DIRECTOR Susanne Bier has once again teamed up with Nicole Kidman for a buzzy mystery series set to make its debut on a major streaming service.
Following the success of HBO‘s hit 2020 series The Undoing, Nicole Kidman is set to star in another thriller series, The Perfect Couple, in a role some fans are calling all-too-familiar.
A BEACH, A BRIDE, AND A BODY
On Thursday, July 11, Netflix released a trailer for its upcoming mystery drama series, The Perfect Couple.
The series is based on a 2018 novel by Elin Hilderbrand, dubbed “the queen of beach reads” by various media outlets, including Glamour.
The Perfect Couple centers on a bride, Amelia Sacks, played by Eve Hewson, and a groom, Benji Winbury, played by Billy Howle, in the weeks leading up to their wedding day.
Hewson is best known for playing Lucy Elkins in the Showtime medical drama, The Knick, and for her movie roles in Bridge of Spies (2015), Robin Hood (2018), Tesla (2020), and Flora and Son (2023).
Howle most recently played Allen Lafferty in Hulu‘s 2022 series Under the Banner of Heaven and has appeared in several films, including Dunkirk (2017), Outlaw King (2018), and Kid Snow (2024).
Unfortunately, not everyone is on board with the wedding, as Benji’s mother, the famous novelist Greer Garrison Winbury, portrayed by Nicole Kidman, disapproves of the couple’s impending nuptials.
Still, she has spared no expense in planning what is to be the summer’s premiere event, only to be met with one major problem: a dead body, washed ashore on the beach of her Nantucket home.
“They’re rich,” muses Stuart Whelan, who plays a police officer in the series.
“Kill someone and get away with it rich,” he adds, as heard in the show’s trailer.
The trailer shows clips from the show alongside an eerie remix of Frankie Valli‘s hit song, Can’t Take My Eyes off You.
Nicole’s icy, steely gaze, directed at the camera – and the viewer – offers a chilling foreshadowing of what’s to come as the lyrics play, “You’re just too good to be true / Can’t take my eyes off of you.”
NANTUCKET NEIGHBORS
Nicole Kidman may be the star of the show, but she’s joined by some very familiar faces.
Liev Schreiber stars as Nicole‘s husband and the groom’s father, Tag Winbury, while Dakota Fanning plays the couple’s daughter.
Rounding out the cast is Meghann Fahy, who garnered critical and commercial praise for her portrayal of Daphne Sullivan in HBO’s The White Lotus, Omar Epps, Jack Reynor, Sam Nivola, and Mia Isaac.
Nick Searcy, Donna Lynne Champlin, Ishaan Khattar, and Isabelle Adjani also star.
The Netflix thriller is set to hit the streaming service on Wednesday, September 5, 2024, just after Labor Day weekend.
PICTURE PERFECT
“The perfect life has the most to hide,” according to the show’s tagline.
The trailer introduces viewers into the Winbury’s seemingly perfect life, and then shows that, as always, nothing is what it seems.
As their lives unravel and secrets are revealed, Nicole’s character, Greer, continues to try to maintain the facade of a happy, normal family.
“We never know what’s going on in someone’s mind really,” her character muses in the trailer.
“No matter how close you are,” she adds, flashing a fake smile for a family photograph in the trailer’s last scene.
BEACHY FANS
The trailer amassed over 200,000 views just hours after its release, with most viewers praising Nicole’s performance and the show’s mystery-beach-read atmosphere.
“Wow Nicole is booked BOOKED,” commented one viewer.
“Nicole adding another wig to the collection. We love to see it,” wrote one user.
“Whenever I stay at The White Lotus Nantucket, I always have a memorable time,” commented another YouTube user.
“Big Little Lies feel with a huge dose of chaos,” commented another viewer, referencing one of Kidman’s previous shows.
Still, some users pointed out that despite her amazing acting abilities, they believe Nicole is getting typecast.
“Is Nicole Kidman being typecast?” questioned one viewer.
“Cause why every TV role she has today was as a distress[ed] upper-class wife in the middle of [a] criminal scandal involving her suspicious husband??” they added.
“Nicole Kidman in literally everything is getting boring…..” commented another trailer viewer.
“Nicole is making the same shows and movies over and over again,” another user commented.
How many movies did Nicole make for Netflix at once?” questioned another viewer, referencing Nicole’s 2024 film for the streamer, the romantic comedy A Family Affair.
Now Streaming: Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman is no stranger to streaming services, and has appeared – or will appear – in films and movies produced by Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+, and other streamers, including:
- Big Little Lies – HBO (2017 – present)
- The Undoing – HBO (2020)
- Being the Ricardos – Amazon Prime Video (2021)
- Nine Perfect Strangers – Hulu (2021 – present)
- Roar – Apple TV+ (2022)
- Special Ops: Lioness – Paramount Plus (2023 – present)
- Expats – Amazon Prime Video (2024)
- A Family Affair – Netflix (2024)
- The Perfect Couple – Netflix (2024)
- Spellbound – Netflix (2024)
- Kay Scarpetta – Amazon Prime Video (TBD)