Nicole Kidman’s ‘The Perfect Couple’ Is Perfect Trash TV

This Week

How trashy is the new Nicole Kidman series?

I’m tired of this complaint about Only Murders

I can’t believe this movie trailer is real.

How do I get Beyoncé’s life?

Is This the Next White Lotus?

Should anyone be mourning the unofficial “end” of summer, now that Labor Day weekend is in the rearview mirror, Netflix is doing us a solid. Its new series The Perfect Couple, starring Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber, is as much a TV version of a “beach read” as a series can be, allowing viewers to extend their escape to sunny mindlessness for just a bit longer. (For about as long as bingeing six twisty episodes will take.)

Aside from its decidedly summer aesthetic—a large portion of the action takes place at a pool at a massive, beachside Nantucket mansion—there’s a cozy familiarity to the thriller series. That is to say you’ll be watching and have the unshakable suspicion that you’ve seen this show before.

It’s both lazy and, still, completely apt to call The Perfect Couple a B-grade (or, let’s really be honest, C-grade) attempt to replicate the lightning in a bottle of The White Lotusor Big Little Lies. The White Lotus comparisons stem from the “wildly rich, impossibly attractive people behaving like total a--holes during a holiday” nature of the show. Because it stars Kidman and centers around a dark, mysterious tragedy, it’s tempting to call The Perfect Couple an east-coast version of Big Little Lies.

But given the fact that everything from the series’ casting to its soap opera nature is as if someone cut up the pages from those two series’ scripts, mixed them up, and then glued them together to make a new show, maybe the best comparison, again, given Kidman’s involvement, is HBO’s The Undoing. That’s a series that arrived with all the hype and promise of another juicy thriller, but which went off the rails with increasingly outlandish twists and characters whose behavior made absolutely no sense.

That’s the vibe The Perfect Couple is serving, but it’s so confident in that messiness that you can’t resist being swept up in it.

Kidman plays Greer Garrison Winbury, a hugely successful author—hence the jaw-dropping Nantucket estate—and Schreiber is her harried, pothead husband, Tag. It’s the big wedding weekend of their son, Benji (Billy Howle), to his beautiful bride-to-be Amelia (Eve Hewson), whose working-class status everyone in the family can barely hide their disgust over. That family includes s--t-stirring Thomas (Jack Reynor) and his pregnant, smugly mean-girl wife Abby (Dakota Fanning), and youngest son Will (Sam Nivola).

The wedding means a motley cast of characters is joining them on the island, including Amelia’s best friend and maid of honor Merritt (Meghann Fahy) and old family friend Shooter (Ishaan Khattar).

The lavish celebration, however, is interrupted by a shocking tragedy, which I won’t spoil because it is the big twist of the first episode and I don’t have the patience to be yelled at for ruining it. It’s also, however, the catalyst for the entire plot of the rest of the series, so there’s not much else I can write about the show without revealing it. But suffice it to say that the Big Thing That Happens opens a Pandora’s box of family secrets, and no one is too happy about that.

Watching The Perfect Couple is an interesting experience because the whole time, you can’t help thinking “this is trash.” But it’s intense trash, which, along with its cast full of stars way too good for this material, elevates the series to the point that you won’t feel embarrassed watching it.

Did I have fun watching it? I was routinely baffled by it. I was amused by the ludicrousness of some of the twists and the cast’s dogged attempts to sell them. It made me want to visit Nantucket, so now I’m somehow going to have to figure out how to afford that. And it had me wondering just how many Nicole Kidmans there are roaming this earth, or if she had obtained some sort of time travel machine that we’re not privy to. How is it possible to do as many projects per year as she does? And why, busy as she is, does she choose to star in a TV series as mediocre as this?

Nonetheless, The Perfect Couple is, like a beach read, a guarantee. The minute you press play on this series, you know what you’re going to get. And if you limit yourself to those expectations, it’s hard to imagine that you’ll have a bad time.

Bring on the Stars!

I’ve been loving the absolutely delightful new season of Only Murders in the Building, which has gotten mostly positive reviews and responses. But I’ve been annoyed by the one criticism that I’ve seen pop up the most: That the sheer number of celebrity guest stars is distracting.

The first two episodes of Season 4 alone have seen appearances from Meryl Streep, Molly Shannon, Zach Galifianakis, Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria, Kumail Nanjiani, Jane Lynch, Amy Ryan, Scott Bakula, and Richard Kind, among others. Given that the series has cast Tina Fey, Cara Delevigne, Amy Schumer, Sting, and Shirley Maclaine in the past, it can seem, at face value, like an overreliance on stars.

The exhaustion with TV’s onslaught of cameos has included two Emmy favorites: Abbott Elementary and The Bear. Abbott brought on Taraji P. Henson, Ayo Edebiri, and Leslie Odom Jr. to great effect, but some fans thought blink-and-miss-it appearances from Bradley Cooper and Kevin Hart as themselves was jumping the shark.

And not only does The Bear feature the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis, Olivia Colman, Sarah Paulson, Joel McHale, Bob Odenkirk, and Jon Bernthal in recurring roles, it also casts stars like Josh Hartnett and John Cena in parts so small, you’re left scratching your head, assuming there’s more to come from them.

But here’s my thing: As a TV fan who came of age watching NBC’s Must See TV lineup and living for the litany of random people who stop by Friends or Will & Grace, and who was a sucker for the gimmick of stars cast for brief stints as Ted’s girlfriend on CBS’ How I Met Your Mother, I love this stuff.

Cher, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Elton John, and Jennifer Lopez all appeared on Will & Grace. Guest spots by Matt Damon, Kevin Bacon, Glenn Close, Mira Sorvino, and Sharon Stone are some of the most charming, funniest performances of their respective careers. The same could be said for Friends guests like Christina Applegate, Reese Witherspoon, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Danny Devito, Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, and Brooke Shields.

So as far as I’m concerned, there’s no limit to the number of celebrities Only Murders wants to cast. I’m a basic guy who finds the randomness of the appearances and the fun that these stars have with these bit parts a blast.

Advertisement

This Is Going to Be Interesting…

The trailer for the new film Nightbitch arrived this week. In the film, Amy Adams plus a mother who believes she is—and maybe she really is—turning into a dog. (Watch the trailer here.)

In the trailer, she is barking. She is eating food out of a bowl using just her mouth, no hands. She is running down the street with a pack of fellow dogs.

This is either going to be a masterpiece or the worst thing I’ve ever seen, and I’m so excited to find out which.

How Do I Get This Life?

You know Beyoncé is beloved, because when she posts photos like this that appear to show a person who is living the absolute best life a human on this planet could possibly live, you don’t get offended that she’s shoving her success and luxury in your face. You think, “Good for her.”

Beyoncé is so great that she transcends my penchant for jealousy and pettiness. That’s powerful.

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

Look Into My Eyes: A fun look into the weird world of New York City psychics. (Now in theaters)

Rebel Ridge: The new Netflix movie should make Aaron Pierre a huge action star. (Now on Netflix)

The Perfect Couple: Silly, harmless trash. (Now on Netflix)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: I wanted to write about this movie, but Warner Bros. wouldn’t let me into a screening, so now I can’t recommend it. (Now in theaters)

The Front Room: I was rooting for this one, because I’m always rooting for Brandy. (Now in theaters)

Advertisement

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.