‘The Perfect Couple’ is Netflix’s dumbed-down ‘White Lotus’

As you sit down to watch “The Perfect Couple,” you know the answer to everything that is going to happen in the course of it. With Netflix’s latest limited series, the recipe should go a little something like this: hot young cast, breathtaking beaches on Nantucket, a breezy 2018 novel from Elin Hilderbrand to adapt, a mysterious death to unravel, some vile rich people to hiss at, and Nicole Kidman in a terrible wig. It’s going for “Big Little Lies” on the East Coast, or even “White Lotus” for the WASPs of New England for the New England audience.

It could be “The Undoing” with more dramatic lighting. Whoever it is, it certainly intends to be the kind of compelling, soapy, whodunit drama that would put itself in a league with these successful shows that have taken over the zeitgeist during the past several years.

‘The Perfect Couple’ is Netflix’s dumbed-down ‘White Lotus’

Rated ★★½ out of four, “Perfect Couple” – streaming now – feels like several different shows mixed into one lump, and it’s clear that the series is a little fat and in spots, with a terribly aimless storyline that’s worthwhile that A couple of episodes or even just threw out all those extra deer movies. The series is a mishmash. So many of the programs on today’s television are a complete waste of their viewer’s time. They are aggravating “slow burns,” using way too much time to get into the meat of, if any good material at all. The other one, “Couple,” is fun at the start and great at the end, dragging horribly in its middle, like a puffy doughnut with flavorless filling.

It is, nevertheless, still a doughnut: chewy, gooey, and fun.

The events of “Couple” take place in a gorgeous estate on Nantucket that is owned by the blue-blooded Winbury family. The family is governed by its ice-cold matriarch and best-selling author Greer (Kidman), as well as its weed-smoking layabout patriarch Tag (Liev Schreiber). They are putting on a spectacular wedding for their son Benji, played by Billy Howle, and his fiancee Amelia, who is from a highly middle-class background (Eve Hewson, who featured in Apple’s “Bad Sisters”)On the other hand, the beach party is abruptly cut short when a dead corpse is found on the beach. All of the filthy little truths that have been kept hidden from this supposedly beautiful family (which is replete with spouses that appear great) have finally come out into the open.

Former “Lotus” cast member Meghan Fahy, who was nominated for an Emmy for her performance as a party-girl-like maid, and Dakota Fanning, who plays the bride’s unquestionably awesome future sister, are two examples if it refers to actors providing value It happens a lot more. For a while it feels like Fanning alone knows the way she acts in a series, the way her air of irreverence and disdain comes across is the delicacy it is happy to say nasty things, take a lick from someone else’s wedding cake and spend time making you not only hate him but adore him It will also make you hate to do it.

It is difficult to discuss the plot other than to remark that it frequently fails to make any sense. This is because Netflix has requested that all information on who died and how be withheld. Numerous unrelated threads that may or may not be connected to the primary mystery, but which are resolved in a short amount of time. There aren’t enough red herrings to make this a whodunit that encourages the viewer to figure out who the killer is (assuming there are any). Plus, it’s quite annoying because the elements in the action move at a glacial pace. For example, the police search for something as accessible as a phone record until episode 5, and the media isn’t interested in a mysterious death at the home of a prominent and wealthy family until weeks later.

‘The Perfect Couple’ is Netflix’s dumbed-down ‘White Lotus’

The conclusion, on the other hand, is rich and genuinely startling, and it is a part of a concluding episode that is a rollicking good time. I wish that the tone of the series, which is melodramatic and nearly ludicrous, could have been maintained throughout all of the installments. The opening credits, featuring cast in choreographed dance to Meghan Trainor’s “Criminals,” make clear that creator Susanne Bier (“The Undoing”) tried at least. It’s practically begging to become a TikTok challenge-as long as the kids don’t deem it too “cringe.”.

The main reason “Couple” could have been better served if it had issued over a lazy hot summer weekend where binge-watching six hours of an ok-bordering-on-good show felt like the best use of time. Hilderbrand is known for her quick and enjoyable “beach reads,” and “Couple” might have been better served if it had been issued during that period. It may not feel that way in September, when several dozen new and returning series are competing for our attention.