You can almost feel the luxury thread count of the sheets in the Netflix series The Perfect Couple. This is pedigree television a la White Lotus and Succession offering a voyeur’s glimpse into the world of private jets and privilege. But be warned, this is more than escapism. It will remind you of real people and leave you repulsed.
The Winbury family are living the gilt-edged dream as they gather for a wedding in their oh-so tasteful Nantucket mansion with its private beach and staff on tap. They are casual and careless in their wealth, “kill someone and get away with it rich”, and of course, dysfunctional.
The inconvenience of a murder investigation on their property becomes a thorn in their cashmere-clad sides, and as the six-part murder mystery unravels we see Greer, (played so icily by Nicole Kidman that you’ll need a coat) and Tag (Liev Schreiber) become increasingly believable in their portrayal of the wealthy elite, highlighting in particular, their haughty disrespect for the law.
It is their distaste for the rule of law, alongside their inherent selfishness, which makes them especially believable, reminding us of certain real-life billionaires. We live in an age where Donald Trump boasts of being able to grab women if he wants to; Elon Musk indiscriminately fires employees as if it’s a hobby, and Rupert Murdoch sways politics for personal profit. Like the Russian tzars of old, these billionaires seem to care nothing for the lives of the people they affect and influence. So too, the Winbury family.
From Dynasty to Downton Abbey, there have always been tv shows which have offered us peepholes into the world of the rich, sometimes aspirational or sometimes reminding us that money corrupts and doesn’t buy love. What makes The Perfect Couple stand out is its artful focus on entitlement.
When one of the wedding guests is murdered, the most upsetting thing for the family appears to be the nuisance of a police car blocking their driveway. No tears are shed, and the police are reminded of the family’s charitable donations to them. It is this casual disregard for life and desire to live above the law which packs the show’s biggest punch, making us think about how attitudes at the top of society can affect all of us.
That was entirely deliberate, according to director Susanne Brier. “I wanted to make a point that entitlement does not come with a permission to be disrespectful. Wealth does not give permission to break all the rules”, she explains.
“This is an incredibly privileged family. And because they are this privileged and because they are this wealthy, they have a sense of entitlement that has no borders. It’s limitless. They literally think that they are beyond the law. I mean, they would literally think that driving across a red light does not apply to them”.
Remind of you of anyone? As billionaires proliferate and expand the ever-widening class divide in the real world, watching how entitlement gets played out by the super-rich seems to be a vital message. The richest 400 families in the United States currently own more financial assets than the bottom 60% of all American households combined, according to economists.
Brier understands that you still have to seduce your audience. “In order to make a point, there’s got to be something enticing…. It has to be fun and seductive and enticing,” she says. The Perfect Couple is all of those things, but it’s also a dire warning.
The Perfect Couple starring Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber and Dakota Fanning is currently streaming on Netflix.
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