Update 2 (post last episode): Boring, a show about misery, nothing happens and there is no conclusion. The acting, Nicole Kidman, and cinematography are the only positives. It is a waste of 6-hours.

Update 1: Episode 5 is the worst. More than 30-minutes of dialogue was not even in the English language and served no purpose in advancing the story. Worst episode to date.

Original Post: I could not understand the negative reviews, but I watched episode 2, not episode 1. I am watching episode 1 now and it is long, a lot of emotions that you would not understand without watching episode 2. The reviews for episode 1 make sense without seeing the trailer or episode 2. You need to watch episode 2 to understand what is happening in episode 1. I would have stopped watching this show, if I started with episode 1.

Episode 1 is pretty weird. The son drawing a picture of Jesus, dad being in an English speaking church in HongKong, odd sex scenes, mom taking a bath in a plastic tub in a rundown apartment she is renting secretly, and mom saying they are not religious contradicting the church scene.

She does not know dad attends church or did dad start attending church, because of the tragedy?

There is a lot of artsy fluff like in White Lotus.

I like that Kidman is older than the male actor and he's Asian. It challenges norms and shows that women's careers do not end, because they are in their fifties. That said there is no chemistry between them, but there is no chemistry between any of the heterosexual couplings in the show.

I do not understand all the Kidman hate. She looks gorgeous for her age. She does not move like she did in her 20s, because she is post menopause. Women have less calcium in their bones after 50, so their bones are more fragile, less flexible. She dances like any "older woman," especially taller woman. Her bone structure has nothing to do with botox or plastic surgery, but her age and height; her first full-term pregnancy when she was going into menopause (a miracle pregnancy as her doctor said it was impossible for her to get pregnant) also damaged her bone structure. It is easier for younger women to recover from child birth than older women. She also probably does not eat enough, because in Hollywood she would never be casted, if she had any fat. The only reason there are so many viewers of this poorly paced show is because of Kidman.

Her lips look like they did when she was 20. I am certain she gets botox injections around her eyes as women with her phenotype begin getting wrinkles around the eyes in their thirties, due to having less melanin in the skin. Woman require botox to prevent "crows eyes" (the term used by plastic surgeons) and it is cheaper than eye creams and longer lasting.

I suspect her make-up artist was Asian, did her make-up as if she were Asian, and make-up that works for Chinese or Asian women does not work for white, especially white women with light hair and blue eyes. Her make-up artist indeed made her look like she just recovered from the flu, because she looked so pale. Asian women look good when they paint their skin white (see e.g., memoirs of a geisha). White women look sickly when their skin is that white. Few Asian women use blush, but red heads (Nicole's natural hair colour) need colour via bronzer or blush.