Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched the new thriller mystery The Perfect Couple after it hit Netflix’s premiere schedule, so be warned!
With all the big releases filling out the 2024 Fall TV lineup, from anticipated broadcast debuts to swan songs for shows that are ending, it might be easy to lose sight of any taut, six-episode mystery thrillers hitting the early September streaming cycle. But Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber’s The Perfect Couple is one that shouldn’t be missed, with audiences having kept it locked in Netflix’s #1 slot since its debut, and for good reason.
Based on the novel by Elin Hilderbrand, The Perfect Couple won over critics even before its Netflix arrival, and I wasn’t about to let its secrets spread around without being clued into all the scandalous drama myself. And after watching, I would definitely recommend it, thanks in part to one element I absolutely loved, despite kinda hating one of the show’s biggest reveals, among others likes and dislikes. Let’s tap into those now.
I Absolutely Loved Chief Carter And Detective Henry's Partnership
A series like this can often live or die by the strength of its central authority figures trying to solve the big mystery, which in this case is the death of Meghann Fahy’s Merritt Monaco. (Seems like a good time to say “Always a corpse, never a bridesmaid.”) Thankfully, showrunner Jenna Lamia & Co. nailed it with the casting of Sons of Anarchy vet Michael Beach as Nantucket Police Chief Dan Carter and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fave Donna Lynne Champlin as Massachusetts State Police detective Nikki Henry.
Never would I have expected these two talented actors to pair so well together in a project like this — not that there are reasons to believe the opposite would be true — but Carter and Henry’s breezy and agreeable camaraderie was easily my favorite thing about watching The Perfect Couple. I guess the whodunnit element behind Merritt’s death would overall be my favorite element, but since that part involved so many abhorrent characters, I’ll stick with the cops.
Beach brings just the right amount of local P.D. swagger while also being smart enough to lightly appease those wealthier than him, and I’m so glad Champlin’s character wasn’t brought in as a fish out of water in need of schooling. They’re both highly competent at their jobs, they both want justice without destroying others’ lives, and they’re a hoot to watch together in the interrogation room. Henry’s penchant for staring someone down and then snapping into politeness is gold.
I seriously doubt The Perfect Couple will spark a second season or spinoff dedicated to Carter and Henry splitting away from their salaried police work in order to open up a private detective agency, but hot damn, I would binge that as soon as humanly possible.
I Pretty Much Hated Greer's Sex Worker-Turned-Writer Backstory
For the first five episodes of The Perfect Couple, Nicole Kidman's increasingly unbearable Greer Garrison Winbury is presented as being the famed author of popular airport-friendly novels centering on a loving couple. It's understood that the couple is based on an idealized version of her relationship with Scheiber's Tag, but it's not initially (or ever) understood why Greer is such a shitty human being.
Because Greer spends so may moments being rude to Amelia and exuding her callous judgment on everyone else around her, occasionally with good reason, I spent most of the season downright hating that she's an author, since it made me think about how many other popular writers are possibly also just as stuck-up their own wazoos. I'd rather be optimistic about that kind if thing, you know?
But the worst was yet to come, as it was only revealed in the finale that Greer's novel-writing career was apropos of absolutely nothing, as she copped to being a highly lauded escort before meeting and marrying Tag. Not only that, but her pimp was her brother Broderick (Tommy Flanagan), the seeming threat who kept calling and harassing her, only to later be revealed as a not-particularly-violent gambling addict.
Then in the flash-forward to six months after Merritt's murder was figured out, and Greer is now somehow not a mega-bitch anymore? Was she only so extremely harsh to people because she was playing the part of a wealthy snob, and now that all the skeletons are out of the closet, she can be "real" with people? I don't care if that read is true or not, I still hated it all.
I Also Kinda Hated Amelia And Shooter's "B-Train" B-Story
A narrative thread that I have to assume worked a lot better on the page in Elin Hilderbrand's novel, Eve Hewson's Amelia and Ishaan Khatter's Shooter inexplicably shared a half-hearted romance that I kept thinking would throw some kind of last-minute twist at viewers. Why? Because it was based on a fleeting moment from years prior inside a train car, where they both helped a woman pick up necklace beads or something equally kind and forgettable.
Yet they both remember it so strongly that — [checks notes] — they totally want to fuck now? I fully grasped that there was a connection between the characters just from the flashback to Amelia's first flight to the Winbury's Nantucket home. They could have just hit it off really well in the plane without the need to connect it back to some random, subtext-lacking coincidence.
So by the time they finally did make out all awkwardly, I had convinced myself that Amelia was hiding something about that B-Train memory, and that she was purposefully kissing Shooter where she knew Benji would catch them. But that was putting too much thought into a nothingburger detail.
But That Full-Cast Choreographed Dance Opening Was Amazing Every Time
For all the baffling and generally negative moments that went down in The Perfect Couple, the show somehow boasts one of the most energetic and lively opening sequences of any show on TV. No matter what eye-popping clue or slice of rich-lady haughtiness is on display right when each episode starts, those icky feelings slide right the hell away as soon as Meghan Trainor's "Criminals" hits and the bodies start moving.
Part of the appeal is obviously seeing that many people sharing the same rhythm, and part of it is in its illogical nature, since it's not as if the group effort is presented as being a canonical event that took place during the night of the rehearsal dinner. It's the kind of opening title non sequitur that audiences more easily associate with '70s and '80s sitcoms, where actors appear in out-of-context situations behind their name card.
What makes it all the more enjoyable still is knowing that the cast was skeptical about it being a good idea, as Liv Hewson told TODAY. She joked that it turned out to be so good, the show could have easily just been a six-hour music video. I concur, ma'am.
With lots of enjoyable and aggravating details thrown together in an enjoyably trashy pot, The Perfect Couple is available to stream in full on Netflix.
