The Perfect Couple Book vs Netflix Show Review

spoiler free hello and thank you for joining me here today at why the book wins where I compare books with their movie adaptations my name is Laura and today I'm talking about the perfect couple by Ellen Hilder brand published in 2018 and I'm comparing it with the new Netflix show which was released in 2024 and was created by Jenna laia and the episodes were directed by Susanna Brier and this is about a murder that takes place on nant Tucket the night before a wedding and as the cops try to solve the mystery all kinds of family secrets are revealed and to share my super quick spoiler free thoughts both book and TV show I thought like were fine I gave the book three out of five stars yeah it's not one that I think like you have to read it's so good but it's an entertaining murder mystery so if it's available and you you know need something to read then yeah go ahead and give it a shot it was I enjoyed the writing style the how we learned about so many different characters and change perspective and it definitely kept me on my toes trying to think of who the killer was uh and then the TV show I kind of feel the same like you can take it or leave it if you had no intention of watching this show I am not going to try to convince you otherwise and yet if you are looking for something to watch then yeah this show was entertaining enough and I enjoyed it there were things about it I definitely liked so if you just need something to watch then yeah this is worth the time however it's not one that I think you need to make the time for and then from a few changes here on out I will just go ahead and get into the details of the plot which means there will be spoilers going forward and just some general changes I want to address first there are two characters whose names have been changed from book to movie so sorry I might call it a movie it's a TV show I'm just used to talking about movies so sorry if I slip and call it a movie when I mean show uh so anyway from book to show there are some characters whose names have been changed so the wedding that is happening is between Celeste and Benji windberry in the book her name is Celeste whereas in the TV show her name is Amelia and then also we have a woman named featherly Dale who is a family friend of the windberry family her name is featherly in the book also known as feather whereas in the TV show her name is Isabelle so in both cases I will call them by their TV show names just to keep it simple so instead of Celeste I will call her Amelia and instead of feather I will call her Isabelle so as I'm editing this video I'm realizing that I did not stick to this and when talking about the book I often refer back to their book names so just if I'm calling anyone Celeste I'm talking about Amelia from the TV show Celeste and Amelia same person and then same with featherly so when I talk about feather that is the Isabelle counterpart from the TV show I hope it's not confusing maybe it'll make it easier to follow cuz you'll know if I call her Celeste I am referring specifically to the book uh but yeah sorry I did not stick to calling them just by their movie names throughout this video and as far as character goes there are also two additions to the TV show pretty prominent additions so the windbury family the parents are agreer and and tag and then in the book there are two sons Thomas the older one and Benji the one whose wedding this murder takes place at and then in the TV show they add a third son named will a 17-year-old boy and he was not in the book at all and then also in the show we find out that Greer has a brother named bradi and he also is unique to the show not in the book at all and then one other change I wanted to address too is that in the book The investigation takes place in only one day they find Merritt's body that that morning they investigate it all day long and by the evening they have come to a decision and so the book consists of that day's investigation and what the cops find out while also doing flashbacks into important events leading up to the wedding day whereas in the show the investigation lasts a few days and there is a lot of drama that happens the days following the murder but then to just Benji, Amelia, and Shooter move right along to the story so there is a lot of drama in both book and movie between all of these characters so I will begin just going through what each the drama each of them has going on so beginning with the happy couple Amelia and Benji so Amelia works at the zoo which is where Benji meets her and in the book he had been dating someone else and he was there with his current girlfriend and her child but then he meets Celeste Amelia and he just is so taken with her that he dumps his girlfriend so that he can start dating her instead whereas in the TV show they do meet at the zoo but in the show he had not been dating someone else currently but yeah in the book we see a lot of their relationship as they meet and as they start start dating and we see how in the book she has her doubts about Benji like there are certain things about him she really likes but then she finds him kind of condescending because the windberry family is crazy Rich whereas Amelia does not come from a rich family and so she feels like the way he talks about her childhood and her parents can just be very condescending and that bothers her and then in the book she also talks about how like he's kind of boring in bed but what really makes her start to sank and guess the relationship is when she meets his best friend shooter and in the book she and shooter meet and they just have this instant love it first sight connection going on and they both kind of become obsessed with each other in a way however in the book she doesn't allow anything to happen with shooter like he shows up at her apartment at one point and kisses her but she shuts it down because she's like no I am not going to be a cheater I'm with Benji you need to go but yeah in the book shooter is head over heels for her he tells her like I love you I want to be the one to marry you and the night before the wedding he gets her alone and he tells her I'm serious when I say I love you so tomorrow morning meet me at 6:00 a.m. and we can run away together and we can alope and so in the book she does want to run away with shooter and so she wakes up early in the morning to go meet him when that is when she finds Merritt's body on the beach and so finding Merritt's dead body ruins her plans to run away with shooter whereas in the show Amelia she has her doubts about Beni but they're kind of different like we get a conversation she is having with Merritt where she says like I want to love so someone like so intensely that I would kill to be with them and I just don't feel that way about Benji and so she's having second thoughts about the marriage but then also she does kind of like have a crush on shooter but they definitely downplay it in the TV show like they are not saying I love you shooter is not trying to get her to run away with him so it's not nearly as intense as it had been in the book which in the book I'm just like you've had like a couple great weekends with this guy and now you're going to throw away your relationship and run away with him like you don't even know him that well and it didn't come across as like oh they are actually in love it felt like they just had this attraction and maybe they want what they can't have you know so yeah I wasn't quite buying this like love it first sight connection true love that that celest and Shooter had in the book it was I I wasn't really buying it but anyway the TV show downplays it a lot and yeah they have chemistry and they have you know this connection when they meet and they end up kissing and Benji this happens after Merritt's body is found though but Benji walks in on them and then he is very upset and he breaks things off with her but then she still stays around and so she has moments with Benji where they kind of make amends and reconnect But ultimately by the end of the TV show she is not with either one and she leaves and she does her own thing whereas in the book after Merritt's body is found like she had been going to run away she didn't want to marry Benji and so when she meets up with Benji again later that day after talking to the cops she tells him like the WD fightings off I don't want to marry you and so Benji is very distraught about this and so shooter he doesn't know about shooter and Celeste but shooter sees what bad shape Benji is in and he's like man Benji has been such a great friend to me and I was going to steal his bride so I need to stay with him for now and make sure he's good but shooter still fully intend to get with Celeste he's just kind of like Celeste can be on the back burner for now but eventually we'll be together and that's how the book ends with them where is on the TV show she goes off and she's with either one but also the TV show has this added thing where she and Shooter had seen each other before and he's like oh yeah like we were on a train and a woman had dropped some beads and I went to help her gather these beads and the only other person on the train who helped me clean them up was Amelia and so it's kind of showing how like they're different and they're both kind good people because they helped this woman on the train when no one else would and this backstory of them having seen each other before I didn't quite get the point of that but that was unique to the TV show also by the way in the book Celeste develops a stutter once she says yes to Benji to marry him she doesn't want to marry him and so deep down she knows like she shouldn't do this because she doesn't love him the way she should And So It causes her to have a stutter up until the very end and this was not Merritt and Tag in the show but to talk about Merit so she is the maid of honor the one who ends up being killed and she is best friends with Amelia but she ends up having an affair with tag Benji's dad and so in the book they start sleeping together and tag is just head over heels like he is obsessed with her he is infatuated but then eventually it is her birthday and he buys her a ring and they schedule a hotel room and he's waiting for her in the hotel bar when he sees Thomas his older son and he doesn't want to get caught so then he texts her being like sorry I had to go your present is in the hotel room like see you later and then he arrives home and then suddenly like after this his infatuation with her just kind of dissolves and he's just over it and so he tells tells her that they are through but Mary doesn't want to be through because she has grown attached to him she has feelings for him but not only that she also reveals at the wedding or the day before the wedding she tells tag that she is pregnant but tag is still adamant like we are over it doesn't even matter if you're pregnant like we are through and so he tells her like tell me how much money you want and I'll write you a check and you can be out of my life whereas in the TV show she and tag are having an affair but by the time the wedding happens they are still very much together and they're even saying I love you to each other however when she tells him she's pregnant like at first he seems happy about it but then as the night goes on he tells her like I can't have this going on in my life right now and so basically in both book and TV show she's very emotionally distraught as the night goes on because she wants to be with tag and she is pregnant with his baby but he does not want to be with Thomas and Abby her and then we have Thomas and Abby so Thomas is the older windberry son and he is married to a woman named Abby and by the time Benji's wedding happens Abby is pregnant and we find out that Thomas had been sleeping with Isabelle that family friend however in the book he had been getting with Isabelle since before he even met Abby in the book but then it just continues throughout his marriage but once Abby is pregnant he tells her like this is through we are over I'm staying with my wife and he also tells her like if you show up to the wedding I will kill you but then she does show up to the wedding because she is still in love with Thomas and she's very distraught over this breakup and so she shows up even though he told her not to whereas in the TV show he was cheating with Isabelle but in the show they are still very much together they were not trying to end things and in fact Thomas is also in debt to Isabelle cuz she has let him borrow like $2.5 million so they're having an affair and he also owes her a ton of money and Greer and Tag then we have Greer and tag so Greer is the wife and in the book Greer came from a very very wealthy family and so tag he had money too but Greer is really where all the money came from plus she is also a writer she writes mystery novels however even though her past novels make good money her current novel was rejected by her editor so she has that drama going on in the book whereas in the TV show tag is the one who came from money he was very wealthy and Greer didn't come from money at all but she is also a writer in the TV show and her books bring in good money and she is relatively famous and her current book like it's not rejected in the TV show in the in the show her career is doing great she even has a book launch which is happening shortly after the wedding and like she's having interviews with People magazine and stuff and so even though she didn't come from money her writing career is doing really well but in the show tag he is kind of a pothead and he's just always smoking and drinking and popping pills with Thomas and partway through the story Greer turns him into the police because in both book and movie he had bought jewelry in the show he bought her a bracelet for Meritt in the book he bought her the ring but in the TV show Greer turns in the receipt for the bracelet to the police in order to incriminate her husband how ever I don't think she was actually wanting him to be arrested I think she just wanted to get him tied up while she had her book launch happening because she was worried about him making a scene however he is released from custody sooner than she thought and he does show up and he does make a scene but all of this is unique to the TV show and something else unique to the TV show is that we find out Greer had been an escort when she was younger and that is how she met tag and her brother bradrick is the one like he worked with her and he would help her find customers and he would arrange the payments and then also her brother he's just kind of a shady person and he currently has a lot of gambling debts and like affiliation with the Turkish mob and he ends up being $330,000 in debt but Greer doesn't have that kind of money right now and so she reaches out to shooter because in the TV show shooter is crazy rich and the book he wasn't and the TV show he is and so he lets grea borrow $300,000 so that she can give it to her brother but yeah this is all revealed like in the last episode and so the police find all of this very suspicious But ultimately none of this has anything anything to do with the death of Meritt meaning like bradick and the $300,000 had nothing to do with Meritt and yeah none of this was in the how Merritt died book but to talk about Merritt's death now so in the book Abby knew that Thomas was having an affair and so that night feather who is Isabelle she was still up pretty late just hanging out with other people and Abby Sees feathers in the kitchen with a glass of water but she goes to the bathroom and so Abby she finds one of Grier's sleeping pills which are very intense and she puts one of them in feather's glass however what she didn't know is that feather isn't the one who was drinking the water the water was for merit and so featherly unintentionally gives this drugged glass of water to Merritt who then drinks it and Merritt she had been upset and so she had took the ring off that tag had given her and threw it into the ocean and so when she is like kind of woozy from this pill being drugged getting sleepy she thinks she sees her ring in the ocean and so she goes out to get it when then she passes out and she Dr SS and that is why she dies in the book whereas in the TV show Abby is the one who puts the pill in the drink however she intended Merritt to die in the TV show like she drugs the orange juice and then she gives it to Merritt to drink and then once Merritt has drank it Abby says like oh let's go for a swim and while they are in the water she holds Meritt under so that she drowns and in the show the reason why she wants Meritt dead is because there is a Family Trust and they will get it as soon as will the youngest turns 18 and he turns 18 very soon but if Merritt has her baby then suddenly there is another windberry child and that means they need to wait until this new child turns 18 to get all of the money and not only do they need to wait 18 years but they would also then have to split it four ways because there would be another child in the mix and so she does not want to have to wait and she does not want to have to split it with a fourth person and so that is why she kills Merit and in the end of the ending the show Abby the cops find her out and they arrest her and take her away whereas in the end of the book the cops decide that the death was accidental and they never find out who did it and granted in the book Abby wasn't trying to kill Merritt so she like accidentally killed Merritt and also Merritt she's the one who chose to go into the water and so it really was more accidental in the book but still Abby gave drugs to Meritt unintentionally so and at the end of the book gria realizes this because she hears Abby and Thomas arguing about Thomas's Affair and Greer puts it all together but rather than say anything to them about it she instead texts them being like you need to quiet down everybody can hear you and so we see in the end of the book that Greer she is going to keep the family secrets and maintain a good image and she also wants to like recommit herself to tag because she feels like oh like I've given tag a hard time and I can be better to him essentially whereas in the end of the show again Abby is arrested and then Greer we also get a scene with her where she tells the family that she is tired of maintaining this facade and being someone she's not and so she kind of does the opposite in the show where she's like I'm not going to try to maintain an image anymore I just want to be who I am and have it all out in the open and it also almost seems like she and tag are going to take a break and separate and who knows if they will stay together or not but then to talk about Bruce and Karen Bruce and Karen who I haven't mentioned at all they are the parents of Amelia Celeste and in the book we hear a lot about them and there are even segments narrated from Karen's perspective so we hear all sorts of details about the two of them but in both book and show Karen has cancer and so she's taking oxycotton but she also has bought these three pills which she can take to end her life and in the book she knows like she has a plan when she will take them after the wedding whereas in the show she just says she has them as a safety net but yeah these pills are brought up so much in the book and so of course you assume they must come into play but ultimately they don't nothing happens with Karen's pills and in fact at the end of the book Karen she randomly is feeling really well and so she blushes those three pills because one she's feeling good but two she also is like you know there's too much going on right now she has more motivation to keep living essentially and everything isn't all good like she thought it was and so she flushes those three pills at the end of the book or like near the end of the book and then also in the book Karen and Bruce are the ones that are made out to be the perfect couple and everybody loves them like Greer in the show she is very snobby towards Karen and Bruce whereas in the book she was so warm and welcoming and everybody you know it's because she's dying for one but everybody's just very kind and welcoming to Karen and she and Bruce just seem to have this idealic true love relationship however Karen overhears a conversation between Bruce and tag they are both drunk and tag admits to having an affair and cheating on Greer and he asks Bruce like oh have you ever stepped out on Karen and Bruce says like oh no I've never cheated on her but I did have an intense Crush once on a coworker and the coworker's name was Robin But ultimately nothing happened and Karen overhears this and she's very shocked not necessarily because Bruce admits he had an intense Crush but because Robin was a man and so she's like whoa what my husband had a crush on a man but ultimately like this had been 10 years in the past and nothing even happened between him and this guy and so she decides in the end that like you know it's really not that big of a deal and it's not even something I need to bring up with him like I can just move on and we're still a perfect couple basically right even if they did have rough patches here and there and that was not in the TV show in the TV show tag and Greer are made out to be the perfect couple and when they do press interviews like the magazines frame them as being like literally the perfect couple whereas yeah in the book it was kind of more uh Karen and Bruce and while in the TV show we find out that the fact that Greer and tag are a perfect couple it's all a sham right whereas in the book yeah we find out that Karen and Bruce they really were as genuine as we assumed they were and they really were just as good a couple as we thought the whole time which I was kind of disappointed by it cuz they were just like so good and the three of them like Celeste Bruce and Karen just had this amazing family bond and I kept thinking like this there has to be something more there has to be some family secret here but no they really were just this like sweet wholesome family oh and then also the pills do not come into play at all in the book because in the book Abby takes one of Greer sleeping pills and that is what she uses whereas in the TV show it was Karen's pill that was used to drug Merit Thomas had stolen it because he steals pills and then he didn't realize it but Abby had then used this pill to drug Merit and then to just other changes run through a couple other changes I didn't talk about yet so in the very end of the show Amelia lives in England like she has moved there so she's going to be found by Benji's family but then Greer tracks her down and she tells her that she has written a new book and she wants Amelia to read it because she says it is about Amelia so she's like I want you to read this and I want to get your approval and she also kind of apologizes and is just like you know sorry I was mean to you I was jealous of you and after you read the book give me a call and let's get together and this was not in the book and also in the book there's a backstory with Meritt about a previous job she had where her boss came on to her and then he blackmailed her into having an affair with her and then when the wife finds out she is furious and then she kind of ruins Merritt's career and so it's just all this drama and Merritt also does not have a good relationship with her parents she doesn't even talk to them at all and she has a brother who she doesn't talk about and I don't know if it was because of this incident because the woman woman calls Merritt's parents and tells her what happened but I don't know if that's what ruined the relationship or if it was ruined beforehand but when they call the family to tell that Meritt has been found dead the family doesn't even care but then something else that the TV show added is this woman named May who we find out about she had been a tutor to will but then tag starts sleeping with her and then may like gets attached to tag and then when he ends things she tries to kill herself and so then basically they buy her off and send her away and so it was this whole drama there that was not in the book and then there's also drama involving ndas because Greer likes to have people sign ndas since she is a public figure and they're a wealthy family and this causes drama with Amelia because it doesn't sit right with her but all of this stuff was unique to the TV show but when it comes book vs show to book versus TV show so in the book I felt kind of disappointed that Meritt wasn't actually murdered in the book like when you're reading a murder mystery it's kind of disappointing when you find out it wasn't even a murder after all you know like yeah Abby was to blame for Meritt being drugged and she had intended it for feather but then like Meritt going into the water she just did that on her own and so yeah I just felt kind of disappointed in that reveal so I actually preferred the movie where Abby did directly kill Merit and I was fine with the change of her motive being like Oh like she wants the Family Trust like that didn't bother me because yeah I thought it made sense for the TV show however the TV show does add more drama than was necessary but to be be fair the book had a lot of drama too and like all the stuff with shooter and Celeste which doesn't even come into play in regards to Meritt and her murder and so I get the author and the show they're tossing out all these red herrings right like here's a ton of drama and you need to figure out which drama connects back to Merit you know and so I get why they do that but yeah I guess certain things it just felt like too much in the TV show and then again also the fact that Bruce and Karen like I was expecting something more with them and then her pills in the book not even coming to play that felt disappointing too and I get Karen's pills were a red herring right trying to make you think something will happen with them only to then subvert your expectations and instead it is Greer sleeping pills that come into play but Greer's sleeping pills I don't remember them being brought up until like halfway through the book or something near the end suddenly she's like oh I have these crazy strong sleeping pills which I left out and so as the reader you're like wait what this like came out of nowhere so I didn't love that but also speaking of red herrings the character of Khloe is the daughter of the police officer and in the very first episode we see her with like a bloody towel or something so it's like oh Chloe did something and we find out it's just that that like will who she is kind of dating he hurt his hand trying to shuck an oyster and also the knife he used is found and so there's like a bloody knife and so when you find out like oh the bloody knife is just from someone trying to open an oyster was kind of a let down but then on top of that in the book it just made it seem like Chloe was going to have really important information and then ultimately she didn't really have any information at all so that was a little disappointing but also in the end of the book with Chloe we get a scene where her dad who is the police chief who has been investigating Merritt's death he is talking to her and he says I just want you to realize Chloe that every single decision you make who your friends are who you date whether you decide to smoke or drink has a consequence I think that Meritt ultimately was the victim of her own poor choices and I found this kind of annoying because it seems like the the author is trying to like shoehorn a message into the book and also how it's kind of like oh it's Merritt's own fault that she died like I don't know I didn't love it and then also this isn't a book aimed towards young adults so that kind of a message it seems like something that would be in Ka a book right but for a book that's being read by adults this like moral of the story just seems kind of not age appropriate I guess because the people reading this is kind of like yeah no duh so the way this message was in the book I don't love and then it also just seemed out of place in a book that's meant for adults but even with my complaints with the show there were things I liked for example it had a lot of humor which wasn't really present in the book like I wouldn't say the book was funny at all but for the most part those funny moments in the show really worked for me and I also like that they just really showcase the kind of the Trope of the rich dysfunctional family who has all these secrets from each other and we get at least one awkward dinner scene which I always love scenes like that in movies and TV shows and then yeah there's also just a number of just funny weird family gatherings and if anything I wish they leaned more into this aspect of the show even more but I also did think the performances were good and they shot it on location and you really feel the location of Nantucket in the book so I was glad they kept it in that area for the show as well uh in the show I saw they filmed on Cape Cod so not exactly Nantucket but close enough so I liked that but yeah my biggest complaint would be that at times I just wasn't as engaged as I would have liked and I think that problem could have been solved had the show been like 2 hours shorter or they could have just made this into a movie and kept all of the best parts while trimming the fat but yeah I wasn't attached to the book necessarily like I said the book was you know just fine and so the changes they made didn't bother me in that sense if anything I did like some of their changes I also liked the intro when it has them doing the group dance I thought that was a really fun intro to have while not being too long but when it comes to book for Us's show this is really hard I I'm tempted to say the book wins because I was more engaged throughout but then maybe I would have been more engaged in the show had I not known who the killer was right but because I knew it was Abby or I assumed it was Abby assuming they stayed close to the book I didn't have that keeping me engaged being like Oh who's the killer who is it and so maybe if I hadn't read the book I would have liked the show more but I do like some of the changes they made like with Abby killing Meritt in the show I definitely preferred that which by the way a girl was found dead at your your house and yet you go through as if life is normal like the wedding has been postponed but then she expects Amelia to like be in the family photos and act like everything is fine and it's like why are you like it's so weird that you're expecting people to act normal when a dead body was found right but I guess they're you know just like the rich desensitized people who have no feelings and that's what they were going for there and how even when a dead body is found you still need to present yourself like you're doing well and all is fine but anyway so that just seemed weird in the show even Amelia like the first day she's distraught and then after that she doesn't seem that upset about her friend being dead so yeah ultimately I will say the book wins but honestly like I said the book was fine I had my issues with it but it was still entertaining so yeah that wraps it up on the perfect couple thank you so much for watching don't forget to like And subscribe and I will see you next time bye [Music]