Watching The Perfect Couple, Jenna Lamia’s slick adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s 2018 novel for Netflix, two thoughts immediately bubble up.

The first isn’t the fault of the show’s quality so much as its timing. That thought is, “maybe we should give a break to all these shows and movies about rich folk in great locales doing crime”. In less than a year, I have reviewed shows with that plot taking place in a planned bunker in the tundra, on an ultra-expensive cruise ship, a rich enclave in West Palm Beach, and, now, an estate in a seaside New England town. Other recent entries include The Glass Onion, The Menu, and one could even mount an argument for Only Murderers in the Building. A lot of these are good. Some are great. But perhaps we could spread the ensemble crime-mystery wealth (haHA) a bit? Maybe a murder mystery set at a State Fair?

Granted, this is a bit unfair. The Perfect Couple comes from a novel. Hilderbrand set the novel in Nantucket, where she lived, so she was writing about the kind of climate outside her window. That all makes sense. However, it’s difficult not to see so much media where affluence is part of the scenery and not get a little tired of it. Especially when the series feel like they’re acting as a catalog as much, if not more, than critique.

The second thought, on the other hand, is a much harsher blow to the show. Over and over, I found myself reflexively questioning, “Should this be better? There’s so much good here, so why isn’t it coming together?”

To get into that, we must first take stock of the plot. In Nantucket, the Winburies have gathered. Wealthy thanks to a combination of patriarch Tag’s (Liev Schreiber, frequently objectified by the other characters as a DILF, earning it) generational wealth and matriarch Greer’s (Nicole Kidman) wildly popular series of novels, the family has seemingly perfected every strand of rich and relaxed/bored. They’ve come together for middle son Benji’s (Billy Howle) wedding to Amelia (Eve Hewson). In the way of these things, one parent, Greer in this case, is unhappy with her son’s choice. The twist, though, is mom’s objections don’t seem to have as much to do with Amelia’s more middle-class roots as they do with her future daughter-in-law’s “lack of modesty” in the mornings and lack of enthusiasm about joining the entire Winbury family.

The complications, of course, don’t stop there. Benji’s older brother Thomas (Jack Reynor) is a pill-popping ass with money problems. His wife, Abby (Dakota Fanning), tosses out remarks both cutting and withering with the kind of ease that makes her feel like she’s always been part of the family. Younger brother Will (Sam Nivola) just broke up with his girlfriend and is a touch of a weirdo. That the family treats the former as a big disappointment despite Will being a teenager never gets explained satisfactorily.

There are also the family’s friends, employees, and hangers-on including the housekeeper with a thing for Tag Gosia (Irina Dubova), Amelia’s best friend, the unlucky-in-love party girl/influencer Merritt (Meghann Fahy), Benji’s best friend Shooter (Ishaan Khattar), and the lascivious Isabel (a very funny Isabelle Adjani). Outsiders to the family like the catty wedding planner Roger (Tim Bagley), delightfully aggressive statie Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin), and agreeable to a point Chief of Police Dan Carter (Michael Beach) add to the stew. Then Amelia’s parents show up, and we learn her mom, Karen (Dendrie Taylor), has terminal cancer.

That tonal shift may seem strange to zoom in on. After all, this is a series centered on the murder of a member of Benji and Amelia’s wedding party. There’s some darkness baked in. However, The Perfect Couple doesn’t have the mastery to mix the clashing tones of “look at these silly rich people” and “a murder!/this woman’s mom is dying.” An early hint of that comes from the opening credits sequence in which every named cast member smiles and laughs together on the beach through a highly choreographed dance number. How better to start a murder show, right?

To be fair, the credits aren’t totally without purpose. The show is trying to bring to bear a theme of appearances v. reality. The Perfect Couple of the title refers to Tag and Greer and the fictionalized versions of themselves in Greer’s novels. In reality, they’re nowhere near perfect. However, unlike in, say, Gone Girl with the Amazing Amy books, the Greer’s novels are little more than a throwaway device. Their existence is all the insight or commentary they offer. Again, as with meshing the silly and the dark and said, the series fails to articulate this theme fully.

It drives home how it fumbled that ball during the last episode when Kidman offers a laundry list of lies the family tells about itself and to itself. The moment feels so last minute and tacked on, it becomes ludicrous. Kidman is excellent in the scene, perfectly nailing the ridiculousness of what she’s doing. But it is an event without purpose, the rushed last paragraph on an essay exam where the student realized they forgot to answer an entire section of the question and only have a few minutes left to finish. Given that the whole thing has no precedent in the source material, it comes across as especially strange and strained.

Nearly everything looks great as the audience watches multiple “what if this is what happened” scenarios and soap opera-informed family dramas. Series director Susanne Bier and cinematographers Roberto De Angelis and Shane Hurlbut well highlight the massive Winbury Estate and its surrounding environs. Brief diversions to a local pay-by-the-hour motel and bar feel less thoughtfully shot, but they’re short and rarely consequential. Still, like The Perfect Couple itself, the images have no depth.  

A viewer will likely never resent their time with The Perfect Couple. It has an appealing silliness, usually, and plenty of low-level drama to keep things moving. The cast and location are very easy on the eyes. Unfortunately, it never really demands the audience’s attention though. Its breeziness often goes too far into meaninglessness. There are sparks like Schreiber’s weed dad swagger, Kidman’s juicy confession, or Reynor’s unrepentant rich guy entitlement. Sadly, those sparks end up largely smothered by a show that either doesn’t know what it wants to be or doesn’t know how to be it.

The Perfect Couple ties the knot with Netflix starting September 6.

The Perfect Couple Trailer: