The Good Couple Overview – ‘Sheer star energy may have you hooked’

Streaming on: Netflix

Episodes seen: 6 of 6

Pitched someplace between The White Lotus, Glass Onion and the newest Harlan Coben sequence, The Good Couple is a shiny spin on the rich-people-are-awful sub-genre of murder-mystery: combining melodramatic twists, turns and character revelations with a remarkably deep bench of on-screen expertise, plus fashionable route from The Evening Supervisor’s Susanne Bier.

Bier reunites with Nicole Kidman (after beforehand working collectively on the not-dissimilar-in-tone The Undoing) for this six-part Netflix sequence, which sees Kidman as soon as once more step into the position of barely depressing, impeccably coiffed (although the wig right here is questionable), extremely wealthy girl. Additionally on government producing obligation right here, she performs Greer Garrison Winbury, bestselling creator, and matriarch of the rich Winbury household. The forged surrounding her is stacked: there’s Liev Schreiber as her rugged, pot-smoking husband Tag; Unhealthy Sisters breakout Eve Hewson as fish-out-of-water bride-to-be Amelia; Meghann Fahy (so good within the aforementioned The White Lotus) as her bubbly influencer bestie Merritt; Midsommar’s Jack Reynor in full douchebag mode as Greer’s eldest son Thomas; Dakota Fanning enjoying towards sort considerably as his closely pregnant, aesthetics-obsessed spouse Abby; and Loopy Ex-Girlfriend MVP Donna Lynne Champlin as police detective Nikki Henry.

It’s a powerful checklist, and the actors undeniably elevate The Good Couple’s generally tacky dialogue and use of drained style constructions — the prime suspect being flashbacks interspersed with police interview sequences. Whereas this isn’t a very progressive present by way of type or story, it delivers its thriller in a extremely slick method, rapidly introducing you to characters that really feel true and lived-in, and sustaining simply the correct amount of true drama and emotion amid the extra heightened moments. Probably the most jarring aspect tonally is the opening credit sequence, which employs the now overused tactic of getting the forged doing a choreographed dance, with Kidman, Schreiber and co. boogying on the seashore to Meghan Trainor’s ‘Criminals’. Given this can be a present centred round homicide, it’s an oddly cheerful method to begin every episode — however does weirdly make the forged really feel extra like a household.

With regards to the whodunnit being unravelled, The Good Couple does nicely to maintain you guessing, although often feels prefer it’s enjoying for time by introducing new plot threads. You might nicely suspect the wrongdoer forward of the finale, however you probably gained’t have found out their motive — and what this present does nicely is get you invested sufficient in these individuals to maintain on watching. It is aware of what it’s (shiny, straightforward, bingeable) and what it isn’t (pretentious, groundbreaking, significantly memorable) and hits that mark. Very best Netflix fodder.