We're telling you now: Netflix's The Perfect Couple is perfectly addictive viewing.
Starring Nicole Kidman, Bad Sisters star Eve Hewson, Dakota Fanning and The Bold Type's Meghann Fahy, this star-studded series is adapted from Elin Hilderbrand's novel, which revolves around the doomed wedding of newcomer to the wealthy Winbury family, Amelia Sacks (Hewson). The matriarch of the family Greer (Kidman) seems to disapprove of Amelia, but all is thrown up in the air when a member of the wedding party dies the night before the wedding – everyone, rich or poor, becomes a suspect.
But what The Perfect Couple really is at its core is six delicious episodes of rich people behaving absolutely atrociously – with genius comedic timing – and us as an audience delighting in it and simultaneously keenly awaiting their downfall.
It's coming so soon.
Multiple affairs and abuses of power are revealed throughout, with NDAs quickly served to protect members of the Winbury family. Money is thrown (or at least threatened to be thrown) at unethical transgressions instead of actual acceptance of bad behaviour. Two of the Winbury brothers even end up wrestling over what is undoubtedly an unspeakably expensive wedding cake. Economic cost means nothing, and the family clearly believes themselves to be above not just the law, but basic morals. This is demonstrated over and over when multiple members of the family come under suspicion of murder.
Liev Schreiber's character Tag, in particular, clearly seems to believe that he can outrun any wrongdoing due to his wealth. His oldest son, Thomas, is your classic misogynistic, aggressive finance bro who acts like a spoiled child. The women are crafted slightly differently, quieter but no less deadly in their scoundrel behaviour. Nicole Kidman simmers as the family's matriarch Greer – when she's not in PR damage control mode to protect the family's ailing reputation, she is subtly undermining relative commoner Amelia with the sweetest of smiles. Dakota Fanning's Abby – Thomas' pregnant wife – and her smooth delivery of slut shaming, salacious in-family sh*t stirring and all-around snobbery is pure genius. We can't stand her, but we'd probably still want her to like us if we met her.
The new Netflix TV series, just like Succession, The White Lotus – even shows like The Undoing and Big Little Lies, both also starring Nicole Kidman, as well as Desperate Housewives and Gossip Girl for those with an early Noughties fixation – revolves around seriously unlikeable rich people doing terrible things, being terrible people, and getting away with it. For a certain stretch of time, anyway. Emerald Fennell's divisive Saltburn also scratched this itch, particularly with Rosamund Pike's Lady Elspeth Catton delighting and repulsing audiences in equal measure with her universal aversion to “ugliness” and her sweetly-delivered offensive comments, including calling a friend's suicide “attention seeking”.
“When people have wealth and privilege, it can sometimes be harder to conform behaviour to social standards, because there is little cost for not doing so,” mindset psychologist Dr Rebekah Wanic explains.
So why do we find this behaviour by the wealthy so compelling, particularly during times of such economic strain – shouldn't a cost of living crisis make us completely disenchanted and repulsed by such objectively bad people enjoying their immense wealth and evading consequences for bad behaviour? For clinical psychologist Dr Sarah Bishop, it comes down to multiple factors, including our need for escapism and the comfort that can come with social comparison.
"In times of economic uncertainty, such as a cost of living crisis, people often seek escapism through media," she explains. "Research shows that engaging with extravagant lifestyles allows viewers to temporarily escape their own reality, providing a sense of relief from daily stressors."
As well as the attraction of escaping our financial troubles, seeing the perceived flaws of rich people, she says, can compel us as well. “Watching the privileged can trigger social comparison processes. People may feel better about their own lives when they observe the flaws and failures of the wealthy, as this reinforces the notion that happiness and success are not solely determined by wealth.”
Our obsession could also be some form of schadenfreude, us delighting in the misfortune of those who appear to be so completely and utterly fortunate. “It reinforces the notion that life is fair, even when it isn't,” Dr Wanic says. “Rooting for those in power to get their comeuppance seems to reset the scales when they don't win all the time.”
Dr Bishop adds that the downfall of the privileged “can be seen as a form of poetic justice”, also points to the impact of “narrative tension” on our screens when we watch a TV show centred around the allure of privilege. "These storylines often highlight themes of excess, moral ambiguity, and the consequences of poor choices, captivating audiences who are drawn to the unpredictability of such arcs.”
Perhaps this draws more than a few parallels to the celebrity gossip obsession that so many of us hold. We love to hear about their wealth-filled lives, but also feel irresistibly drawn to the drama of when things go wrong – celebrity divorces, scandals, break-ups, what could be more compelling?
Whether its horrendous in-family backstabbing in the Succession board room, or the dizzying out-of-touch behaviour of rich people in a luxurious holiday resort in The White Lotus, we are all in. And perhaps on top of the allure of wealth and privilege on screen and the escapism it provides, there's something about seeing power play out on screen – and the ways in which it corrupts.
When asked what she learnt about power and wealth while starring in Succession, Sarah Snook told GLAMOUR in an interview that it became clear to her that money doesn't lead to happiness, and that she was essentially persuaded of the truth of an old saying: “absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
So perhaps, in the most unpredictable of times, the predictability of power and wealth corrupting the seemingly perfect and untouchable – and the entertainment value of watching this unfold – is all the comfort we need when we sit down to watch Netflix.
