Expats on Prime

[Showmethebagels]

Is anyone watching Expats on Prime? I’m really enjoying it, disappointed only episode 1 and 2 currently available, episode 3 next Friday. Annoyingly a couple of reviews contained spoilers for events only revealed in episode 2.

They went to Shenzhen, the detective who came to the house said that was where the morgue was. Shenzhen is in Guangdong, where the local language is Cantonese. It’s just the other side of the border from HK. (Guangdong was called Canton back in colonial times). Yes, many Mainlanders migrate internally and a lot of Mandarin is spoken there, and it has “official language” status (in fact, there are concerns in the Mainland about the erasure of Cantonese), but it’s a stretch to say that Cantonese would not have helped him in the morgue. However I speculated that his parents were probably emigrants to the US from Mainland China anyway, not HKG. Most Hong Kongers I knew spoke native Canto and conversational Mandarin, but few native Mandarin speakers ever learned much Canto.

Interesting about trying to replicate being Chinese in Korea though!

It makes a nice change having an older woman/younger man relationship.

I agree but I don't think this is meant to be one. There are 10 years between Nicole and the actor who plays her husband, but I think we're meant to believe they're about the same age, implausible though that is.

Every time a woman is sick she is pregnant.

Yes. You could set your watch by it.

She's going to keep the baby and it will be a boy, won't it? Maybe she'll call him Gus.

Yes, this is what I got from the corn syrup scene too. Margaret is shown to be pleasant in other scenes especially to the maid

I wondered about Hilary’s age too, @booksgalore123, based on the makeup conversation.

Also annoying me is the fact that all of these wealthy people in a technology developed country are using quite old iPhones.

I haven’t read the book but I’m starting to think the series will end in the current day and we’ll realise these events happened 10 years ago.

I started this thread but I’m afraid to say I cannot get into episode 4 and may have to give up! I think I would have carried on if there wasn’t a week to wait between episodes!

It’s set in 2014, there is a whole episode about the Yellow Umbrella pro- democracy protests coming up.

brace yourselves for a 101min episode this week!

It’s definitely not going the way I thought it would….!

Episode 4 was a difficult watch for me, too. I had to fast forward most of it to spare myself the pain of pure boredom. I've found Ep. 5 much better, though. So don't give up just yet.

15 minutes into the latest episode and finding it incredibly boring.

Is there any actual plot?

I actually thought the latest episode was the best one yet, but not necessarily a comfortable watch.

@IcedPurple there is, keep going.

I'll keep going because I've already invested 5 hours! Might as well see it out now.

But I don't think the story, such as it is, or the characters are interesting enough to warrant so many episodes. Could have been wrapped up in 3 episodes, but I guess that's not the 'Prime' business model.

Just watched episode 5 and found it the most enjoyable so far. I thought it was interesting learning about the lives of some of the domestic staff who service the rich expat communities. Quite moving the conversation between NK's character and Essie. I wonder what Essie will decide, I imagine if she were young and single it would be a no brainer, but not such a straightforward decision now.

Episode 5 was the absolute best so far , loved that it turned it focussed to the people who live and work in HK - almost a stand alone episode and has kept me wanting to see the last episode.

Just watched episode 5. By FAR the best bit was the scene with the helpers playing bingo and gossiping about their employers. They are all much better actors than the expats.

I absolutely do remember typhoon and black rain days, which did have a sort of other-worldly feel about them, and the streets strewn with vegetation the morning after.

It was better for having much less NK in it, but still quite slow. If Essie does go to the US I hope it is a cold hard cash-based decision. At her age she must have been through a fair few families already.

The scene with Puri (loved that her full name was Purificación) singing was surprisingly plausible. You really do see helpers practising song and dance routines all over the city on Sundays and there are loads of Filipino bands in all the hotels- they do seem to have more talented musicians per head of population than other nationalities. I can also believe that “Hilary” was made to learn piano as a child. The reversion to boss/maid dynamic in the morning was depressingly predictable but I was screaming out for her to remind Hilary had to go to the competition. With a voice like that though she probably could have already found hotel band or cruise ship work instead of having to be a helper.

David and Mercy- big yawn. She needs to terminate that pregnancy sharpish. Liked the Mum and protester son, and particularly enjoyed that the back door of the supermarket where the mum crossed the mops was opposite Margaret’s secret apartment. Utterly implausible that the central police station was so quiet on the night the protests kicked off though.

I’m finding it slow and I’m midway through episode 5. I desperately wanted to love it - I lived in Hong Kong mid 2000s and it’s an amazing, fascinating place. The expat characters are quite believable, the maids too. The storytelling is poor though, it’s all over the place and I don’t like the main characters! I am going to persist now I’ve got this far!

I agree about the storytelling. They have significantly changed timelines and the order of events from the book, as well as plot lines. Not for the better IMO.

I'm really enjoying it.
Some parts I am finding slow but I loving hk as a backdrop.

I’ve watched the finale and feel somewhat cheated. I’ve not read the book so no idea if there is a S2 or not… Such a shame because I loved ep5.

It's so strange that nk characters still can't admit it was her mistake and she shouldn't have blamed mercy for what happened?

I've just finished this. Who has Mercy's baby in the end, dies Mercy keep it?

Dies Margaret stay in Hong King forever ?

What was the story behind the carpet?

I'm really confused.

Typo * does

Yes, I'm not surprised that we never found out what happened to Gus, but the ending is strange.

Is Mercy going to raise her baby in Hong Kong alone? On a part time waitress wage?

Is Nicole going to stay in Hong Kong indefinitely? With her children on another continent? How is she going to earn a living and would she even have the right visa?

I'm guessing the carpet was meant to be symbolic of Hilary starting out life on her own, but the same questions remain.

Can someone explain what happened at the end of the book, please?

I thought protestor son had taken Gus as part of his activism / and that we would see the mum pop into a side room with some food for him.

I persisted and really enjoyed the last two episodes.

Much less NK wafting and weeping. Her airport abort was plausible.

I enjoyed Hillary's cathartic episode with her deadbeat dad.

I bet the book was good.