Just two of the things I loved about the glitzy and glossy and deliciously depraved Netflix series “The Perfect Couple”:
1. It runs for six episodes, and six episodes is just right. No padding, no time wasted on irrelevant subplots, no dragging things on to fill out a nine- or 10-part story.
2. When it ends, IT ENDS. The central mystery is solved and a myriad of storylines involving the scheming and borderline amoral characters are tied up. Everyone ends up pretty much where they should be, with the exception of the dead person, who was with the wrong people in the wrong place at the wrong time, and truly deserved better.
Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with a streaming series
that runs for an entire season only to leave us in the lurch and having to wait until a Season 2, as long as that cliffhanger is earned. It’s just that there’s something enormously satisfying about inhaling a gorgeously filmed, beautifully cast and darkly funny series that knows exactly when to wrap things up in a shiny package.
If you’re jonesing for Season 3 of “The White Lotus” and you just can’t get enough of these high-end cable series about beautiful and privileged people who find themselves entangled in a sensational crime mystery, meet “The Perfect Couple.”
From “Big Little Lies” to “The Undoing” to “Little Fires Everywhere” to “Defending Jacob” and now “The Perfect Couple,” the surefire formula contains the same ingredients: You start with a best-selling novel from the 2010s, engage the services of a skilled and veteran showrunner such as David E. Kelley or Liz Tigelaar, stock the cast with an ensemble of talented and familiar stars, find a premium streaming home in a Netflix or an HBO or a Hulu, blend in first-rate production design and great location shots, and presto! Must-watch TV.
Based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand and created by Jenna Lamia (who writes or co-writes every episode), with the brilliant, Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Susanne Bier providing stylish direction filled with expertly executed and smooth, fluid camerawork, “The Perfect Couple” features one of my favorite casts in any series this year.
The magnificent Nicole Kidman does icy and intimidating as well as anyone, and she’s in prime form here as the regal Greer Garrison Winbury, who effortlessly can pull off “monster-in-law” before you’ve had your morning gourmet coffee. Greer has become one of the most famous and successful novelists in the world thanks to her series of “Dolly Hardaway” murder mystery books, with the characters of Dolly and her husband Dash said to be based on Greer’s long-running marriage to the dashing and wealthy ne’er-do-well Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber), who’s quite charming when he’s not being a slimeball.
Set on the island of Nantucket over a Fourth of July weekend, the series kicks off with Eve Hewson’s Amelia Sacks arriving at the Winbury family’s historic seaside estate, Summerland, for her wedding to Benji Winbury (Billy Howle), a seemingly affable sort who is the middle son. Benji’s older brother Thomas (Jack Reynor) is a Wall Street hustler with an acid tongue who is married to the social-climbing Abby (Dakota Fanning), who is about to give birth to their first child, while youngest son Will (Sam Nivola) is blissfully unaware of the many, MANY problems bubbling just beneath the surface of this family as he pursues a romance with Chloe Carter (Mia Isaac), the daughter of the local chief of police (Michael Beach).
That’s quite the roster of characters to keep track of, and we’re only about halfway through the various relatives, friends and associates who eventually come into play, but “The Perfect Couple” expertly juggles more than a half-dozen subplots, all of which are eventually connected to the central mystery. On the night before the wedding, a body turns up on the beach, and the Winbury family and their guests are plunged into a murder investigation that sounds like a plot from one of Greer’s novels.
Donna Lynne Champlin is a deadpan scene-stealer as Detective Nikki Henry, who never bothers to hide her disdain for these rich folks who find lying as easy as shucking an oyster, while Meghann Fahey (who was so good in Season 2 of “The White Lotus”) delivers award-worthy supporting work as Amelia’s best friend, Merritt, who, like many a character here, has layers far more complex than what we initially see.
There are times when “The Perfect Couple” exercises poetic license — one potential suspect after another eschews the presence of a lawyer so we can get some juicy and revealing interrogation scenes — but we’re in pure escapist territory here, so we don’t mind. Even the opening titles, with the full cast performing a loosely choreographed dance number to the sounds of Meghan Trainor’s “Criminals,” is something to see. This is one of the best limited series of 2024.