Hong Kong Life in Amazon’s Expats Is Tragic, Lonely and Boring

Nicole Kidman showed up in Hong Kong to shoot the new Amazon miniseries, Expats, at a particularly awkward moment for the city. It was August 2021, when China (and by extension, Hong Kong) was steadfastly clinging to Covid Zero practices. Strictures included not just masks but school shutdowns, plexiglass partitions to separate diners in restaurants and—deeply infuriating to residents—one to three weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine for anyone arriving from overseas.

The policies stripped Hong Kong of two of its best features—easy travel and a vibrant social scene—and the news that Kidman was being allowed to skip the mandatory confinement spread faster than any pathogen. Officials defended the exemption, saying the shoot would be good for Hong Kong’s battered economy and global reputation. True or not, it emphasized how absurd the city’s Covid policies had become. One lawmaker noted that she herself was bound to observe the rules of quarantine and wondered how her work “compares with that of a film star.”