In recent years, it’s safe to say that Nicole Kidman has found something of a niche in juicy, occasionally deranged mysteries. Following the immense success of Big Little Lies, the Oscar winner starred in the likes of The Undoing and Nine Perfect Strangers—the second season of which should hit screens soon—and is now revisiting this delicious subgenre once again with a new Netflix romp: The Perfect Couple.
And, from the recently released first trailer, we can confirm that it has absolutely everything fans of David E. Kelley’s splashy crime dramas could wish for. A comically gigantic beach house? Check. A seemingly nauseatingly perfect marriage (this time between Kidman and Liev Schreiber, in place of Alexander Skarsgård) which quickly unravels? Check. A wardrobe of sumptuous knits that screams quiet luxury? Naturally. An inexplicable death which shakes this small community to its very core? Of course. An intense interrogation scene? Wow, this literally looks like it’s been taken straight out of Big Little Lies.
Based on Elin Hilderbrand’s pulpy pageturner of the same name and directed by The Undoing’s Susanne Bier, the six-part murder mystery is set to follow “Amelia Sacks (Behind Her Eyes’s Eve Hewson), a bride marrying into one of Nantucket’s wealthiest families. The groom’s mother Greer Garrison Winbury (Kidman), a famous novelist, spares no expense on the high-society wedding. But when a dead body appears on the beach, everyone’s Champagne dreams quickly vanish and are replaced by suspicion. As secrets bubble up to the surface, an investigation takes hold that feels plucked from one of Greer’s books. Suddenly, everyone is a suspect.”
Also filling out the cast alongside Kidman, Schreiber and Hewson? The White Lotus breakout Meghann Fahy as Merritt Monaco, the bride’s hilariously-named best friend; Ripley’s Dakota Fanning as Abby Winbury, the bride’s heavily pregnant sister-in-law-to-be; The Serpent’s Billy Howle as Benji Winbury, the groom; A Suitable Boy’s Ishaan Khatter as Shooter Dival, the groom’s best friend; Midsommar’s Jack Reynor, as Thomas Winbury, the groom’s brother; Maestro’s Sam Nivola as Will Winbury, another brother; French screen legend Isabelle Adjani as Isabel Nallet, a family friend; Mayor of Kingstown’s Michael Beach as Dan Carter, the chief of police; Black Cake’s Mia Isaac as Chloe Carter, the chief’s daughter; and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Donna Lynne Champlin as detective Nikki Henry.
Prepare to binge—and breathlessly share your theories—from September 5, when the show premieres on the streamer, and rest assured that there will be as many big laughs as there are spine-chilling sequences. My personal favorite from the trailer? The moment when Fanning’s Abby is trying to break up a fight between Howle’s Benji and Reynor’s Thomas, both of whom seem to be covered in cake. “Stop! Enough!” she shouts, before holding her hands up to protect her lilac frock and shrieking, “This is vintage!” Highly, highly relatable.
