In creating The White Lotus, Mike White caused an inadvertent tsunami across the television industry. It’s impossible, after two seasons of the globe-trotting HBO series, for there not to be copycats—even if those copycats supposedly come from other source material. The Perfect Couple, a six-episode miniseries based on Elin Hilderbrand’s 2018 beach read, is like a sugar-free diet version of The White Lotus. There are beautiful rich people, an aspirational location and, of course, a murder that has to be solved. The show even has Meghann Fahy, an actress who starred on the second season of The White Lotus. But where White cleverly plays with have and have-not culture and sets his characters up for dramatic reveals that you don’t see coming, The Perfect Couple, from creator Jenna Lamia and director Susanne Bier, limps long until a few clues sort of add up to a finale.
Nicole Kidman plays Greer Garrison Winbury, an elitist novelist who is married to Tag (Liev Schreiber), a hot dad who doesn’t appear to do anything but roam around his Nantucket mansion and have affairs. They’ve gathered at the beachside house for the marriage of their son Benji (Billy Howle) to Amelia (Eve Hewson), a bohemian zoo worker who didn’t grow up with this sort of stick-up-your-ass wealth. Everyone has come together for the wedding, including Benji’s older brother Thomas (Jack Reynor) and his pregnant wife Abby (Dakota Fanning), Amelia’s best friend Merritt (Fahy) and Benji’s best friend Shooter (Ishaan Khattar). They’re all pretty obnoxious, save for Amelia and her parents, and it’s a big catered affair with hundreds of oysters and high expectations. That is, until one of them is found murdered on the beach the morning of the wedding.
It quickly becomes a whodunit with local detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin) and police chief Dan Carter (Michael Beach) on the case. The episodes are told both in present day and in flashback as we learn who was getting up to what with whom and why. There are some “gotcha” moments that don’t quite work, although some of the storyline is moderate compelling. It’s ultimately Hewson who saves the show with her genuine, thoughtful portrayal of a woman whose life is upended on her wedding day. Fanning’s pouty rich girl is fun, too, but other cast members aren’t given enough to do (Fahy, in particular, seems wasted). The titular couple is, of course, Greer and Tag, but it’s difficult to care about either of them, even if Kidman is an endlessly compelling onscreen presence.
Shows about wealthy assholes doing ridiculous, entitled things are perpetually enjoyable, but if we can’t empathize with the character we at least need to be interested in them as people. The flaws are largely in the script—and possibly in the source material—and Bier, a very good director, attempts to wrangle a not-super-exciting mystery into something dynamic. Additionally, the show’s opening credit sequence is so bizarre and tonally off that it’s curious Bier included it at all. The ending alters Hilderbrand’s denouement, changing the circumstances and motive, and giving more malice to the killer. Is this a breezy weekend binge that will go to No. 1 on Netflix? Yes. Would we all prefer a new season of The White Lotus instead? Also, yes.
