Parnell: Cashmere crime shows fulfil a need – and our Nicole fits the bill perfectly

Cashmere crime shows fulfil a need right now – and Nicole Kidman fits the bill perfectly, writes Kerry Parnell.

You’ve got to hand it to Nicole Kidman – she’s the ice queen of TV dramas.

So successful is her latest Netflix glossy murder mystery, The Perfect Couple, that it has shot straight to the top of the streaming service, all over the world.

The series, based on a book by Elin Hilderbrand, follows famous novelist Greer Garrison Winbury (Kidman) and husband Tag Winbury (Leiv Schreiber), who are about to celebrate the marriage of their son Benji (Billy Howle) to Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson) at their beachfront Nantucket home, when a murder derails the wedding.

I mean, what more do you need? Nantucket, Nicole, nice house and cream palazzo pants splattered by scandal. Job done.

If you feel a sense of deja vu, it’s because, yes, you have seen it all before, multiple times and usually starring Nicole Kidman as the rich lady lead. Think The Undoing, Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers and Expats. I hope she gets to keep some of those silk blouses.

Nicole Kidman at the Los Angeles premiere of The Perfect Couple on September 4 in Los Angeles. Picture: Charley Gallay/Getty Images

The Perfect Couple starts off with an obvious nod to The White Lotus – it even stars the fantastic Meghann Fahy, who appeared as Daphne in the last series – but any other similarities to Mike White’s cleverly-written dark drama soon get washed away in a wave of dialogue so basic, it could have been “penned” by AI.

So “TV-by-numbers” is it, the casting agents must have flicked through the credits of all the other glossy moneyed-murder hits and fired cash out of a cannon at them, as Dakota Fanning was in Ripley, Eve Hewson starred in Bad Sisters, and Billy Howle was in Mother Father Son with Richard Gere, among other credits.

Liev Schreiber and Nicole Kidman in The Perfect Couple. Picture: Netflix

And, yet, it really doesn’t matter. These cashmere crime shows seem to fulfil a need right now.

When we’re in a cost-of-living crisis and time of turmoil, the old Scandi noir just doesn’t suffice. Now is not the time for rain-lashed locations and depressing interiors. We have enough of those. We want sunshine, mansions and money – less grime, more shine, with our crime.

Whatever the reason, I can’t stop watching. I came to the genre late, then binged the complete back catalogue of the Kidman Kollection and now I’m hooked.

The good news is, Nicole has signed up to a whole load more. Earlier this year, she let slip season three of Big Little Lies is under way, with Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz and Shailene Woodley, plus a second season of Nine Perfect Strangers. This time it moves to the Swiss Alps and stars White Lotus’ Murray Bartlett.

See what’s happening here?

To be honest, I may or may not also be addicted to those drama shorts which pop up on social media and look like they’ve been filmed for $2.50 in an office block in Canada. If you don’t know what I am talking about, for your sanity’s sake don’t search them up. Put it this way, I just need to find out if Braydon finally realises Freya’s a secret billionaire …

But while those shorts are lacking in the luxury fabric department, Nicole elevates any drama to designer with, I was going to say, a raise of one eyebrow, but obviously that would be just ridiculous.

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Originally published as Parnell: Cashmere crime shows fulfil a need – and our Nicole fits the bill perfectly