The #1 Show on Netflix Is a Wish Wrapped in a Dream (If You Like Pretty People and Murder)

Based on the Elin Hilderbrand book of the same name, the six part Netflix series stars Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber, and centers around a ritzy Nantucket wedding weekend where one of the guests turns up…dead. (Dun dun dun!)

If that elevator pitch didn’t hook you, here are the specifics: Kidman plays Greer Garrison, a bestselling author and the cold, wealthy, extremely judgmental mother to three young men, one of whom, Benji (Billy Howle), is engaged to be married. While his fiancé Amelia (Eve Hewson) seems intelligent and lovely to us, she is seen as a step down by the family because she is—gasp—a lowly zookeeper (one of the show’s many bizarrely funny details).

On the eve of the wedding, tensions are already running high. Amelia isn’t sure this is a family dynamic she wants to be entering. Greer has just found the receipt for a diamond bracelet her husband (Schreiber) most certainly didn’t buy for her. Maid of honor Merritt (Meghann Fahy) is ruffling feathers with her brash influencer style. Eldest son Thomas (Jack Reynor) has money problems, anger issues and a perpetually displeased, socially-insecure pregnant wife (Dakota Fanning).

And then, in the early hours of the wedding day, the unthinkable occurs: The body of one of the weekend’s most controversial guests washes ashore, with foul play almost immediately a given.

What ensues is a gripping latticework of secrets and betrayals as the police work to discover what happened and Amelia seeks to figure out what the hell is going on with this crazy family. Everybody has a motive, and everybody is trapped in an Arch Digest-ready purgatory on the island while they wait for the investigation to conclude.

I couldn’t stop watching, both for the mystery itself—I can usually figure out by episode two who the killer is, and this time I really really couldn’t—and for the delicious setting, tone and top-notch acting. This particular breed of ice queen is the role Kidman was born to play, and I was pretty into Daddy Schreiber rocking architect glasses and an old money rumpled button-down with a joint hanging out of his mouth at all times.

I felt transported to the sprawling, wood-shingled beach house and I was hitting 'next episode' so fast, I almost forgot about my wrist. That is, until I had to open a jar of store-brand peanut butter, which, let’s be honest, would have been the first thing to get me booted from the island.

The Perfect Couple is now streaming on Netflix.

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