Winter Warmer Watchlist - Nine Perfect Strangers - Season Two

Why is Nine Perfect Strangers back you ask? Wasn't it a miniseries shot in Australia over Covid? Or is this another is Liane Moriarty novel turned miniseries going further than the book would on the small screen.

Created by TV royalty, David E. Kelley who brings nine new strangers connected in ways they could never imagine are invited by mysterious guru, Masha Dmitrichenko (Nicole Kidman), 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.

Back in June 2023, it was announced that the initial miniseries had been renewed for a second season as an anthology series, which premiered back in May.

The second season received €10m from the German Motion Picture Fund (GMPF), which accounted for almost 25% of the €44.8m distributed by the Berlin-based fund in 2023. Furthermore, the production secured the maximum allocation of €7.5 million from Austria's FISA+ program, designed to attract international productions to the country. 

The second season is being developed as a collaborative effort between the United States, Germany, and Austria, with production led by the US' Fifth Season alongside Germany's Supernix and Austria's Supernix Austria.

Upon the second season renewal announcement, it was reported that Kidman is set to reprise her role with a new ensemble cast. Liv Ullmann, Murray Bartlett, Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, Dolly de Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, King Princess, Aras Aydın, Lucas Englander, Henry Golding, Mark Strong & Lena Olin also joined the cast.

I love King Princess and her tunes, however acting, not so much.

So will a third season be on the cards?

The eighth episode, which landed on Prime in Australia, ends on a whopper of a cliffhanger, leaving room for Kidman and Mark Strong’s characters to potentially return.

Mark Strong’s David Sharpe is the central focus of the sophomore ender, as he’s revealed to be the Zauberwald guest that’s linked to all of the others: His company, Signal Op, has damaged the lives of all the other retreat-goers in some form, like when Signal Op’s “smart bomb” killed Matteo’s entire family, or when Signal Op’s broadcast news channel aired the video of Brian’s meltdown on the Crabapple Clubhouse set. 

And when David is forced to confront all of these transgressions while under the influence of Masha’s new psychedelic technology, he promises to make things right by getting Signal Op out of the bomb-building business entirely and redirecting all of the company’s military-focused resources to charity and other wholesome endeavours.

To no one’s surprise, David backtracks on those promises once he’s sobered up the next day, telling Masha that it would be “laughably drastic” to divest Signal Op of its military contracts. “What a shame,” Masha replies — and she’s not done holding him accountable. 

Later, after all of the guests have left Zauberwald, Masha leaks the security camera footage of David’s night-before “I’ll never work with the military again!” breakthrough, and it takes no time at all for the footage to land on the news. (“Billionaire Acquires Conscience?” reads one chyron.) David’s furious with Masha, but she has no plans to rescind the videos.

One month later, Masha (who has since left Zauberwald in Martin’s possession) and David (who’s still very much a billionaire, despite the initial fallout from Masha’s footage) meet up at a McDonald’s in Bavaria, where David reveals that he wants to devote part of his company to psychedelic therapy… which requires Masha to sign a nondisclosure agreement. 

She’ll get a measly $100,000 out of it, but no equity or meaningful control in Signal Op’s psychedelic endeavours, so she’s not inclined to sign. David, though, has acquired some damning security camera footage of his own: Thanks to Martin, he’s now in possession of several video clips of Masha’s psychedelic therapy sessions going awry, including some incidents from Nine Perfect Strangers‘ first season, and he plans to release them if Masha doesn’t acquiesce. Plus, he assures her she doesn’t want a lengthy legal battle. He’ll win.

Masha does eventually sign the NDA, but she’s almost gleeful as she does so. She reminds David that they’re family — they’ll always share a daughter — and even if you don’t like your family, you can never truly get rid of them. So, she signs her name to the document, then pulls David in for a long kiss across the table. “I do,” Masha says with a smile.

The second season die tie up all its loose ends with this finale, the other Zauberwald guests, who I didn’t get into much here, left the retreat sufficiently healed, and maybe Masha and David’s new business entanglement can be left unexplored. 

Masha and David’s deal, could end up being a real possibility for a third season. I think in the States Hulu after renewing The Bear this week (also meant to be a miniseries) there is a real chance we will see Liane Moriarty's novel live on, on the small screen.

Until next time.