Nicole Kidman does the unthinkable in Nine Perfect Strangers season 2

The wigs are back, but the gloves are off in Nine Perfect Strangers season 2. Widely lambasted for farcical performances and an absurd plot when it debuted four years ago, the drama has returned in fighting shape.

This time, the action has transplanted from sunny California to the glacial Alps, where Nicole Kidman’s wellness guru, Masha, has fled multiple US lawsuits for her unorthodox retreats. But this enclave in Austria apparently doesn’t give a jot, and so she’s back at it again.

Her patients/victims include judgemental Imogen (Annie Murphy) who wants to repair her strained relationship with her glamorous but distant mother Victoria (Christine Baranski), disgraced children’s TV star Brian (Murray Bartlett) and tormented former nun Agnes (Dolly de Leon).

At the transformational retreat, they are all hoping to cure their traumas with alarming 1:1s with Masha, a steady drip-feed of mind-bending drugs, and the odd summer camp activity thrown in for good measure. What could go wrong?

Actually, it’s not total carnage, as that cocktail of ingredients may leave you fearing. Where season one relied too heavily on hackneyed thriller tropes and absurd action to drive the plot, season two is a more restrained character study. Nine Perfect Strangers has learnt its lesson.

Yes, some of the characters’ arcs are predictable: there are enough warring mothers and daughters on screen, and a nun torn apart by catholic guilt is hardly original, but there are some truly gorgeous moments of introspection from the main cast.

Bartlett’s ill-tempered TV host Brian is a highlight, particularly when he confronts Annie’s petulant Imogen for her obstinate refusal to acknowledge the good in anyone. A gut-wrenching and searing insight into human nature, Bartlett’s monologue left me feeling rattled.

It’s impossible not to be moved by the sheer lifeforce of Wolfie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), who has roped her unsuspecting girlfriend Tina (King Princess) on the retreat. As the two 20-somethings work through competing ambitions, identity crises, and each other, Nine Perfect Strangers delivers an eerily accurate snapshot of the pain and pleasure of youth.

Kidman has also finally found the human in Marsha. She previously was at best a character from an SNL skit and at worst, a hammy pastiche devised by your local am-dram group.

It’s rare to see an actor so readily take notes on board, as Kidman appears to have done here, as there’s more than a flicker of life behind Masha’s eyes now. It was previously unthinkable, but Kidman has transformed her from an AI alien in a terrible blonde wig to a fully-formed red-blooded person in a less terrible blonde wig.

In season two, Masha has a curious warmth (or, rather, human glow) so much that I found myself rooting for her despite her sadistic tendencies. I could even overlook the accent, which was inconsistent, but at least considerably less robotic compared to the first season.

Kidman’s work on Masha shouldn’t be underestimated. As the central character, Nine Perfect Strangers’ first season suffered due to Kidman’s at times underwhelming and unintentionally hilarious performance. Now Masha has a heartbeat, so too does the show.

But the icy thriller doesn’t immediately hit the ground running (in the first episode, there’s some slightly tedious preamble to explain why Marsha isn’t behind bars), but you will be rewarded if you stick around.

It feels as though the entire show has had a facelift: the acting is sharper, the script is slicker, and the plotting is more considered. It’s not often a TV show is self-aware enough to introduce dramatic changes to improve, but Nine Perfect Strangers’ second season is among that rarified group.

Nine Perfect Strangers is coming to Amazon Prime Video in the UK on Thursday.

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