The article was written by Magda Walma, journalist at Gazeta.pl.
Six episodes, Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Isabelle Adjani, Dakota Fanning, disgustingly wealthy people, gorgeous interiors and exteriors, and, of course, a dead body ruining a wedding just a day before the ceremony. It seems like it should all work, especially since every character has not just one, but several motives. Yet, the show's finale is so disappointing, it's almost painful.
A Dead Body, Money, Blueberry Mojitos, and a Flop: Here's "A Perfect Couple"
What would make someone want to kill the bride’s maid of honor, someone about to join a very wealthy family? Investigators from the charming town of Nantucket try to uncover this mystery. With each of the six episodes in A Perfect Couple on Netflix, more secrets about this seemingly perfect family come to light.
The premise is as old as time - living beyond your means to maintain appearances. From the outside, Greer, Tag, and their sons are the epitome of American success: beautiful and rich, indulging in leisure activities most working people don’t have time for - golf, sailing, managing household staff, and expensive pills. But the greenhouse-like conditions don't nurture growth; they lead to decay, as each episode makes increasingly clear. The only person holding everything together is Greer, played by Nicole Kidman. The death of what appears to be a random person on their estate, just a day before one of her sons’ weddings, sets off a series of spectacular disasters.
And yet, the mystery - whose solution a sharp eye might spot before the halfway point - gradually sinks into absurdity with each passing episode. Given such rich source material (who doesn’t occasionally enjoy watching the upper-upper class stab each other in the back?), why dilute it so much (with the ridiculous subplots involving India and Mexico)? Who does that? It’s practically, fittingly enough, a crime! And though I suspected a different person was the killer, I’m deeply disappointed by the actual reveal of the murderer - and their motive. The finale was muddled, the focus shifted to unrelated subplots, and the pacing and intensity were lost.
"A Perfect Couple" also suffers from indecision - unsure whether it wants to be a black comedy or a drama. Nicole Kidman’s scenes (though she is perfectly cast for this role) come off as far too stiff - she’s a master of maintaining a stone-cold face without a single wrinkle. Isabelle Adjani faces a similar issue, though she brings more ease to her performance. Some actors, like Liev Schreiber and one of the sons, strike a good balance with their characters. Others, like the servants, lean too heavily into exaggerated caricatures. It’s sad to watch the would-be bride, who mostly just mopes around and struggles even to cry convincingly - sobbing without tears lacks credibility.
The nature documentary-style shots don’t help either. It was intriguing in the first episode, but by the end, we’ve learned far more about Nantucket’s nature than we have about the relationships between the characters. We know they’re united by mutual disdain. Sure, that’s possible (and offers an interesting perspective on celebrity families closer to home), but it falls as flat as Nicole Kidman’s expression.
However, not everything in this crime drama is terrible. It’s visually pleasing, the actors are dressed beautifully, and the show has the advantage of being relatively short. While the finale is ultimately disappointing, this is the kind of show you forget about quickly. It’s a weekend binge, doesn’t hurt too much to watch, and offers some nice aesthetic moments. And if (like me) you don’t figure out the killer from the beginning, you’ll spend each episode changing your main suspect every 30 minutes, which can bring a certain level of satisfaction - even if the ending is a dud.
Yet, if A Perfect Couple were to compete with similar films and shows, it would lose right out of the gate. Just mention titles like the fantastic White Lotus, Succession, the Knives Out series, or Big Little Lies. Next to these, A Perfect Couple feels like the poor (despite the wealth) relative. It’s a bit too little for even a guilty pleasure, but if you’re armed with the mojito recommended in the show, it’ll go down easy.
