life real life we going get wild tonight come on anything that feels this good but the perfect couple TV miniseries premiered Thursday September 5th on Netflix Nicole Kidman plays yet another miserable Rich lady in Netflix's turgid murder mystery a young coup's Nantucket wedding weekend is derailed by a dead body in the Suzanne beer directed adaptation of Ellen Hilder Brand's novel I think when you're aiming to be perfect that's when you get in trouble when you go with the flow and that's and as gria says I don't want to be the perfect couple the good news about the perfect couple Netflix's adaptation of Ellen hilderbrand's novel about a death at a wedding weekend is that the finale is a blast the pacing is Zippy the solution is satisfying hard to guess in the moment yet perfectly logical in retrospect and the tone hits a wickedly funny Groove as the starry cast finally liberated from the obligation to play their characters cards close to the chest dive headlong into snark cruelty or here toor undiscovered levels of dgaf when adapting novelist Ellen hilderbrand's best-selling novel the perfect couple for Netflix series Creator Jenia could have made it an intense murder mystery or leaned toward all the delicious bits that make the story an irresistible Beach red lamia chose the latter the perfect couple follows Amelia Sachs Eve Houston a zoologist Who is marrying into the wealthy and esteemed winbury family unfortunately when a body is discovered on the winbury estate the morning after Amelia and Benji's Billy Howell rehearsal dinner the happy occasion quickly becomes a murder investigation as Clues are Unearthed long- held secrets about the wibes come to light in the most absurd ways making way for a pulpy overdramatized an entirely entertaining show the perfect couple opens on Nantucket Island during a picturesque 4th of July weekend with the cameras rolling the audience is introduced to the guests enjoying the pre-wedding festivities under a massive tent in the Windber beach front backyard while Amelia's parents and best friend Made of Honor Meritt Megan fahe are in attendance this is mostly a winbury affair amel's fiance Benji is thoughtful and kind but his affluent family is different Benji's older brother Tom Jack rer is in blowhard bro barely kept in line by his conniving wife Abby Dakota Fanning meanwhile will Sam naola the youngest windbury is emotionally disturbed and haunted by the past windbury patriarch tags Le of shriber Soul passions appear to be rowing golfing and smoking weed and matriarch Grier Nicole Kidman an acclaimed novelist rules her husband and Sons with a seething calculation and stands at the top of this house of cards Kidman shriber and Fanning in particular effectively portray profoundly broken people who are concerned only with appearances and maintaining their Lifestyles the show's pacing and timeline also keep viewers engaged as wedding guests are called into the police station for questioning the audience learns about their inner thoughts and preoccupations however the series tone is almost comical because the bigger picture becomes glaringly apparent as each puzzle piece clicks together all right all right I love it I think it's great it's wonderful the perfect couple seriously but this is why it's so enjoyable though Amelia adors Benji it's clear she's deeply uncomfortable under the windbury roof moreover while everyone else seems terrified of Greer Amelia is not interested in putting on airs she pushes back against certain etiquette and desperately searches for answers to all the questions that have Arisen for her in episode three the perfect family a dinner descends into a reality TV like Affair when the bride to be boldly asks Greer about her use of ndas and the cryptic disappearance of a family friend what's uncovered or answers no one at the table is ready to confront a similar scene in the finale that feels better leads to more jawdropping and Fantastical Revelations the perfect couple cleverly and subtly highlights the strained relationships between the characters before diving head first into the murder mystery that cuts the Serene looking ties to shreds lamia and Company wait until the end of the first episode to even reveal who died which keeps us on our toes certain characters are interviewed by the local police chief Dan Carter Michael Beach and Surly detective Nikki Henry Donna ly Champlin immediately after the body is found offering further insight into the layered Dynamics nearly everyone has a motive for the murder and so the perfect couple swings back and forth between its characters as it explores the details of what happened the night before the wedding to keep us entertained beyond that the series has a sense of humor and a lightness about it it's trying to poke fun at its own characters sometimes as though it's saying see how absurd everyone is the wibur is made goia Irena dubova their French family friend Isabella Isabelle aen who freely speaks her mind and Thomas are especially funny Fanning at times appears to be the only one who realizes what kind of series she's in and her unserious mean girl Vibe is a delectable treat you'll love to hate her and hate to love her for her snide comments and the time she takes a lick from someone else's wedding cake Billy Howell of fx's superb under the banner of Heaven once again plays a man Benji who brings an unsuspecting normal woman into the fold of his openly disapproving suspiciously close-knit and ultimately toxic clan it's just that this time his family's problem is not that they're too religious but too rich kill someone and get away with it rich per one bystander if not quite kidnap Rich per another Benji's love Amelia is played by Eve houon who should know from potentially murderous relations thanks to her role on Apple TV Plus sbad sisters then there's the Nicole Kidman of it all her Grier Benji's mother as yet another gorgeous but brittle matriarch ripped from the bestseller shelves whose seemingly perfect family shows cracks when someone is killed and or disappeared in their expensive coastal town this is a role Kidman already perfected in HBO's big little lies and while Amazon's classier expats prove she can still mine new gold from this archetype the perfect couple feels like Kidman on autopilot even the revelations at the end juicy though they are only do so much to dispel that impression a lot of the Dynamics here will feel familiar to fans of the Kidman TV UA the anxieties of class in American society the fracturing of the perfect family image and the ways that both more heavily impact women Amelia the bride to be is a brilliant career woman with a loving family but it's clearly not enough for the wimbury name in Greer's eyes they can barely hide their disdain when Amelia's mother who is dying of cancer brings them an inadequately Fancy Fruit Basket even the maid seems mad at Amelia for the crime of doing her own dishes it's all part of a vicious cycle one that Greer suffered through when she married into the family a genre like this needs a good murder to maintain its momentum for six episodes and the perfect couple has a fun who done it at its core as the series goes on it certainly seems as though a lot of people have the motive for committing this particular crime there are Affairs money problems and the desperate need for everyone to maintain the fractured status quo the interrogations headed by local chief of police Dan Carter Beach playing one of the regular characters in hilderbrand's novels reveal that the various attendees might be enjoying the mystery as much as the audience it's all slickly presented not unlike big little lies seriously told but with enough soapiness to stop it from descending into total bleakness like the White Lotus which feels like another obvious inspiration the murder is the Trojan Horse to get us into the lives of the living and there are plenty of charming but easy to root against figures here you can't like the rich people too much it sucks out all the fun but I I probably have tag winbury D the season might be at an end but the perfect couple still feels like the ideal summer binge watch the platonic ideal of the sub genre that has become the Kidman Prestige TV standard it's easily the closest she's come to the heights of that first season of big little lies and it's sure to inspire a similar level of enthusiasm among viewers Kidman's Reign Over the domestic Peril miniseries continues for another year the series has enough magnetic star power and conspicuous Intrigue to make it a delightful and highly watchable experience and you're the only family I have and I don't want to lose you