We are in the grip of a new wave of Kidmania.

Fresh from the enthusiastic reception Babygirl At the Venice Film Festival, Nicole Kidman is back on our screens in a new six-part crime thriller series The perfect couple. Based on a 2018 bestseller by Elin Hilderbrand – also known as “the queen of beach reading” (cc New York Magazine) – starring Australian actress Dakota Fanning, Liev Schreiber, Eve Hewson, Billy Howle, Meghann Fahy and Midsummer‘s Jack Reynor in a brilliant Netflix binge. Resistance is probably futile: sooner or later you will will Join the others among the large clusters on the Nantucket coast to find out exactly what kind of shady business these handsome people are up to. Hint: it involves a gruesome murder.

These old-fashioned clapboard houses and their luxurious interiors are among the attractions of a series that is considered one of the the secret vices of the year. But not all of them were filmed exactly where you would expect. Here is director Susanne Bier (Birdhouse) and their cameras set out to capture the show’s affluent milieu.

What happens in “The Perfect Couple”

Kidman plays the super-rich and successful romance novelist Greer Garrison Winbury, who has been married for a long time and is supposedly happily married to Tag (Liev Schreiber) and lives on an exclusive island in Massachusetts. One of her sons, Benji (At Chesil Beach’s Billy Howle), is about to marry Eve Hewson’s less privileged Amelia Sacks. Greer is very unhappy about a rich boy/poor girl scenario that doesn’t make it into one of her novels. In fact, she’s angry enough to be incredibly polite to her family and throw the kind of dream wedding that will surely only bring shame to everyone involved.

At least that’s the idea, until a thoughtless person is murdered. The dream turns into a nightmare when suddenly everyone on the island is a possible murderer, including Greer’s other sons Thomas (Reynor) and Will (Sam Nivola), Thomas’ pregnant wife Abby (Fanning) and Amelia’s best friend Merritt (The White Lotus‘ Meghann Fahy). Maybe even wedding planner Roger (Tim Bagley). Hey, if you can organize a finger food buffet, you can organize a capital crime.

Where was The perfect couple filmed?

Both the Netflix series and Elin Hilderbrand’s novel is set on Nantucket, a picture-book island off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The island is a two-hour and 15-minute ferry ride from the mainland and it is difficult to get the entire cast and crew there. Instead, the Winburys’ huge estate, Summerland, was built in Chatham, Cape Cod on the mainland. The Cape Cod landscape, with its countless hydrangeas, was a perfect match for the family’s sprawling property.

“Because the majority of The perfect couple was filmed on location in Chatham, the production (has) an authentic Cape and island feel,” says Hilderbrand Boston.com.

However, part of the show was filmed on Nantucket. The second unit filmed around the island, including at the famous Bartlett’s Farm. “Hollywood’s (stunt pilot) Fred North shot from above in his helicopter and later wrote to me that it was one of the most beautiful places he had ever filmed in,” says Hilderbrand..

Check out the trailer for the series below or head over to Netflix to watch all six episodes now.

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