By Aanika Sethi

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

If you’re looking for a quick, entertaining drama show, then Netflix’s The Perfect Couple could be a great fit. But if you are looking for a cinematic masterpiece infused with great dialogue and character development, then you might want to look elsewhere.

The Winbury family.

The Perfect Couple follows the Winburys, a Nantucket old-money family, on a wedding weekend. However, Merritt Monaco, who is the maid of honor and played by Meghann Fahy, turns up dead in the sea, sending everyone into panic and suspicion. The six-episode limited series was released on September 5 and has a 6.5/10 star rating on IMBd.

The Perfect Couple has a all-star cast, including Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman as Greer, who shines as a cold, unflinching matriarch. She mastered the judgmental tone for her soon to be daughter-in-law, Amelia, played by Eve Hewson, who comes from a more middle-class family and is not used to the Winbury family’s extravagant lifestyle. Greer’s husband, Tag Winbury, played by Golden Globe-nominated Liev Schreiber, is the source of the family’s old-money wealth; however, he is portrayed as a lackadaisical father who never quite knows what is happening.

Schreiber and Kidman as Greer and Tag Winbury. 

I realize that the show is supposed to be short and sweet, but I wish more details were incorporated and not left hanging. Large parts of the characters felt unfinished. For example, Scooter, played by Ishaan Khatter, is supposed to have a mysterious allure, but who was this random guy that kept popping up and then disappearing? We hear snippets that Scooter and Greer are weirdly close, but there is no follow through. It’s not mysterious, but rather incomplete. Scooter and Amelia seemed to have an intricate backstory, but nothing came out of it. When Scooter first asks Amelia, “Have we met before?” and Amelia is hesitant to answer, I was waiting for a dramatic backstory, but they briefly met on a train once? That’s it.

Families are dysfunctional, but at times this one seemed to be unrealistic. For one, there is way too much infidelity happening. The show is centered on infidelity, but in a way that is boring and irritating. I wish that there was other drama incorporated, but it was mainly the infidelity mixed with solving the murder case. 

There were plenty of funny moments, where the dialogue sounded like something an uber-rich person would say, or the unserious language and actions of the characters. Intentionally or not, The Perfect Couple had many laugh-out-loud moments. Vulture TV critic Roxana Hadadi said, “The Perfect Couple is operating so well on its own bizarro wavelength, with over-the-top performances, melodramatic dialogue, and sharply satirical characterizations of the ultrawealthy that make it feel tonally distinct.” Judy Berman felt similarly in a review from Time that said that The Perfect Couple “is so unapologetically superficial—that the only surprise is how much fun it wrings out of a story saturated with soap and tropes.”

The reveal of who Greer actually is and her relation to fellow character Broderick Graham, played by Tommy Flanagan, who is somehow connected to the Turkish mafia, was the funniest and most surprising scene. But doesn’t that say something about the actual reveal of the murderer? That part was anticlimactic. Although I would not have guessed that Abby Winbury, played by Dakota Fanning, would be the killer, I was still a little bored by the end. 

Since The Perfect Couple was centered on Nantucket, I was expecting visually aesthetic scenes, and to that, the show did not disappoint. The luxurious tone was palpable, with tranquil clothing and breathtaking scenery. Costume designer Signe Sejlund said in an interview with The Times, “If you’re really rich, you don’t need to show it,” which contributes to the show’s quiet luxuriousness. Where the show fell flat in character development and mystique, it made up for in scenery and design.

Collegiate parent Morenike Miles, mother to Carlin Miles (‘25), watched the show and said, “The Perfect Couple is an entertaining mystery with a great cast. The series reveals the characters’ surprising secrets, set against the backdrop of an idyllic Nantucket community.” On the other hand, Google reviewer “cconnelly” said, “I really wanted to love this, but it just fell short,” and only gave the show three out of five stars. 

I did not mind the slowness of the series, but I wished there was more drama for a show calling itself a drama. However, Google reviewer “Jeff Sterling” said, “If you have severe insomnia, I recommend watching this and it will probably put you to sleep faster than valerian or hypnosis!”

Although I did not love every part, I did enjoy the overall ambience of the show, which provided a few hours of relaxed and glitzy television. 

All images courtesy of Netflix.