notifications don’t come, and Masha cuts her hair and flies to Germany. Here she then finds her ancient teacher Helena (Lena Olin), who, being in serious economic difficulties, is forced to leave her carte blanche in the choice of guests.
Masha then arrives at this remote building that once housed a madhouse, Nine Perfect Strangers:
– Imogen (Annie Murphy, famous for Schitt’s Creek), a woman expert in psychoanalysis, and her mother Victoria (Christine Baranski, The Good Wife, The Big Bang Theory), which would have much to clarify with his daughter but prefers to return for the umpteenth time in spiritual retreat with the new boy Matteo (Aras Aydın), a little Italian and a little Middle Eastern but much younger.
– Tina (the musician known as the art name King Princess), a pianist in a creative block who believes she is going on vacation and gets angry when she understands where her partner Wolfie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) has taken her, who would like to unlock her and their career, as well as their relationship.
– the former nun Agnes (Dolly de Leon), who goes there because she feels she has to be forgiven by her (meaning God).
– Brian (Bartlett), former star of an educational program for children, whose career has been cut short by a fit of anger on the set.
– Peter (Henry Golding) and David Schaber (Mark Strong): the first is the son who would like to reconnect with the second, the father, a billionaire without frills, whom Masha has chosen against Helena’s opinion.
At this point, everyone knows Masha’s hallucinogenic methods: some guests are there just for that, and Martin and Helena are there to stem it. There is no longer, therefore, the surprise effect and the mystery of what will happen to get to the recovery from the nightmares and traumas that afflict the guests: it will be necessary to find strength in one’s spirit through the massive use of drugs.
Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 Review and Analysis
Jokingly, one could say that the first flaw of this new season lies in the decision to translate the title into Italian, generating confusion with the famous (and super readapted) film by Paolo Genovese. But returning serious (or series… TV) there is no doubt that, as a success at The White Lotus, even Nine Perfect Strangers can no longer play the surprise effect card thought by David E. Kelley in the first season (now Kelley is only creator and no longer showrunner) and is forced to make virtue of necessity by replicating herself and her structure. The guests know it (certainly smarter than those who go on vacation in a hotel chain where there are murders every season), and the spectators know it. To overcome this, the new season abandons most of the comedy veins that characterized the last one and focuses decisively on dramatic tones, on the tragic and interconnected past of guests, on the traumas that Masha will revive between visions, and the use of drugs to achieve healing.
There will still be some turns and surprise shots, but the most interesting aspect of the episodes that will be released in the coming weeks until July lies precisely in the stories of the guests and in the performances of a cast of the highest level. In addition to a poignant Bartlett, who here remembers Jim Carrey of Kidding, Dolly de Leon points out above all, who manages to transmit spirituality with his mere presence; Christine Baranski and Annie Murphy are also very good, who show that they master both comedy and drama. Even the rest of the cast will have a way to shine, and thus make a show shine, which, in other ways, is very dark. Finally, a quote is necessary for her, the great Nicole Kidman, who never slips into parody even when she speaks with a Russian accent. She found her Masha, who believed she had left forever years ago, and returned to make us shiver with every sentence she says. Now we just have to hope for a continuation of the season at least up to par.
The method is always the same – push the protagonists to the limit and bring them to the edge of the abyss – because only in this way can they truly go back and understand themselves. Instead, the team changes behind the scenes: at the writing level, starting from Rachel Shukert, but not at the directing level, which remains in the hands of Jonathan Levine, given the change of format during construction, yet both manage to maintain one narrative continuity. As if they too were more aware of the matter they have in their hands in chapter two. Change the too location, thanks to having had to get rid of everything from the protagonist after the scandal (it had happened before the first season, if you remember). From the Tranquillum House in warm and sunny Australia to the village of Zauberwald, among the snowy and cold Austrian Alps. Thus, the photography also changes, from warm to cold colors, and the choice of protagonists in which multiple families become one in the mirror of the other, even in unexpected ways.
From the sea to the mountains, while keeping faithful to the mystery and hospitality of the place chosen for the treatment. What never fails is the binomial science and faith – here even more explicit and placed at the center of the narrative, as well as that life-death and that of the faults of the fathers (and mothers) who fall on the sons (and daughters). There is no shortage of alternative medicines and real ones, hallucinogenic trip that Masha tries first of all on herself; however, caricatural, Nicole Kidman once again manages to hold the scene and the group, chosen in this case in a more cohesive and stimulating way. Both the faces known among the performers and the most immature ones, in this second season of Nine Perfect Strangers they work, but it is the dispersion of the many storylines, in addition to the personal one of the protagonist, that leaves us perplexed again. Masha has not yet revealed all her aces up her sleeve and wants to continue at all costs what others in the world judge insane or even dangerous. A week to change or remain yourself: will they succeed?
Not only is the snow the backdrop to this new season, but it is a precise, almost cinematic aesthetic, built with attention to every visual detail. Filming took place between Austria and Germany, in a selection of locations that seem to come out of a Scandinavian dream: minimalist chalets immersed in the woods, frozen bodies of water, milky skies, and interiors that mix Nordic design and New Age spirituality. The mountain environment is not only a background, but an extension of the inner journey that each character undertakes. Nature becomes a narrative element, reflecting and amplifying the emotional state of the protagonists: rarefied, beautiful, but also hostile and unpredictable. Geographical isolation translates into psychological isolation, and every corner of the structure – from the Turkish bath to the herbal medicine laboratory, from the common room to the meditation spaces – contributes to building that ambiguity between care and control, between regeneration and manipulation, which is the true beating heart of the series.
Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 is much more than a psychological thriller: it is an intense and multilevel investigation into the concept of identity, the often-unaware strategies of emotional survival, and the unstoppable, sometimes self-destructive, desire for rebirth. Through a refined and hypnotic aesthetic, a direction that alternates dreamlike visions with surgically shiny looks, and an extraordinary cast capable of restoring any emotional nuance, the series manages to blend spirituality, narrative tension, and a ruthless inner realism. Each episode delves deeper into the experiences of the characters, returning a complex and disturbing human mosaic, in which the balance between appearance and truth is always poised. And in the heart of the mountains, where silence weighs more than words and nature amplifies every fragile emotion, the real challenge is not only to heal, but to find the courage – and the lucidity – to look in the mirror. Even when what is reflected is something that you are not ready to see.
The presentation of the guests, with those who wait and a Masha criticized and loved for the systems adopted, immediately interfaces with a situation of which perhaps she does not have full control. But it is too early to say. Certainly the depth of the characters equals the first season: Brian is a former protagonist of a children’s show that has been canceled; Victoria and Imogen are mother and daughter with an unrecoverable relationship engraved by trauma sedimented over the years; Peter accepted the invitation to review and reconcile with the intimate figure of his father and not with the public one; Agnes is a nun who has lost faith in God; Tina and Wolfie a couple of musicians who experience different creative and emotional blocks. To which is added Peter’s billionaire father, together with Martin and Helena, Masha’s collaborators. A Masha who is once again an enigmatic spiritual guide, ineffable intellectual teacher, and dark light of hope.
The second season of Nine Perfect Strangers more dismal and spooky part. Starting from the setting, the desolate building is inhospitable, hostile, and shady. A place that perhaps one day was deserted, uninhabited, and in ruins. Transformed into an environment that tries to be comfortable, intimate, and elegant, illuminated by the ocher and orange light of the candles, but which continues to remain gray, dark, and cold. Giant rooms and endless corridors, chained and imprisoned, and large spaces are increasingly closed and above. Solitary and depopulated, this time everything takes place in a building lost in snow-capped mountains, kilometers away from the inhabited centers, blocked by a cold, freezing, and adverse climate. And it is immediately, in the predisposition of convivial moments, that the first tensions emerge, the deep and internal conflicts of the characters rise, whose relationships are immediately unexpected, circular, and fleeting. Nine Perfect Strangers, with its second chapter, acquires a more horror atmosphere, where the disturbances of the spirits are as frightening as what could happen in those dark places.
Something terrible seems to be hiding this time inside Masha’s mind, but mindful of the first season, it could only be a semblance, even if, in this case, the Prime Video show appears more ready to take risks. As well as its protagonist. Nine Perfect Strangers remains an introspective healing path and a journey within oneself, to discover and contemplate one’s inner hardships, between neurosis, anxieties, and fears. The characters of Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 are all, once again, perfectly normal and perfectly crazy, standardized in an idea of regularity and practice that is illusory and utopian, lacking in concreteness. In the past and present, there are dominant and oppressive personalities, irrational concerns, and depressive thoughts. But in the immediate future, something extraordinary is about to happen. The psychedelic element is always central, and the strength of some of the figures has the same exciting grip as the first chapter. But something is undoubtedly different, and perhaps it is that excessive and perverse something that suggested the first season. And that could find its initial implementation in this, for now, excellent, intriguing, and suggestive incipit.
Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 Review: The Last Words
Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 is an unexpected, more cohesive, and solid chapter of the inaugural cycle, thanks to the experience of the past in front and behind the camera. The location and casting change functionally, but not the methods to the limit and the characterization over the lines of Nicole Kidman’s Masha. New revelations are about to arrive, and we appreciate that alongside the theme of the family, dear first of all to the protagonist, that of religion and that of the consequences of our choices have been added even more, together with the fear of death. The second season of Nine Perfect Strangers is better than the first, in some ways: once the story, the dynamics, and its elusive protagonist were presented, he made the premises his own and dedicated himself to becoming an implacable study of characters. Many may not care at all, but the impenetrable Kidman character is magnetic: darker, more complex, and interesting to explore than before, especially when its dominant and manipulative attitude reveals the mental instability, vulnerability, and insecurity it tries to hide. The problem is that even if the gurus of the well-being of reality are like her, it is better to stay away from it.
Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 First Look Images
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Christine Baranski, Mark Strong, Murray Bartlett, Lena Olin, Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, King Princess, Dolly de Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Aras Aydin, Lucas Englander
Directors: Jonathan Levine, Anthony Byrne
Streaming Platform: Hulu and Prime Video
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars)
Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 Review: Between Secrets and Effect Trips We Face Masha's Psychedelic Therapy? | Filmyhype
Director: Jonathan Levine, Anthony Byrne
Date Created: 2025-05-22 18:02
4
Pros
- More cohesion and awareness, better choice of characters and their storylines.
- The new functional location for the story.
- The issues addressed, starting from science and faith that pervade all the characters.
Cons
- The protagonist remains, at times, ridiculous.
- History continues to be surreal and not always engaging, at times dispersive.
