The Perfect Couple (Netflix, 2024)
Based on the novel, The Perfect Couple is a new murder mystery series from Netflix, starring Nicole Kidman.
The Perfect Couple has got a lot going for it. It’s based on a bestseller by Elin Hildebrand, it’s directed by top Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (of Bird Box and The Undoing fame), and it stars a murderers row of great actors, toplined by Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber.
They play Greer and Tag Winbury, respectively, the matriarch and patriarch of a Nantucket family that is so wealthy that they, in theory at least, ‘could kill someone and get away with it.’
The (perfect) couple have three sons, and they are about to welcome a new member into the family, as second son Benji (Billy Howle) is about to marry Amelia (Eve Hewson), a nice girl who would seem just to be a little too normal for this family.
Still, there’s nothing better than the happy occasion of a wedding to bring both family and friends together at the luxurious Winbury home and everyone on the island seems to be having a whale of a time.
Well, that is until one morning the corpse of Amelia’s best friend Merritt (Meghann Fahy) is found lying on the beach.
Right away, detectives Nikki (Donna Lynne Champlin) and Dan (Michael Beach) start investigating the case.
It’s a classic Agatha Christie murder mystery, by way of the Knives Out movies, an age old concept that can always be trotted out again. It’s an execution dependent genre play, and from a technical perspective, it’s pretty much flawless.
The money is on the screen, everybody has brought their A-game - Dakota Fanning, Jack Reynor and Isabelle Adjani are very good too.
The series gives you plenty of room to hate the rich while also envying their lifestyle and I’m sure a lot of people will binge the six episodes of this limited series to their heart’s content.
Showrunner Jenna Lamia has brought a lot of interesting characters from page to screen and I got the distinct feeling that the artistic team were not going to be satisfied by serving up a classic Netflix gourmet hamburger.
They were instead reaching for the level of a more prestigious HBO-series like The White Lotus. But even though that approach is highly commendable The Perfect Couple does at times feel like a somewhat more soapy version of the very thing they were striving for.
Sure, it’s surface level enjoyable and yes, there are a lot of secrets to be unveiled. But if you get a feeling that you’ve seen it all before, yes, that’s also possible.