In creating The White Lotus, Mike White precipitated an inadvertent tsunami throughout the tv trade. It’s unimaginable, after two seasons of the globe-trotting HBO sequence, for there to not be copycats—even when these copycats supposedly come from different supply materials. The Good Couple, a six-episode miniseries primarily based on Elin Hilderbrand’s 2018 seaside learn, is sort of a sugar-free food regimen model of The White Lotus. There are stunning wealthy folks, an aspirational location and, in fact, a homicide that needs to be solved. The present even has Meghann Fahy, an actress who starred on the second season of The White Lotus. However the place White cleverly performs with have and have-not tradition and units his characters up for dramatic reveals that you simply don’t see coming, The Good Couple, from creator Jenna Lamia and director Susanne Bier, limps lengthy till just a few clues type of add as much as a finale.
Nicole Kidman performs Greer Garrison Winbury, an elitist novelist who’s married to Tag (Liev Schreiber), a scorching dad who doesn’t seem to do something however roam round his Nantucket mansion and have affairs. They’ve gathered on the beachside home for the wedding of their son Benji (Billy Howle) to Amelia (Eve Hewson), a bohemian zoo employee who didn’t develop up with this type of stick-up-your-ass wealth. Everybody has come collectively for the marriage, together with Benji’s older brother Thomas (Jack Reynor) and his pregnant spouse Abby (Dakota Fanning), Amelia’s greatest buddy Merritt (Fahy) and Benji’s greatest buddy Shooter (Ishaan Khattar). They’re all fairly obnoxious, save for Amelia and her mother and father, and it’s an enormous catered affair with tons of of oysters and excessive expectations. That’s, till certainly one of them is discovered murdered on the seaside the morning of the marriage.
It rapidly turns into a whodunit with native detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin) and police chief Dan Carter (Michael Seaside) on the case. The episodes are instructed each in current day and in flashback as we study who was getting as much as what with whom and why. There are some “gotcha” moments that don’t fairly work, though a few of the storyline is average compelling. It’s in the end Hewson who saves the present along with her real, considerate portrayal of a lady whose life is upended on her wedding ceremony day. Fanning’s pouty wealthy lady is enjoyable, too, however different forged members aren’t given sufficient to do (Fahy, particularly, appears wasted). The titular couple is, in fact, Greer and Tag, but it surely’s troublesome to care about both of them, even when Kidman is an endlessly compelling onscreen presence.
Reveals about rich assholes doing ridiculous, entitled issues are perpetually satisfying, but when we are able to’t empathize with the character we a minimum of must be curious about them as folks. The failings are largely within the script—and probably within the supply materials—and Bier, an excellent director, makes an attempt to wrangle a not-super-exciting thriller into one thing dynamic. Moreover, the present’s opening credit score sequence is so weird and tonally off that it’s curious Bier included it in any respect. The ending alters Hilderbrand’s denouement, altering the circumstances and motive, and giving extra malice to the killer. Is that this a breezy weekend binge that may go to No. 1 on Netflix? Sure. Would all of us choose a brand new season of The White Lotus as an alternative? Additionally, sure.
