Netflix’s ‘The Perfect Couple’ is a poorly adapted beach read

Elin Hilderbrand, crowned “queen of the beach read” by New York Magazine, is well-known for her summery romance novels set in Nantucket. Beach reads are read mostly for guilty pleasure and escapism, especially on a relaxing vacation. However, the genre is also characterized by its lack of in-depth themes and characters, focusing more on plot and romance. As a result, readers will pick up these books not to stimulate their minds, but to transport themselves to a faraway island where entertaining drama ensues.

“The Perfect Couple” was the first book by Hilderbrand that I read, and I absolutely loved it. The characters were animated, the backdrops were artistically painted and the dialogue among the characters was genuine. Needless to say, like any other Hilderbrand fan, I was excited to see her book brought to the small screen. What I watched, however, was a severe disappointment. 

On the eve of Amelia Sacks’s (Eve Hewson, “Behind Her Eyes”) and Benji Winbury’s (Billy Howle, “On Chesil Beach”) wedding, a dead body is found floating in the ocean — later identified as the maid of honor and Amelia’s best friend, Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy, “The White Lotus”). What follows should’ve been a suspenseful murder mystery, rich with emotion and grief. Instead, the plot of the miniseries seems to follow an opulently rich family who treats the whole incident like an inconvenience to their otherwise unruffled beach house vacation.

If that wasn’t enough, elements of the show meant to be funny did everything except make me laugh. The show featured scenes where the working-class police and the wealthy Winburys made passive-aggressive remarks about socioeconomic class throughout the investigation. Some scenes made Tag’s (Liev Schreiber, “Ray Donovan”) alcoholism and addiction look like a joke that inadvertently helps you to gain internet fame. Worst of all, some scenes made Karen Sack’s (Dendrie Taylor, “1/1”)  Stage 4 breast cancer seem like a troubling inconvenience instead of a reason for care. In the first episode, the housemaid (Irina Dubova, “Wolfs”) is seen complaining about the wedding being moved forward to “accommodate Mrs. Sack’s dying schedule” after receiving a cheap present of “grocery store bananas.” If anything, these scenes made me squirm with discomfort, wondering how the writers could be this insensitive when adding so-called comedic lines to the script. There is a fine line between dark humor and blatant insensitivity, and the screenwriters of “The Perfect Couple” definitely crossed it.

Like any adaptation, the showrunner should be allowed to put their own spin on things, but as mentioned in a recent Variety article published about the show, it seems that Hilderbrand allowed showrunner Jenna Lamia (“Good Girls”) to take full reign on the storytelling, just as long as she kept the Nantucket charm intact. Indeed, the scenery and costumes were on theme, from the serene beaches to the quiet luxury of nautical outfits to the quaint beach house the wedding guests resided in. Whoever thought this visually pleasing stage design would distract from the intense creative liberties taken in this adaptation, however, is sorely mistaken. 

Sure, I don’t mind a few character changes or additions here and there, but “The Perfect Couple” is completely unfaithful to its source material. The Netflix adaptation was a complete overhaul of one of my favorite summer reads, to the point where I had to reference the book many times thinking I misremembered a plotline. 

Of course, there will always be things that work better in books than they do in TV. In a book, readers are more likely to be immersed in the characters’ perspectives and backgrounds to understand the motivating rationale for their actions better. On-screen, viewers want to feel immediate emotions, whether it be anger towards the killer and any liable accomplices, or sadness towards the helpless, blameless victim. As a result, instead of exploring the nuances of the characters on our screens, they were made out to be more black-and-white than they were in the novel. Unsurprisingly, by the time the killer was identified in the series finale, I didn’t even have the energy to care, seeing as the characters were so shallowly developed in the first place. 

I liked the book so much because it focused on building complex relationships between the characters. I actually read Benji and Amelia’s budding relationship blossom, rather than simply hearing about their meet-cute over a short toast at the rehearsal wedding dinner. I got to learn about the strength and beginnings of Amelia and Merritt’s strong female friendship, rather than seeing the two lounge on the beach laughing about superficial topics, like joking about the state of Greer’s (Nicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies”) nether regions. “The Perfect Couple” took five years to adapt, according to the aforementioned Variety article — maybe Lamia could’ve devoted some of that time to detailing the characters’ complex on-screen relationships rather than devising jarring changes that only disappointed fans of the original story. 

Netflix’s “The Perfect Couple” adaptation makes a mockery of the classic beach read. Yes, these books may be light and uncomplicated, but that doesn’t mean the characters have to be. I could go on about how the show perpetuates society’s condescending attitude towards the female-dominated romance genre, but The Daily has already covered the topic in detail. 

I can only hope that the next beach read adapted for the screen is shown more respect and nuance. Emily Henry’s “Beach Read,” I’m looking at you. 

Daily Arts Writer Michelle Wu can be reached at michewu@umich.edu.

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