The problem with every new Netflix series is that you don’t always know what you’re signing up for. The perfect couple. The main roles are played by Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber. It is about murder. It is about a rich family. But what kind of Nicole Kidman show is this? Is it “Actually, this is serious” like Expatsor is it a Big little lies Melodrama? Maybe it is more of a Nine perfect strangers Prime-time soap feeling?
One way to find out is to watch the opening credits, because the opening credits of a TV show set the tone. And in the case of The perfect couplethe opening credits seem to imply that someone had a head injury. Or consumed a hallucinogen? Or is it a frustrated choreographer who somehow got the job as opening credits coordinator for this Netflix show and just brought the tools he had? Or just wanted to have fun!
To describe the scene: In the premiere of The perfect couplecalled “Happy Wedding Eve,” the opening scenes create a beautiful beach setting on Nantucket. Whales leap from the blue ocean. In a beautiful tent outside a stunning coastal home, Kidman, aka Greer Garrison Winbury, hugs her three sons. Guests at a rehearsal dinner sip champagne while carefully crafting explanatory and/or ominous dialogue like “Maid of honor, at your service!” and “I love this woman to death! Got it? Death.” Then there are shots of police cordons and evidence markers on the beach. Someone says, “Nobody’s getting married today. Someone died.” Someone else says, “Oh, they’re rich. Rich like a child sex ring on a private island. Rich like ‘I’m bored – let’s buy a monkey.’ Rich like someone who kills someone and gets away with it.”
In other words, this crime show is going to be fun! We’re all going to have a blast trying to figure out who did it! This isn’t one of those grim, important shows. This is a blast! But what if no one gets it? What if Kidman’s painfully serious performance and Schreiber’s grimace, which suggests he’s being held there under duress, don’t adequately convey how much fun this show is? Cue the opening credits Dance choreography!
Set to the tune of Meghan Trainor’s “Criminals” (key lyric: “Lock me up ’cause I’ve been bad / And I know I’ll do it again”), a drone shot shows the entire cast on the beach, lined up in front of the same tent used for the rehearsal dinner. They’re wearing their rehearsal dinner costumes. They’re not wearing shoes. They’re performing a choreographed dance that includes moves like “raising arms overhead,” “clap then slide,” and “turning sideways while pointing at the sky.”
Meghann Fahy and Dakota Fanning are either really having fun or are able to pretend it’s all fun and games. Most of the other participants are at least on board, doing their best to look like this is a great idea and like they’re totally comfortable with this group dance number as the opening to a Nantucket crime series. Consider Irina Dubova, for example, who plays the maid behind Fahy. This is a team player. This is someone who follows instructions, someone who may have their doubts about this endeavor but who is here to do a job and do that job well.
Kidman’s approach, meanwhile, is one of ethereal detachment. She’s there. She’s obviously the center of the whole thing. But she’s an absent center, presenting a calm and Zen-like serenity that conveys absolute confidence while simultaneously suggesting she’s on an inner hiatus. Is she fully committed to the character of Greer Garrison Winbury, a wealthy novelist whose marriage is falling apart? Or is she perhaps on a Thanos-like mission to amass lead roles as a mother in a series for every single streaming platform – and once she’s done that, can she ascend to a higher plane of being?
Photo: Netflix
And then there is Schreiber. This may look easy, and you might think that everyone can pull off this facial expression. No, no, no! It is hard to look so focused while filming a group dance number on the beach for the opening credits of a show about a gruesome crime. It takes effort and concentration. This man is a professional and he will nail it. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.
The perfect couple is not breaking new ground here. Pachinkothe heartbreaking and beautiful Apple TV+ show about intergenerational trauma in a Korean family, also uses a dance sequence as its intro. In this case, the dance is a defiant and glorious expression of exuberant joy, a metafictional framework that provides a moment of relief and celebration for characters whose fictional storylines are often marked by pain. As PachinkoThe actors look directly into the camera and are situated in a liminal space both inside and outside of fiction, offering the viewer a connection through shared experiences, a simultaneous recognition and relief.
The perfect couple does the same thing when you think about it. It is murder… but it is also dance. The dance of Life And Death. It’s a TV show for reading on the beach, and everyone is allowed to let their hair down. Just ask Liev Schreiber.
