You understand precisely what you are getting whenever you sit down to look at “The Good Couple.”
Netflix’s newest restricted collection has a seemingly, ahem, excellent recipe: Lovely Nantucket seashores, a sexy younger solid; a frothy 2018 Elin Hilderbrand novel as its supply materials; a mysterious dying to research; horrible wealthy individuals to boo; and Nicole Kidman with a nasty wig. It is going for “Large Little Lies” on the East Coast, or possibly “White Lotus” for New England WASPs. Or maybe it is “The Undoing” with brighter lighting. No matter it’s, it definitely aspires to be the type of addictive, soapy, whodunit drama akin to those profitable collection which have taken over the zeitgeist over the previous few years.
“Good Couple” (now streaming, ★★½ out of 4) feels prefer it’s constituted of a bunch of items of various collection, and it is fairly telling. The collection is a little bit of a mishmash and at occasions, a really unfocused story that may in all probability have been higher off with fewer episodes, or only a film with all the surplus fluff trimmed out. Too many trendy TV collection waste viewers’ time; they’re irritating “sluggish burns” that take perpetually to get to the great things if there’s any great things in any respect. “Couple,” in contrast, is nice at its begin and unbelievable on the finish however drags painfully between, a fluffy doughnut with bland filling.
However it’s nonetheless a doughnut: Chewy, gooey and enjoyable.
“Couple” takes place at a picturesque Nantucket mansion owned by the blue-blooded Winbury household, led by its ice-cold matriarch and bestselling creator Greer (Kidman) and weed-smoking layabout patriarch Tag (Liev Schreiber). They’re internet hosting a blowout wedding ceremony for his or her son Benji (Billy Howle) and his very middle-class fiancé Amelia (Eve Hewson of Apple’s glorious “Unhealthy Sisters”). However the seaside soiree is interrupted when a physique is found on the seashore. Now all of the soiled little secrets and techniques of this seemingly excellent household (stuffed with perfect-looking {couples}) come out into the open.
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The solid is price excess of the fabric they’re given, together with “Lotus” alum (and Emmy nominee) Meghann Fahy because the party-girl maid of honor and Dakota Fanning as an unambiguously terrible future sister-in-law to the bride. Fanning at occasions seems to be the one one who realizes what sort of collection she’s in, and her unserious mean-girl vibe is a tasty deal with. You may like to hate her and hate to like her for her snide feedback and the time she takes a lick from another person’s wedding ceremony cake.
With out revealing who died or how (at Netflix’s request), it is arduous to speak concerning the plot apart from to say it usually makes little sense. A slew of disparate threads that may relate to the central thriller however are rapidly resolved. There aren’t sufficient purple herrings to make it a whodunit that begs the viewers to guess the killer (if there may be one). Plus this can be very irritating that the procedural parts transfer at a glacial tempo, from the police wanting up issues so simple as cellphone information all the best way in Episode 5 to the press being bored with a mysterious dying on the property of a well-known and rich household till weeks later.
Nonetheless, the ending is juicy and genuinely stunning, a part of a finale episode that’s rollicking good time. If solely its melodramatic, borderline ridiculous tone might have been replicated in every of the installments. It is clear that creator Susanne Bier (“The Undoing”) tried it, right down to the opening credit that function the solid in a choreographed dance to “Criminals” by Meghan Trainor. It is virtually begging for a TikTok pattern (if the children do not deem it too “cringe”).
Hilderbrand is understood for her fast and satisfying “seashore reads,” and “Couple” may need been higher served if it had been launched over a lazy sizzling summer season weekend when binge-watching six hours of an OK-bordering-on-good present appeared like the very best use of time. Throughout a busy September with dozens of latest and returning collection vying for our consideration, it may not really feel price it.
In any case, nothing is absolutely excellent.