The Perfect Couple Review: Netflix's Self-Aware Murder Mystery Knows Exactly What It's Doing

The litmus test for whether or not you'll enjoy Netflix's new rich-people-are-shady murder mystery thriller The Perfect Couple, based on best-selling author Elin Hilderbrand's novel of the same name, is 100 percent how you feel about the show's opening credits. Here, seemingly set during the big rehearsal dinner party where the action starts, we find our entire main cast — yes, including the titular "perfect couple" played by Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber — joyfully participating in a choreographed line dance set to the tune of Meghan Trainor's "Criminals." While lyrics like "anything that feels this good/well, it must be illegal" and "call us criminals!" play, the whole group, victim, suspects, everyone, looks like they are having the best time. 

Now, if you watched those opening credits and you thought to yourself what the hell was that?! (in an angry voice), this is not a show for you. But if you thought to yourself what the hell was that?! (in a gleeful voice), you are in for a good time. The choice to go with a kicky (not literally; literally it's more… pointy?) group dance for a thriller about a mysterious death and deep-seated family secrets tells you everything you need to know about The Perfect Couple and why it works so well.

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This opening credits choice is a splashy, confident one that screams, "We know exactly what kind of show we're making here." The Perfect Couple isn't going to change anyone's life; it isn't groundbreaking television in any way — but it isn't trying to be. The novel version of this story is a tried-and-true beach read, and this adaptation of it, led by showrunner Jenna Lamia, perfectly transports that feeling — of something engrossing, compelling (but self-aware), and willing to not take itself too seriously — onto the screen. It's an end-of-the-summer limited mystery series and it is here to entertain you. It knows exactly what genre it's working in, and it knows exactly how to be cheeky within that genre; that confident grip on what can be an unwieldy tone permeates throughout the entirety of the series. 

The Perfect Couple kicks things off at the fancy rehearsal dinner party the night before zoologist Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson) is set to marry Benji Winbury (Billy Howle), one of three sons of the uber-wealthy Winburys, led by father Tag Winbury (Schreiber), he of generational wealth, and mother Greer Garrison Winbury (Kidman), a famous and wildly successful author. The wedding events happen to line right up with the release of Greer's 29th novel featuring her beloved Dolly and Dash characters — Dash was, of course, inspired by Tag. Amelia is not from the same universe as the Winburys — we even meet her normie parents, Bruce (Michael McGrady) and Karen (Dendrie Taylor), who arrive to the Winbury estate on Nantucket with a normie fruit basket that is so small and so basic that it even offends housekeeper Gosia (Irina Dubrova) — but Amelia seems unbothered by how she is perceived by Benji's family. 

7.5

The Perfect Couple

at Netflix

Like

• Perfectly translates that beach read feel to the screen
• Even the red herrings feel useful to the plot
• An excellent cast with standout performances from Dakota Fanning and Donna Lynne Champlin and Liev Schreiber

Dislike

• A cheesy epilogue that kills the mood
• Not enough time to fully excavate some of the more interesting themes and characters

You know who is really bothered by it? Greer Garrison Winbury. Greer is a woman obsessed with appearances and reputation and high society snobbery. (Kidman is a wonderful mix of cold and scathing here; even the way she puts on lip gloss while talking about how "upset" she is will appall you.) Everything Greer does in her life is to remind people that her family, her marriage, is the ideal — regardless of how many secrets she has to keep to come off that way. But when a dead body appears in the water outside their home in the early morning hours the day of Amelia and Benji's wedding and literally everyone in their house is a suspect, it plunges everything and everyone into chaos. Secrets are revealed, tension reaches untenable boiling points, family dinners are ruined — you get the idea. Again, this is nothing new, per se, as the story, like so many thrillers do, jumps back to the morning of the possible murder to give us the lay of the land and run us through evidence and then carries us through the investigation to its conclusion. Even most of its twists are not terribly surprising. And yet, The Perfect Couple knows how to tell a compelling story.

Part of that is, for sure, this aforementioned tone — it finds a nice balance between the darker moments, the melodrama, and, yes, even some genuine laughs. The Perfect Couple revels in showing us just how terrible these people are to each other and in general. And it certainly isn't afraid to poke fun at the privileged class. There's one scene, late in the season, in which a character volunteers to be shipped off to rehab to save face after a public humiliation, and a majority of the family gathers around while this person practices their obviously insincere statement to make sure it sounds sincere enough. The gall of these people — they are ridiculous and lacking any self-awareness in the very best, most entertaining way. 

The other thing The Perfect Couple really has going for it is the pacing. This series is made up of a tight six episodes. There's no filler here. Even when plot points are revealed to be red herrings in regards to the mysterious death, those plot points still have important functions within the story. Nothing is really wasted, and the story never stops barreling through to its conclusion. Honestly, it could've used a little more time, especially at the end, to dive deeper into the ramifications of that final reveal; it unfortunately leaves some interesting meat on the bone. Instead, there's an epilogue of sorts tacked on at the end that feels so out of step with the tone of the rest of the show and is mostly unnecessary. 

The element holding all of this together — what makes a beach read/watch with twists that only sometimes drop jaws really work — is this incredible gaggle of characters. The writers, lead by Lamia, who either wrote or co-wrote every episode, made sure that this large ensemble was full of distinct characters with layers. There are only six episodes, so it's not like any one of them is wildly complex, but they are just complicated enough to keep things interesting. It's the type of series — a melodrama full of rich people doing bad — that could be full to the brim of one-note characters that you've seen before. Almost every main character here does something that might surprise you.

Getting invested in what's going on at the Winbury estate also has everything to do with this cast that just won't quit. Again, that opening credit sequence tips its hat: This group of actors is committed to that dance sequence, and they are committed to what the creatives are going for here. There's no real weak link among the main group, but there are, for sure, some standouts. Schreiber looks like he is having the absolute best time playing the despicable and somehow charming Tag Winbury. Donna Lynne Champlin is impeccably cast as Detective Nikki Henry, who has absolutely zero time for the shenanigans of these privileged ding dongs, and she and Michael Beach, as Chief of Police Dan Carter, make an excellent on-screen duo. 

But it's Dakota Fanning who steals every scene she's in. As Abby Winbury, Benji's brother Thomas' (Jack Reynor) pregnant wife, the way Fanning plays boundless entitlement and passive-agressive cruelty is a delight. Abby doesn't hesitate to cut almost anyone down — when Amelia's mother Karen, who is dying of cancer and for whom they pushed up the wedding date, arrives, Abby greets her with a warm smile and a "so happy we could rearrange our plans for the Fourth to be here." And yet, when Abby is in the presence of the Queen Bee, Greer Garrison Winbury, Fanning is sure to reveal some of the insecurities that make Abby more intriguing than your average mean girl.

Easy breezy summer thrillers and self-aware melodrama work best when everyone understands the assignment at hand, and from the jump — from the very first note of that Meghan Trainor song — The Perfect Couple reveals it knows exactly what it's doing. 

Premieres: Thursday, Sept. 5 on Netflix
Who's in it: Nicole Kidman, Eve Hewson, Dakota Fanning, Donna Lynne Champlin, Meghann Fahy, Billy Howle, Jack Reynor, and Liev Schreiber
Who's behind it: Jenna Lamia (creator)
For fans of: Big Little Lies, beach reads, all-star casts reveling in melodrama
How many episodes we watched: 6 of 6