etflix’s The Perfect Couple is the kind of show that assumes prestige casting and a scenic backdrop are enough to distract from weak storytelling. With a star-studded lineup, a murder at the heart of a high-profile wedding and a family dripping with old money secrets, it has all the ingredients of an arresting ‘whodunnit.’ But instead of intrigue, it delivers a sluggish, shallow mystery that stumbles over its own self-importance. When the final revelation arrives, any sense of suspense has long since faded, leaving behind a series that feels as empty as its characters.

The series begins with Amelia Sacks, played by Irish actress Eve Hewson. Sacks, a woman from a modest background, is about to marry BenjiWinbury, portrayed by Billy Howle. Winbury is the son of a wealthy publishing dynasty. Their Nantucket wedding is set to be the event of the season, carefully orchestrated by Benji’s parents — Nicole Kidman as Greer Winbury, the poised and calculating matriarch and her husband, Tag, played by Liev Schreiber, who mostly floats through scenes as if even he has lost interest. The illusion of perfection is shattered when Merritt, Amelia’s best friend, is found dead on the shore, forcing the Winbury family into the kind of scandal they have spent years avoiding.

The series painfully drags on for six bloated episodes, completely devoid of urgency. It stretches its mystery so thin that it nearly disappears altogether. Instead, there are hushed conversations, cryptic stares and drawn-out flashbacks that add little to the story. Rather than peeling back the layers of its central mystery, The Perfect Couple spends most of its time circling around dull conflicts. By the time a detective finally starts asking real questions, the viewers have already been dragged through hours of tedious, empty drama.

The characters are less people and more placeholders for tired tropes. Amelia, the bride-to-be, is frustratingly passive, moving through the series with a blank expression, as if waiting for someone else to move the plot forward. Greer, positioned as the icy puppet master, never becomes anything more than a cliché. Tag, despite his central role in the scandal, feels like an afterthought. Benji is barely present in his own wedding story. His brother Thomas exists solely to remind viewers that a trust fund is at stake. His wife, Abby, is one of the few characters who seems to have real motivations, but even she is so thinly drawn that her eventual role in the murder feels more like a last-minute twist than a carefully planted reveal.

The Perfect Couple suffers from the same problems as the movie Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, a murder mystery is far more interested in style than substance. Both present themselves as clever, layered puzzles, only to reveal that there is very little beneath the surface.

Merritt, the victim at the heart of the story, is reduced to nothing more than a prop. She was having an affair with Tag and ended up pregnant, which would have delayed the Winbury family trust distribution; money that Abby and Thomas were desperately waiting to access. Abby, determined not to let her future be delayed, decided to kill Merritt and frame it as an accident. In theory, this should have been a compelling motive and added complexity to the Winbury family dynamics. But instead of carefully deciphering Abby’s motivations, the show quickly pins the blame on her without much thought. Her crime is revealed so abruptly, with so little emotional weight, that it barely registers before the credits roll.

If any of this sounds familiar, it is because The Perfect Couple suffers from the same problems as the movie Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, a murder mystery far more interested in style than substance. Both present themselves as clever, layered puzzles, only to reveal that there is very little beneath the surface. Glass Onion at least had some energy, even if its satire felt forced. The Perfect Couple, on the other hand, moves at glacial pace, mistaking slow-burn storytelling for actual suspense. The dialogue is full of dramatic pauses that lead nowhere.The final reveal lands with all the impact of a damp tissue.

As the show drags itself to the finish line, it has exhausted any goodwill it might have had. The ending is rushed; the characters remain just as hollow as they were at the start; and the murder feels like an afterthought. Instead of a thrilling reveal of secrets, the show fizzles out, leaving no real resolution, just the lingering question of why it took six episodes to get there.

The Perfect Couple is a lifeless, self-important bore that mistakes dark visuals for suspense and shallow drama for a real story. What could have been a riveting mystery instead becomes an exercise in testing patience, asking its audience to wade through hours of nothing for a payoff that barely feels worth it. A perfect couple? Hardly. A perfect waste of time? Absolutely.

The author is a freelance writer