"[4] On February 7, 2017, it was reported that Blossom Films had optioned the screen rights to Janice Y. K. Lee's novel The Expatriates with the intention of developing it into a television series.

Other locations included Mei Foo Sun Chuen, Lok Wah Estate, Ladies Market in Mong Kok, Cheung Sing Restaurant in Tai Hang, Victoria Harbour and the historic Mido Café.

The website's critics consensus reads, "By turns emotionally devastating and icy, Expats is a challenging drama made riveting by an ace cast and creator Lulu Wang's deft direction.

[22] David Tusing of The National News noted that while Nicole Kidman "shines as Margaret", "the star of the show" is Sarayu Blue, "who delivers a career-defining performance as someone torn between expectations and her own desires".

Her co-stars, Sarayu Blue and Ji-young Yoo, are equally powerful, helping to tell a profound story about grief, loss, and the burden of trying to move on".

[24] Gautam Sunder of The Hindu recommended that "Expats should make the case for Nicole Kidman to cement her reign as the queen of current-day prestige television dramas".

[25] Steve Murray of Arts Atl criticized the casting as "Nicole Kidman is playing a character at least 10 years younger than her actual age.

Joel Keller of Decider said, "Nicole Kidman feels like she's in the phase of her career when she playing one depressed, wealthy, touched-by-tragedy middle-aged wife and mom after another, and while her performances are always terrific, the trope has gotten old"; "the only thing we can think of is Big Little Lies or The Undoing, and that it's the same story in a different locale".

[29] Josh Bell of CBR concurred and noted that "Nicole Kidman has now played variations on this same fragile upper-class housewife several times, and she doesn't bring a new approach to this particular character", and "Amazon's Expats is more of a luxurious soap opera than a crime drama, and its meandering focus is one reason it ends up a disappointment".

[33] Leading actor Nicole Kidman's exemption from the city's mandatory 21-day in-hotel quarantine regime was also criticised as she arrived by private jet with bodyguards on August 12, 2021,[32][34] while the Hong Kong authorities responded that the quarantine exemption was granted "for the purpose of performing designated professional work, taking into account that it is conducive to maintaining the necessary operation and development of Hong Kong's economy".