When read Janice Y.K. Lee’s best-selling novel , she immediately knew she wanted to explore the periphery of the titular characters’ “bubble” in her adaptation for Prime Video: “We had to step outside and see them through other lenses in order to understand the context.
” With the blessing of Lee (who was in her writers room) and star/executive producer Nicole Kidman, Wang departs from the main narrative — which depicts an expat community in turmoil after one of their children goes missing — in ‘ penultimate installment. “Grief can often be very selfish and isolating,” she explains. “I wanted the audience to experience all those things before going, ‘Wait, there’s so much more out there.
’ ” The episode’s opening sequence establishes that purpose right away. “It was important to be out in the city, to throw you into an [unfamiliar] environment, to be in the elements, because the rain was a character,” says Wang, who used a slow zoom in from a bird’s-eye view of the city to, finally, a familiar face — domestic worker Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla), who heretofore has only appeared as a background player in the lives of her expat employers, Hilary and David Starr (Sarayu Blue and Jack Huston). “[The zoom] gives you the time to [realize] this is the main character now.
” In order to find someone who could pull off this description, Wang decided to focus on vocal chops rather than acting experience. “Amelyn came in as a singer who had never .