David Farnor | On 08, Sep 2024

“He makes his own bed like a poor person.” “They serve wine in little plastic bottles.” These are the kind of things that people say in The Perfect Couple, Netflix’s lavish new murder mystery. These people are, it perhaps goes without saying, disgustingly rich.

Another TV drama about wealthy people’s lives coming unstuck? The six-part thriller, based on Elin Hilderbrand’s novel, isn’t exactly an original premise: the family gather for a wedding, only for a dead body to wash up on the picture-perfect coastline, turning the whole thing into a police investigation. The resulting web of dark secrets, immoral behaviour and barely concealed class divisions lacks the savage satire of The White Lotus, but is irresistibly handsome prestige TV at its most handsome and irresistible.

That’s largely thanks to the impeccable cast, which includes Nicole Kidman as the frost matriarch Greer, a successful novelist and the mother of the groom, Benji (an excellently understated Billy Howle). Benji is getting married to Amelia (Bad Sisters star Eve Hewson), a normal working-class person who immediately sticks out amid the snooty bunch as the only likeable person on screen. Amelia brings with her Merritt (Meghann Fahy), her best friend and maid of honour, who spends her time on her phone documenting the exuberant wealth for her followers on social media.

Also among the wedding party are the delightful Dakota Fanning as Abby, Benji’s ruthlessly cruel and obnoxiously privileged sister-in-law, Will (Sam Nivola), Benji’s potentially toxic younger brother, and Thomas (Jack Reynor), Benji’s self-centred brother who is barely married to Abby. Amid them all, Liev Schreiber steals every scene going as Tag, Benji’s charming, womanising father. He’s so smoulderingly good that by the time you get halfway through, you start to forget people’s names and instead remember people by whether they’ve slept with Tag or not.

These entangled relationships – all of which are less perfect than the title suggests – are dissected through police interviews in a dark room that cuts through the gorgeous landscapes, which increasingly feel like a claustrophobic cage. “They’re kill-somebody-and-get-away-with-it rich,” offers the gleefully gossiping wedding planner, Roger (Tim Bagley), while the housekeeper Gosia (Irina Dubova) surprises with her apparent loyalty to her employees. Threatening to deliver the most explosive statement of all is the wonderfully withering Isabelle Adjani as a family friend.

The fun comes in seeing the reactions of the police officers having to sift through all this entitlement, as Nikki (Donna Lynne Champlin) and Dan (Michael Beach) don’t see eye to eye on when to probe clinically and when to smile gently. It’s a game of whack-a-mole in which every one of the suspects has done some kind of wrong. Do we have much sympathy for what’s unfolding? Not necessarily, although Eve Hewson’s endearingly sincere presence gives us reason to be interested. But like Greer’s own novels, there’s a pulpy page-turner quality to what is essentially ideal beach-read telly. Greer bristles as she compares her own work to Doritos. “People love Doritos,” replies Tag. He’s right. They’re undoubtably moreish.

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