The Perfect Couple is kinda lame :/ (SPOILERS)

hey guys today I want to talk about a perfect couple look I'm just going to say this from the jump I had high hopes for this series I thought it'd be excellent absolutely stacked cast Like A White Lotus level cast we have Megan fahe from the White Lotus we have Nicole Kidman one of the greatest actresses of all time we have leev shriber a great actor we have Jack Raina from midamar we have Dakota Fanning stacked cast Eve Houston brilliant actress and unfortunately they were not given an amazing script I think this show has so much potential all we needed this to be was another rich white satire you know everybody loves those we've had big little lies we've had White Lotus we've had succession we've had soulburn like this is a constant thing that audiences lately love right this deconstruction of the perfect ideal family and this show had everything going for it and in my opinion it just didn't come together all that well so I want to talk about what did work in this series what didn't work in this series this video is going to work best if you have seen the show if you haven't seen the show thank you for watching I hope this is an enjoyable video but let's just get right into it so first off things I appreciated I really did like that we didn't know who was murdered until the end of the first episode or the start of the second episode they kept that from us for a while I thought that was a really cool idea so you got two Mysteries right you got who was murdered and then you got who did the murder that was really cool really liked that I also liked that it was actually a notable actress it was Megan FY uh it wasn't like some minor supporting actor or actress that was kind of a predictable choice to kill off you know like this is a big name that you've chosen to kill off in episode one cool idea did not see that coming I really did like in the middle chunk I thought there were some really good character work I was enjoying what they were doing with the relationship between tag and Greer I thought tags cheating and the breakdown of their relationship was probably the most well written and interesting stuff in the show aside from that though unfortunately I thought the rest of the characters in this show were great Concepts they were great ideas but not fully executed I think a character like Jack raina's character right the guy from Midsummer is excellent you know and I think he doesn't need much more to his character he's just like the [ __ ] brother fine but a character like Benji just felt so paper thin he is one of the main players he is the partner of our main character other protagonist Amelia and I just had no clue really what made him tick it is just paper thin Rich satire he's you know the son of Nicole Kidman and Le of shriber and he thinks he's different to the rest of them but really deep down he's not and he's going to make aelia sign an NDA it's just stuff we've seen before unfortunately and I think there's a really interesting scene where Benji and Amelia go to be intimate and she basically wants to have sex in a way that is kind of like a quickie right not very intimate facing away right and he wants to be you know face to face really intimate and the sexual Escapade kind of like Fizzles out there and they stop and I thought the writing here was really interesting and it's the most depth we get for this relationship you later find out that that is almost definitely because her heart is tied to Shooter and that's a really interesting idea that is one of the few moments where I thought the rer actually gave the audience something to figure out and sit with but aside from that everything was just really paper thin you don't really get a great sense into what makes Benji tick and you know when Benji finds out that she's had an affair with shooter his reaction initially is compelling but you don't really find out much more than that and that's my biggest issue with this show is big things happen and after getting all this character work with all these different characters you don't really get a sense of how they feel for example right tag you get some really interesting character work with tag and his Affairs and what makes him tick and why he cheats on Greer so credit to the writers they did a good job there however you don't really get an insight into how he feels that inadvertently him not being more careful with having sex with Megan F's character led to her death right he accidentally got her pregnant which led to her being killed so the inheritance didn't get delayed by 18 years and he doesn't seem particularly fake and that's fine like if that's the point like he's too much of a rich arrogant scumbag to care if that was the point I would give credit to the show but I feel like they couldn't decide what they really wanted him to feel and I feel like we didn't have much Insight you know there's never a monologue or a moment where he cracks it at a character and goes oh she's just another girl I don't really care y y y like we don't really know how he feels and yes you could make the argument that for him it's kind of convenient that she got St right because that saves him from having to deal with an unwanted pregnancy and what that means for Greer and him but like I just didn't really get a feel of how that felt on top of that though Jack raina's character right Dakota Fanning's partner we don't really get a sense of how he feels about the fact that Dakota Fanning his wife was the one that actually murdered Megan fahy's character doesn't seem particularly phased or confronted he kinded just goes oh okay and again you can make the point that this is all the point right these rich people are just completely out of touch and don't care but we've seen throughout the show that they really do care about their reputation when things aren't going right it really does fluster them and yeah I just felt like we needed more of that because the ending of the show was really strange to me instead the focus of the actual ending the last 5 to 10 minutes is on the relationship between G Nicole Kim's character and Amelia Eve Houston's character and the show kind of wraps WS up in this way where Nicole kimman says oh I've written my new book about the friendship between you and your best friend who was murdered and this felt so out of place to me for a few reasons first off I didn't think we got enough time between Amelia and her best friend the woman who was murdered to really get a sense of how close they were in fact throughout the season I really struggled to feel how affected Amelia was we got a bit in the early episodes but in the back 3 to four episodes it really felt like she was a bit detached from the whole situation and not in an intentional well- Rd way where it's like she's just so overwhelmed by this family's Detachment that she also becomes detached it just seems like she was more preoccupied with her affair with shoter and the murder the woman who was murdered felt like a bit of an afterthought it didn't feel like this you know oh my God I bought my best friend into this [ __ ] up family and now she's been murdered we really didn't get a sense of that and she seemed more wrapped up in her kind of love triangle I thought the beef between G and Amelia had the most dramatic potential had the most interesting Dynamics and was the most interesting moments for Nicole Kidman as greed to be this kind of ice queen mother who clearly is scared of losing her child to the wife and kind of wants to sabotage that relationship and it's really interesting writing that Amelia actually gives her reason to not like her Amelia is cheating on Benji with shooter I think that was the most interesting stuff in the show for me the fact that it wasn't just cut and dry you know Nicole Kim's distrust of Amelia was actually substantiated at different points however the ending here where G comes up to Amelia and is like yeah you know uh the true perfect couple is you and your best friend who is murdered I've written a book about that like I really just care about you guys and you guys were so inspiring I'm like are you serious like we we barely saw this it just felt so not well earned in my opinion it was really disappointing while we're talking about things I didn't love the opening credit sequence is is a [ __ ] [Music] Abomination I am so sorry I know what they're going for I really know what they're going for I've seen a lot of comments being like Oh my God this is so much fun I absolutely love the vibe don't love that interpretation what I think this should have been was you know this is a show dealing with a murder you know dealing with rich white people's Detachment to you know the problems that the rest of the world faces and the fact that they're even detached in the face of murder and I think what this dance sequence should have represented is the idea that like even though this horrific [ __ ] is happening they're still dancing but it just doesn't really land because the rest of the show isn't dark enough for this kind of dance sequence to feel like a great contrast but it also isn't such an effective satire that it feels like part of the satire it just feels really strange and also on top of that it's in Universe you know um Nicole kimman has been on the interview circuit basically talking about the fact that she didn't like the dance sequence initially as the intro crawl because she felt like G wouldn't dance what went through your mind when they told you you going to be dancing for that title sequence I was like no I don't want to do it and then and then the director was like you have to do it let's talk about the dance sequence were you on the WhatsApp group saying you didn't want do it yeah we all were except for leev yeah Le said like he was so into it which I was kind of surprised did that and he showed me he did a slide yeah why didn't you want to do it you're a dancer no because I didn't feel like Greer would dance I felt like GRE would watch but what you think in the end dance disagreer and I agree and Nicole Kidman's interpretation here tells us that this dance sequence isn't just the cast Dancing this is meant to be our characters getting along and dancing it just feels strange it just feels strange I think in better hands it would have felt like the dance at the end of soulburn the reason I say that is soulburn is a dark depraved rich person Darkly funny satire there it is equal parts funny and horrifying and if you've seen that movie at the end of that movie someone who's done a bunch of awful [ __ ] ends up dancing around the halls of a mansion naked and it's hilarious because of the [ __ ] up stuff that we've seen happen and I think that's what a perfect couple's opening dance sequence really should have been going for or it should have been really Sinister feeling and like oh my God like tags dancing with these two women that he's been sleeping with and GZ watching from the sidelines and everyone's eyelines who are connected a meeting but instead it's just this dumb tonally confused distracting intro sequence in my opinion you're watching a show that's trying to take this murder mystery seriously and isn't soaked in attire so when you get this opening dance sequence it just feels really strange it does not kind of match the icy veneer that Nicole Kidman's character and Amelia's character has in my opinion which is really a shame seen Amelia and Greer who are both really tortured women dancing that way like like I just can't picture them getting that into it given who these characters are it would have worked a lot better if G was kind of watching from the side observing everyone's relationship Amelia is maybe dancing to fit in but she she doesn't quite I think Merit dancing worked but aside from that like what like really Jack raina's character is going to do a goofy choreograph dance really really but also can you imagine how much more effective it would have been if you have this really like surreal dance sequence and then it hard cuts from like Sunny dance sequence hard cuts to like black of night and it's just Megan fahy's body Merritt's character's body just like in the middle of of the sand with everyone else gone then the opening sequence I would have loved but like no you know it it just feels really really strange and totally confused and like oh isn't this like fun it's like no you know if every single character was like Jack raina's character the guy from Midsummer right I think it would work a bit better but yeah I just I do not think it'd fit the tone of the show especially when the show tries and ends with this like overly schy like yeah I wrote a book about the relationship you had with Megan F's character the woman that was murdered I'm like are you serious is that way you're going to end it you know we needed more time to see each character kind of you know Revel in the fact that this person Dakota Fanning murdered Megan fah but we really didn't get a sense of how these characters felt um I thought the character work with tag in the middle chunk of this show was excellent unfortunately I was left wanting a lot more from Nicole Kidman now I want to say this from the start I love Nicole Kidman especially her turn in killing of a sacred deer by yoro Lanos that was awesome I also loved her performance in big little lies but I feel like she's been doing a lot more of these Netflix projects and they're starting to have kind of diminishing returns I think what this show needed was Roseman Pike from saltburn I think that kind of Rich ice queen matriarch is such a better portrayal it's equal parts empathetic and funny and nice NY she'll say things like oh my God I can't believe she said that but you still kind of like her and you get why she's successful Oliver I have a complete and utter horror of ugliness ever since I was very young I don't know why I was a lesbian for a while you know but it was all just too wet for me in the end men are so lovely and dry but she came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge it couldn't have been me I'd never wanted to know anything I thought the stuff with Nicole Kim's character was really paper thin I did kind of like the Revelation that her and tag met when she was actually a sex worker I found that really interesting but this is one of my other big issues with the show is I've seen a lot of the people in The Press tour talk about the fact that like oh you know it's this perfect couple you know Greer and tag this incredibly well perceived couple but beneath the surface it's actually dark and fractured and there's cheating and there's all these secrets going on in the family and as The Show Goes On you find these out I'm just going to say it if they wanted to pull that off they really needed to kind of let us see how this family is seen from the outside because the show starts and they're all [ __ ] up it's not a surprise that Jack raina's character is like a pill popping psycho uh everyone suspects that Amelia isn't a great fit and the reveal that she's cheating is very heavily forecasted from the jump but on top of that we find out about tags cheating very very early on top of that um the whole family knows about tags cheating already like all these secrets that are revealed to us are things that the family already knows like the family already knows that they're all [ __ ] up and yes you can make the argument that the big deal is that the world is going to find out that this family is messed up but not really because the person that ended up murdering Megan F's character wasn't part of the original family wasn't part of the bloodline it's Dakota Fanning who married into the bloodline and presumably now will be exiting the bloodline right so yes you can make the argument that tag and Greer split up and that's you know dissolving the perfect couple but I guess the issue for me was as an audience I wanted to be taken on a journey of watching this perfect veneer fall apart that's kind of what the trailer was selling that's what the Press tour was selling but you start the show and they're already [ __ ] you know and everyone knows that they're already really messed up and conniving and schemy everyone knows knows that yeah Jack raina's character is misogynistic and annoying and you know dude Finance bro even the cops know while we're talking about the cops the humor was not Landing with that lead detective the woman I don't know what they were going for here that needed better writing and it's a shame because at points I think this show achieved some really good black comedy I loved when Dakota Fanning was being arrested and she was like I can't be arrested Ed I'm pregnant I can't go to jail I'm pregnant I also thought the whole sequence with Jack raina's character and Dakota Fanning's character trying to take the wedding cake after basically the wedding wasn't going ahead was actually really well written really funny and kind of worked in that rich person satire that I was expecting and hoping for I also thought the arguments between Amelia and gria were really interesting I particularly liked the one where G was telling Amelia that if she wanted be part of the family she should dress up and get ready for the family photo and I was actually on G's side for that while we're talking about that kind of conflict I thought the rich person Sati in this show was really thin now I don't expect everything to be succession or White Lotus levels of writing but at least soulburn you know we didn't get any interesting scenes like the egg scene from soulburn this show ultimately just ended up with like oh rich people bad sort of Vibes and I thought the writing was really thin obviously I'm not mad if the show writers like want to make a Eat the Rich sort of show but I would have preferred some more kind of insight into why Amelia has a inherent distaste for these types of things it just felt like really thin writing to me the only big real interesting juicy exploration I found was the whole NDA culture that they had in the family I thought that was one of the few things that I thought was appropriately horrific and dark and like interesting to explore through Amelia's eyes but aside from that I actually thought Amelia needed to get a bit more on board like particularly with the family photo like yes Greer is a bit of an ice queen but it's like yeah if you want to be part of Benji's family uh get with the program and I know that the point was like she doesn't really want to be a part of Benji's family cuz she kind of has the hots for shooter but if that's the case I don't really have much empathy for her I don't think this really works as a massive Eat the Rich attire if our core character is cheating on Benji who up until this week seems to be quite a good partner you get what I mean yes obviously some dark things come out from Benji during this week and the way he kind of is complicit with his family's behavior is really [ __ ] up but she was cheating on him before knowing that our cool character isn't great either and it kind of muddies the satire really the ultimate victim of this show is Megan F his character who is murdered but the show doesn't really spend much time making us empathize and really feel bad for her unfortunately like what happened to her is awful you know she was accidentally impregnated by tag he then goes yo I don't want your baby after getting her excited and being like I do want your baby and then Dakota fenny snuffs her off you know because Dakota fenning doesn't want to wait for the inheritance or the trust fund sorry it's like that's such an interesting idea but we really didn't know much about was it Meritt Megan Fay's character we really didn't know much about her and what makes her tick and all of this adds up to a show that's like a decent 6 out of 10 like I do tell people to watch this show if they are interested if they want something light and fun to watch over the weekend but I just my issue with this show is I feel like it could have been fantastic every single kind of plot threaded flowed with each character potentially being the culprit could have been a lot more interesting like I didn't have a sense of relief when certain characters were or weren't found to be complicit or non- complicit you know like I really liked tag even though he's like obviously a shitty partner I found him an entertaining character but when he was being interrogated for the murder of Merit I wasn't particularly relieved when he was found to be not guilty or you know kind of concern for him and I found that to be the case with every single character in fact even though it would have been really predictable if it was Nicole Kim's character I would have found that at least a bit more interesting or satisfying character-wise but I think the fact that it was Dakota Fanning and we don't get even Jack raina's reaction to how he feels about his wife getting locked up and the fact that his newborn baby is going to be born in jail like we don't find out anything the show just cuts off the the moment the mystery ends we don't even get a sense to what her sentences is nothing now you could make the argument that it's meant to be a bottle show right it's only meant to take place on this little weekl long Getaway on this estate but it's like we then jump 6 months later to when G meets Amelia in London so it's like you could have then given us more insights into what happened to the rest of the characters because the way the show ends you're just kind of like oh why did we spend time with so many characters and unfortunately as much as I love Eve Houston as an actress I thought she wasn't given much to do in this show she is the main character I think she's the protagonist rather than Greer but I think Greer was given a lot more to do tag was given a lot more to do even Jack rea's character the [ __ ] boy guy was given a lot more to do but unfortunately Benji and Amelia feel like afterthoughts when they are kind of the main focus of the show at least initially and it's just really frustrating because I think this is a lot more forgivable if this was a book and this a book right I think if this was a book you picked up ironically at the airport like they discuss in this show right and you read it over 3 hours You' just be like oh yeah what was I expecting it was a fun little page Turner with paper thing characters but a decent little mystery who cares but when this is a 6h hour Netflix miniseries rather than a fun little 90-minute movie and there's Red Carpet Events and millions of dollars are spent on this and this incredible cast comes together this one once in a lifetime cast gets together and delivers like something that's just perfectly fine these issues are a bit more frustrating I think as a book this is probably fine you know you just be like okay I spent $15 on it it got me through the flight whatever but in my opinion I think we deserve a bit more as you know Netflix fans or TV fans and people that care about good casting and good writing I think yeah we deserve more and I think this show could have been a lot better with maybe better writers or a better director dare I say and it's a shame because it looks like you know in the last intro dance sequence they had a lot of fun making the show you know I think the director joins in on the dance that's really sweet but unfortunately I do not think this show came together which is really unfortunate because yeah so many interesting ideas there were these little moments I was really enjoying I even love seeing the kind of final confrontation between tag and Merit through different people's perspectives we see it from Will's perspective we see it from Dakota's perspective it's really fun I also thought Amelia stumbling across Merritt's body was a really welld done scene I thought all the interesting subplots about Amelia's parents and her cancer and her potential you know suicidal ideation was really interesting and I appreciate that the show tried to flesh out every character I just think it needed to be tighter in terms of it editing and it's writing and it's execution the cutaways to the interrogation where random strangers are talking about their perceptions of the couple so for example the French lady and the maid and that gay guy are all talking about what they think of the family these were so bad they were so much worse than the ones in big little lies and they were clearly going for a similar tone to the ones in big little eyes that had incredible cutaways where you know someone would be talking about like oh this couple has an incredible sex life and then it would cut to someone having a terrible sex life or this these people are always really well dressed and they cut to someone looking schlubby it was really a great source of like information in terms of how the characters saw the family and also a contrast to what the family actually was whereas in this show just the writing was really clunky the jokes weren't landing and I thought it was actually kind of cringe and it's like I can tell you've been inspired by big little lies but this is not big little lies on top of that if I can nerd out uh some of the shots in this show were just like not in Focus there were scenes where it would cut from one character and the color grading was really good and it would cut to another character and it was really grainy it was like it wasn't in Focus or something I'm not sure exactly what went wrong here someone with more technical inside probably knows but just like no shock cohesion on top of that there was some moments where it was clearly trying to be intense but the framing was just distracting and pain painful in terms of how close it was to someone's face and there were things obscuring and not in a really creative like the big short sort of way just in a really clunky frustrating way and yeah I'm just disappointed because when this show was working it was really working for me I really enjoyed probably episode two three and four but around that I thought the show was a bit of a struggle in my opinion regardless those are my thoughts if you enjoyed this video thank you so much for watching please let me know what you'd like me to talk about next and have a lovely day