On paper, everything about Netflix’s new — and much-hyped — mystery drama, The Perfect Couple, screams hit show. Much like Big Little Lies before it, it’s a hit book-turned-high-production-series. It’s centred around a murder in an elite community, and is set along a picturesque stretch of Stateside coastline. Also like its predecessor, it features a glam cast headed up by Nicole Kidman. Clearly, the streaming giant is set on replicating the successful formula of her previous show.
For its part, The Perfect Couple is adapted from Elin Hilderbrand’s best-selling 2018 novel, about the wealthy Windbury family. The title refers to its matriarch and patriarch (Kidman and Liev Schreiber) and the drama unfolds on the grounds of their picturesque clapboard house on the tiny island of Nantucket. Cue enviable antique-laden, nautical interiors.
There’s also an impressive supporting cast of up-and-comers including Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus), Billy Howle (Under the Banner of Heaven) and Eve Hewson (Bono’s daughter and Bad Sisters star).
So far, so perfect — it sounds like a real coup for Netlix, and the kind of series you’d usually shell out to watch on HBO. But as it plays out, the show fails to take off in the same style that the glossy promo shots would have you expect. Nicole Kidman’s performance is lacklustre (is this one wealthy, troubled wife role too many after Expats and The Undoing?), and the script often lacks the subtlety to match the talents of its big name stars. Though, in spite of the flaws, the well-timed twists and turns will help you sail through the episodes.
We meet Kidman’s character, novelist, Greer, at a wedding rehearsal. One of her three Abercrombie-model-looking sons is set to marry Amelia (Hewson), a zoologist (sure) — who it’s no secret that Greer does not approve of, as she’s just not posh enough. The irony being that Greer herself married into the family via husband Tag.
The sons are Thomas (Jack Raynor), the eldest (and a total d*** for good measure); the sweet and very vanilla painter Benji (Howle), who is Amelia’s betrothed; and Will, the heartbroken youngest son (Sam Nivola), who sulks and strops a lot.
However, the focus on Greer’s distaste at Amelia being from lowly beginnings is fast eclipsed on the night of the couple’s very lavish, champagne-fuelled celebrations by the fact that someone dies.
A body is found washed up on the beach the next day, and the Winburys become suspects (in spite of their best efforts to pay away the drama) along with everyone who was in attendance. The show then unfolds around the aftermath of the crime and cancellation of the big day; as the police attempt to find the culprit in a series of interviews with the motley crew of guests and by sweeping the perfect house for clues.
There is plenty of drama to propel the story forward and keep you guessing for long enough to reach the cliffhangers before the end credits of each episodes. And there’s also some well-delivered one-liners, especially by Fahy and Fanning, who play Amelia’s BFF Merritt and Thomas’s pregnant, money mad wife Abby respectively. Though the jokes don’t always land or have enough irony considering the backdrop of a murder. The script feels flimsy at times, and at other points so twee it hurts (there’s a speech about penguins which is hard to stomach), especially compared to that of successful class parodies such as Succession and The White Lotus. And it isn’t abundantly clear if the show is pitching itself as a dark comedy, a drama or a very ungrisly thriller.
As for the titular perfect couple — who as the strapline goes are “selling the perfect lie” — by episode four, there’s little evidence to be seen of their magnetism other than visually. Yes, Schreiber looks hot with a spliff perennially hanging from his lip, and Kidman personifies the steely matriarch role — even her huge blow-dry shows no sign of deflating after the news of a murder. But aesthetics aside, her performance fails to steal any scenes. It lacks intensity, and her British accent is unconvincing (and by episode four the reason for it is still not explained).
On the other hand, Hewson does a great job of playing the haunted fiancée. She’s so convincing as an American, you’d be forgiven for not reconciling this role with her previous ones in Bad Sisters and Flora & Son, which feature her real Irish twang. There is nuance in her performance. And, seeing as — bizarrely — she is the only one who seems affected by the fact someone has died (beyond it being a mild inconvenience), she is convincing in her flashbacks and anxious episodes. However, she is let down sometimes by the script and its unsubtle puns and thinly veiled teases: “I’m not sure if I’d kill to be with Benji”, she muses early on to Merritt.
So, yes, you will eye-roll at times, but ultimately this series delivers on being an easy binge-watch in a much-loved genre. You will want to know whodunnit — and hope that one of these ungrateful poshos gets their comeuppance. Just don’t expect the next Big Little Lies.
The Perfect Couple is streaming now on Netflix
