Netflix Summary:
Amelia is about to marry into one of the wealthiest families on Nantucket, until a shocking death derails the wedding — and turns everyone into a suspect.
FYA Summary:
If you, like me, are a sucker for murder mysteries featuring insufferable rich people, and you haven’t watched The Perfect Couple yet, please accept my invitation to enjoy the SHIT out of this show.
But before we go further, a heads up that I will spoil something from the very first episode, so if you don’t want ANY spoilers other than the fact that this show is juicy as hell, stop reading now.
So, it’s the big wedding weekend at the Winbury’s Nantucket estate; Amelia (a total commoner) is set to marry Benji, the second oldest son of Tag Winbury and Greer Garrison Winbury. Tag is an old money degenerate with a weed and alcohol addiction, but his wife Greer makes up for it by being VERY proper as well as a prolific writer of best-selling mysteries. Overall, it’s safe to say the entire family is nonplussed by Amelia, but the entire family is also dysfunctional on like, a top 1% level so Amelia really shouldn’t worry about their judgement (although she still does because she’s a nice person).
Early in the morning, the night after the rehearsal dinner, Amelia finds her bestie and maid of honor, Merritt, dead on the beach; and as two cops begin their investigation, it’s very clear that everyone—and I mean everyone—is a suspect.
Familiar Faces:
L-R: Eve Hewson as Amelia, Sam Nivola as Will, Nicole Kidman as Greer, Billy Howle as Benji, Liev Schreiber as Tag, Dakota Fanning as Abby, Jack Reynor as Thomas
Good lord this cast!! Obviously, Nicole Kidman rules the roost as an ice queen with a fire inside, and Liev Schreiber is just so damn good at acting like the most charming POS you’ll ever meet. Eve Hewson has the unfortunate role of being the only “normal” person in the family, so her character is a bit boring by default, but it’s great to see her reunited with her Flora and Son costar, Jack Reynor, who is OUTSTANDING as the eldest son and arguably biggest asshole in the family. Dakota Fanning plays his other half, a woman who could give a master class on passive aggression, and even though I would hate these two in reality, they were definitely my favorites in the series. (It helps that both of them really seem to be having the time of their lives acting like garbage people.)
I also want to give a shout out to my Bold Type girl, Meghann Fahy, who is incandescent as Merritt; thankfully, she appears throughout the series in flashbacks so we get to see her beautiful face frequently.
Couch-Sharing Capability: Make It a (Wedding) Party
The cattiness of this show is ripe for a crowd; I kept wishing I had someone to cackle with every time Dakota’s character delivered one of her signature Sick Polite Burns. In addition to the humor, the mystery itself makes this show a blast to watch with your fellow Nancy Drews; I’m pretty sure I suspected a different person in every episode and would’ve loved sharing theories with someone in real time.
Recommended Level of Inebriation: Don’t Tag it
So, there is a LOT of drinking on this show, and if you enjoy alcohol, you will definitely be jealous if you don’t have a glass of champagne or a gin and tonic (Greer and Tag’s fave) in your hand. With that said, you’ll still want to pay attention to what’s happening on screen, especially if you’re trying to solve the case before the police do, so I would not recommend a Tag-level of inebriation.
Use of Your Streaming Subscription: Rich
The Perfect Couple feels like prestige television that doesn’t take itself too seriously; it’s well-written and extremely well-acted, but it’s also total WASP camp, and given our current times, it offers an enormously entertaining escape into a world where people don’t have “real” problems (like, even the murder itself doesn’t appear to trouble most of the characters on this show—now that’s privilege!).
