I’m going to be honest: It’s been a while since I’ve watched an English-language drama that it felt like my brain had to constantly remind myself that this is not a K-drama, why am I surprised that I can understand the language that the characters are speaking without having to read the subtitles.

Anyways…

This is No. 1 in the Top 10 TV shows on Netflix in Singapore currently so why not give it a watch. Watch, I did, in one day, which is a feat considering it can take me days usually to finish a TV show.

The Perfect Couple is an adaptation from a book by Elin Hilderbrand, starring Nicole Kidman as Greer Garrison Winbury, Liev Shreiber as Tag Winbury and Dakota Fanning as Abby Winbury. If you ask me, that sounds like a pretty expensive cast.

The Winbury family is a well-known picture-perfect upper class family in an equally picture-perfect Nantucket with Greer known as a best-selling novelist with 20+ books under her name. What started off as a happy wedding rehearsal became a nightmare when one of the guests was found dead at the beach. Everyone then became a suspect and secrets started to unravel. What seems to be perfect on the surface is not that perfect after all.

I’ll be using a lot of the word “perfect” here. Well… it is called The Perfect Couple.

The Perfect Couple is a classic whodunit drama with a tacky introduction (really tacky that I cringed every time the introduction came on screen – the casts were dancing to “Criminals” by Meghan Trainor). We see the detectives bringing in each character into the interrogation room and everyone seems to be equally suspicious. Through those interrogations, hidden secrets from each of them were revealed and towards the end, we find out who the murderer is. A very classic story-telling for a mystery drama – clear-cut and short. It is a mini-series on Netflix so not surprised that it is just 6-episodes and kept pretty simple and easy to follow, thus why I can finish it in one night after work.

I know that the story-telling is not something outstanding or different. But sometimes, not being different is good. The only thing about not being different or outstanding is that it is also forgettable. Yours truly here is actually struggling to remember what she likes about the show. It is not that it is bad – there is just nothing to rave or hype about. I would iterate here the catchphrase around my office these days – it is what it is and it is what you expect it to be. It did not go below expectations nor did it go beyond it. It is what you expect a mystery crime drama to be.

It started off with something normal which led to a sudden death of a character and then the screen cuts to the other characters being brought in and the scenes split between all of them in a he-said, she-said way, sometimes consistent and sometimes contradicting each other. You don’t know who knows who better or if they even know each other at all, etc. etc. There will always be that one character that is considered a little bit of an outcast who will poke each of the character’s buttons, in this case, Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson), the bride, and someone who seems to fit in but not in reality, Abby Winbury (Dakota Fanning). There will also be that one character you just want to slap, Thomas Winbury (Jack Reynor). And the innocent ones who don’t deserve any of these troubles, Benji Winbury (Billy Howle) and Will Winbury (Sam Nivola).

In terms of the backdrop though, it is set in a picture perfect Nantucket with clear waters and private yachts dotted everywhere so there’s some irony of the perfect couple and their family falling apart in the picturesque island.

Could Siti be biased? Maybe. But, look, I’ve been spoilt by the many good mystery crime drama from the Korean side of the world such as The Veil, Doctor Prisoner, Stranger and Through The Darkness that I’m not easily wow-ed by the American ones nowadays. The one that I can still remember and a huge fan of till this day would be Criminal Minds. Nothing beats that long-running show despite all the drama behind the scenes with the cast members.

C’mon, Siti… surely you can say something about the acting. It’s Nicole Kidman. I mean, yeah. It’s Nicole Kidman so you would know that the acting is not going to be sub-par. She’s excellent as always acting as the seemingly uptight novelist who found out about her husband’s cheating ways with no other than the best friend of their future daughter-in-law who ended up dead at the beach. We witnessed how her perfect life started to fall apart and her own secret was revealed towards the end – little Mrs. Perfect is not who everyone thought she was. Alongside her is Liev Schreiber who acted as her rich husband to make them “The Perfect Couple” but behind that surface was just a man who was overshadowed by his famous wife, which he acted on with… well… perfection – those little insecurities behind those glasses and expensive whiskeys.

As for the tacky introduction, I don’t know why I feel it’s a bit try-hard. With TikTok dance challenges being such a norm, it’s a bit too cringey to see the cast doing a choreographed dance routine to the theme song, Criminals by Meghan Trainor. Not to sound like a Gen Z but that is so boomer of them.

Overall, I give this show a 2.5 out of 5. It’s not good, it’s not bad. It’s simple enough to follow and bingeable in one night. But would I watch it again? No. Catch it while it’s still available on Netflix. That is, if you are into mystery crime drama. Otherwise, you’re not missing out on anything. If you want a really good one, watch Criminal Minds. If you want a really good Korean show, watch Through The Darkness.