"Nicole Kidman’s Wicked Thrills in The Perfect Couple"

Glass breaks when Nicole Kidman flashes  her teeth in a smile. Dogs cower,   birds fall from the sky.  Her own eyes get icy white. Her grins produce extremely high sound  waves that are inaudible to humans,   but the US may employ those ultrasonic  frequencies as a deadly weapon. Her flawless white teeth are  prominently displayed in the glossy,   superficially addictive Netflix drama The  Perfect Couple. In a number of TV dramas,   including Big Little Lies, Nine  Perfect Strangers, and Expats,   Kidman portrays the viciously unhappy, sickeningly  wealthy character that she has mastered. She's bestselling author Greer Garrison Winbury  this time, who married into one of the wealthiest   old families in America. Her insecurity vibrates  through her. Her main moral compass is snobbery;   she assesses others based on their  fame, wealth, and family history. She gets briefly excited in a childish way   when one of her boys says she puts  too much importance on things like   "who you went to school with" or "whether  you're on the guest list for Malia's wedding." "I see, Malia Obama is getting hitched?"  She lets out a gasp before realizing   it was a satirical reference to  the former president's daughter. When Greer's future daughter-in-law Amelia (Eve  Hewson) shows up before breakfast wearing only   her underwear and holding a ladybug, we get  all the information we need to know about her. Greer interrupts her task of directing the  caterers to direct her brittle smile towards   Amelia. "Did I not give you a family robe to  wear?" she asks, her sweetness lethal. Amelia's   transgression extends beyond her plebeian  act of wandering around partially nude. Furthermore, she doesn't recognize the  favor done for her—only a select group   of people are allowed to don the prized Winbury  dressing gown. In real life, Hewson is Bono's   daughter. At her wedding to Greer's middle  son, Benji (Billy Howle), she finds herself   the sole innocent among a group of pill-popping,  cheating, avaricious, and haughty backbiters. The setting is the New  England island of Nantucket,   which was formerly the hub of the global  whaling trade. The Winburys still own a   $40 million beach "cottage" and  used to own half the seafront. In one aerial view, a humpback whale is seen  breaking the surface of the ocean with a massive   splash. This might be interpreted as a reference  to the family's success in making whale oil,   or it could represent the magnitude of the  splash that Amelia's wedding would cause. This particular type of society splicing is so  elaborate that it needs to take place twice,   starting with a full dress rehearsal the day  before the ceremony. The wedding planner, Roger,   is in charge of choreographing every moment  of arrogant excess, including a line-dancing   performance on the beach where all of the guests  participate to Meghan Trainor's smash song,   Criminals. Singing, they punch the air, "Anything  that feels this good, well, it must be illegal." However, a lot of mojitos and martinis are drunk  during the run-through, which causes family   tensions to escalate. The next morning, one of the  guests is found floating face down by the water. All six installments, which are based on Elin  Hilderbrand's book, may be streamed right   now. They adhere to the genre convention of not  revealing the identity of the deceased right away. A brief introduction to each character is followed  by their one-on-one interview at the police   station with Donna Lynne Champignon, a detective  who is decidedly unimpressed by their affluence. Merritt Monaco, Amelia's bridesmaid, Meghann  Fahy, uses the event as a chance to increase her   influencer presence on the internet. She is hated  by Benji's older brother Thomas (Jack Reynor). There are instances when privilege is  overemphasized. Thomas Fanning's wife,   Dakota Fanning, was among the first  to be hauled in for an interview. She   boasts afterwards, "They can arrest me, but  they won't." since I'm a female Caucasian. This level of excess and self-interest does  yield a steady stream of vignettes that are   comically cruel. While smoking a joint, Greer's  husband Tag (Liev Schreiber) practices his golf   swing by hitting balls into the ocean with the  intention of hitting seagulls. Irina Dubova,   who plays the family's housekeeper, tells  investigators that the Winburys are so wealthy   that they have a room set aside for gift-wrapping,  but she wraps every gift in her own room. And Tim Bagley's character,  Roger the wedding planner,   tells the police about his clients'  incredible wealth, saying, "Oh, they're   rich."Wealthy enough to engage in child  sex on a private island. 'I'm bored,   let's go get a monkey.'"Rich,"  "kill someone and get away with it." That's demonstrated by the private planes at  the nearby airport, which are arranged like   limos. Pour yourself a raspberry cocktail and  indulge if, since the conclusion of Succession,   you have been craving your fill of  billionaire betrayals and feuds.