Nicole Kidman as Greer Winbury and Liev Schreiber as Tag Winbury in The Perfect Couple.Netflix
A mansion on a remote Atlantic Ocean island. A rich family celebrating a special event and interacting with the lower class. And a sudden murder, with a killer on the loose and an outside detective trying to crack the case. Sound familiar? The Perfect Couple doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’ll certainly scratch an itch for whodunit lovers.
Netflix’s six-part limited series is based on Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel. The central story revolves around a bride named Amelia (Eve Hewson) marrying into one of Nantucket’s wealthiest families. When she finds one of the guests dead the morning of the wedding, however, the celebration is off and the investigation begins.
Everyone is a suspect, from the groom Benji (Billy Howle) and his brothers, Thomas (Jack Reynor) and Will (Sam Nivola) to Thomas’s wife, Abby (Dakota Fanning), and Benji’s best friend, Shooter (Ishaan Khatter). The most suspect of all, though, are Benji’s parents, Greer (Nicole Kidman) and Tag (Liev Schreiber).
Greer and Tag are “the perfect couple” in the public eye, but as the series unrolls, so too do the secrets of their marriage. Greer, a bestselling novelist who famously based her male lead on her husband, is desperate to maintain the family’s image. Tag, meanwhile, is a chain-smoking lady’s man with little else to do than imbibe.
Kidman and Schreiber portray the titular 'perfect couple' in the public eye, but as the series unrolls, so too do the secrets of their marriage.Netflix
Local law enforcement, headed by chief of police Dan Carter (Michael Beach) is used to looking the other way from the family’s shenanigans thanks to their continued donations. But when outside detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin) gets involved, everyone comes under the same microscope.
It’s an escapist series reminiscent of The White Lotus or Big Little Lies, with out-of-touch characters and a beautiful setting. Coming on the heels of both, The Perfect Couple doesn’t add much to the conversations of wealth, privilege and modern marriage, so it doesn’t sit with you in the same way as those acclaimed series. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining.
The Perfect Couple builds tension and pulls viewers along over the six episodes with red herrings and false leads. It takes an entire episode to learn who the victim is, and the remaining instalments to piece together a solid motive and murderer. Through the process the family evolves and more secrets come to light, and by the closing moments there’s the sense that everyone involved has faced some truths about themselves and will be forever changed – in most cases for the better.
It’s hard to root for most of these characters in the meantime, between their continued drug use, ability to shame those who they feel are beneath them or the way they treat one another. That’s where Amelia is key, helping to bridge that world with viewers and acting as the moralistic outsider who has managed to snag a key.
Yet even Amelia has secrets, and it takes a while to warm up to her character. Rather than establishing others through her eyes, the show relies on montage interrogations to introduce most of the suspects and their backgrounds. The problem with these scenes is the characters are so overly dramatic they feel fake. They take themselves too seriously and so does everyone else, missing an opportunity to lean into the comedy the way a project such as Knives Out does. It’s an awkward tone to kick off a series, but the show eventually moves on to traditional interrogation scenes and The Perfect Couple improves as a result.
But even as the characters grow on you and the case unravels, the show feels like individual showcases rather than an ensemble piece. Kidman and Schreiber deliver equally compelling performances but together there’s no spark, which may be the point in a series about a couple that’s one way in public and another in private.
Then there are the opening credits, which feature the actors swaying to a choreographed dance in their finest rehearsal dinner garb. While such a scene feels authentic in the case of Pachinko or Peacemaker, it feels out of place in The Perfect Couple. Sure, these characters might put on a group dance for show, but there’s no way they’d get along long enough to actually learn it – or stay sober enough to perform the entire thing. If anything it pulls it out of the world before each episode.
The Perfect Couple is far from perfect, but Netflix offers that “skip intro” function and the show’s plot moves fast enough to keep you locked in. Add in those strong performances, the gorgeous outdoor shots and the eventual character growth, and it may be just the thing to tide you over until The White Lotus returns next year.
The central story of The Perfect Couple revolves around a bride marrying into one of Nantucket’s wealthiest families. When she finds one of the guests dead the morning of the wedding, however, the celebration is off and the investigation begins.Netflix