Based on a book of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand, The Perfect Couple follows a writer played by Nicole Kidman and her family amid a wedding. But things don’t how as planned when someone is murdered at the same property. To be honest, not everything about the show works. Not all characters make sense and the show’s runtime may need to take the blame for that one, but overall, Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning, Eve Hewson and Ishaan Khatter’s performances are what will keep you hooked.
The show begins with wedding festivities for Amelia and Benji, the second son of Greer Garrison. Played by Nicole Kidman, Greer is a rich author with a massive fan following 28 published hit books and a butt-load of money. The woman is paying for her son’s wedding to a girl she does not approve of and won’t stop criticising. But she loves her son and would give him everything he wants and deserves. She is the same with her other sons, but not the same with her husband Tag.
Given the name, it is obvious and the Winbury family is living a lie of the perfect couple and the perfect family to maintain their PR gimmick. And with the murder on their land, their reputation is put into jeopardy. What’s worse they could one or more of the family members could be the killer. All being the suspects and being questioned by the police doesn’t help her image, right before the launch of her next book. The lying, cheating, and covering up begins right off the bat and it doesn’t stop till the end.
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One of the downfalls is, that even when the deceiving stops, it still feels like this is another gimmick of the plot before you realise it is the last episode and the last few minutes of the show. The mystery, performances and mis-directions mainly keep the story going. The latter are easy to spot but it doesn’t take away from the thrill of the show. The adapted screenplay does justice to its main three characters, though it does not spend time explaining others.
Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning, Eve Hewson and Ishaan Khatter all have great chemistry with each other. Hats off to Ishaan for finally giving a benchmark for a normal good performance in a drama serious series. Indian characters and actors are often stereotyped with weird characteristics or stereotyped with their performance. However, Ishaan definitely made us proud in his limited but great screen time. On the other hand, Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber are the star of the show without a doubt and Dakota’s eerie, manipulative performance is just the best.
Overall, The Perfect Couplel isn’t perfect but as a miniseries, it is darn fun.
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Cover artwork by Patrick Gawande/Mashable India