Nicole Kidman’s ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ isn’t the worst TV show of the year, but it might be the biggest letdown

The biggest surprise of “Nine Perfect Strangers” is that Tranquillum’s guests are in genuine pain, that these aren’t a bunch of Richie Riches who gave themselves affluenza out of cosseted boredom. Frances’s last relationship was no typical bad romance, for example, and there’s a tragic reason her rough-hewed love interest (Bobby Cannavale) seems to be short-tempered all the time. A middle-aged couple (Michael Shannon and Asher Keddie) and their 20-year-old daughter (Grace Van Patten), the only customers granted a discount by Kidman’s Masha, are slowly imploding after a death in the family. A glamorous influencer (Samara Weaving) and her disapproving husband (Melvin Gregg) flail around a marital dissatisfaction they can’t name. The best adjusted among them appears to be friendly, normal Carmel (Regina Hall), who wants to lose some weight, get over her divorce, become a better person, maybe even change the world — really, whatever Masha wants her to do.