The Perfect Couple on Netflix: Your Weekend Obsession (Review)
A delicious macabre comedy, in six episodes, which relies on its immense star power and a certain sense of irony.
This is perhaps the best theme song of the year: a great wedding choreography. cheesy opens each episode ofA Perfect CoupleThe whole family, gathered on the beach, performs this flash mob not improvised at all. Even the victim. Yes, it’s not very serious and it’s done on purpose. Like what the new Netflix series (online since Thursday) wants to be: a macabre comedy among the rich and powerful, a prestige thriller that can be enjoyed like a beach thriller.
Welcome to the Winburys, a wealthy family from Massachusetts, living in a luxurious villa on the island of Nantucket. They are beautiful, they are loaded, they are perfect in appearance, and they annoy you! They especially despise the extras, destined to join the precious circle of the matriarch, the icy Greer. This is the case of Amelia, a zookeeper, who is about to marry one of her three sons. The least we can say is that she does not feel at home in the sparkling life of the Winburys. And then on the day of her wedding, a corpse washes up on the shore. The wedding is canceled. The victim was among the guests. The investigation begins and the secrets come out…
For six episodes, we follow the thread of this weekend with its idyllic veneer covering a box of deliciously enormous lies. Each piece of the puzzle comes together little by little and we advance with delight until the denouement. The final resolution, that is to say the revelation of the identity of the assassin, matters little in the end. We must above all have fun with the game of massacre that leads us there. From confidences to reprisals, from deceptions to manipulations, the series assumes its soap opera twists and its larger-than-life dialogues, to better highlight its gallery of odious characters, each more despicable than the last. A parade carried by a Liev Schreiber amazing as a dandy daron smoker of joints and a Dakota Fanning in great shape, in the skin of the cowhide sister-in-law. And of course, there is Nicole Kidmanan over-dressed and over-cold mistress of ceremonies, who obviously recalls the great hours of Big Little Lies.
But A Perfect Couple is not in the same vein, much lighter than the series that painted the wealthy society of California, in the form of a very intense drama. Taking the form of a sarcastic human comedy, the Netflix mini-series examines appearances in a much more superficial way, relying essentially on its immense star power. If it does not avoid some big lengths in the passage – a shame when it is only 6 episodes – it keeps us on our toes all the time thanks to a very well thought out dynamic editing. And then we must still savor the lunar presence ofIsabelle Adjaniwho plays the family’s carefree French friend in an absolutely exquisite “Franglais”. Perfect proof that this Perfect Couple should not really be taken seriously.
A Perfect Couple, a 6-episode mini-series, available on Netflix from September 5, 2024.