Is The Perfect Couple based on a book? New Netflix show explained

Netflix has a good habit of picking up established material and turning them into great TV shows, and The Perfect Couple could be the next hit. But, what is the series based on?

The streaming service offers up a treasure trove of new TV shows every year, with a little something for everyone, from sci-fi adventures to romantic, soap-style drama.

The Perfect Couple falls firmly into the latter, and could well be the next big binge-worthy TV show to take over your life.

With Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, and Dakota Fanning in the cast, it’s a big deal. So, are there any literary inspirations behind the project?

The book behind the show

The Perfect Couple is directly based on Elin Hilderbrand’s New York Times best-selling novel of the same name.

Netflix

The original novel was released to much acclaim in 2018. It’s a romance story mixed with some grisly true crime elements and it’s all set around a big luxury wedding.

The Perfect Couple takes place in the summertime in Nantucket. Summertime. Amelia and Benji are deeply in love and about to get married. But, when a body is found floating in the harbor on the morning of their wedding, all the guests become suspects.

More from the author

Hilderbrand has been dubbed the “queen of the beach reads,” and her author career spans way back to 2000.

To date, she has written four short stories and 30 full novels. Many of her stories are set around Nantucket, a place she first visited in 1993. Beaches often form the setting for her stories, and there is always a romance element to her work.

The Perfect Couple was Hilderbrand’s first murder mystery novel and one of her most successful novels so far. It’s a standalone story, so there’s no follow-up novel to read, and likely no sequels in the offing for the TV series, too.

Interestingly, more of Hilderbrand’s stories could make it to the screen, though. Grey’s Anatomy star, Ellen Pompeo, has been working with ABC to adapt the author’s Paradise trilogy into a series.

What does Netflix have in store?

Netflix is releasing a six-part limited series on Thursday, September 5, 2024.

The show will star Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning, Jack Reynor, Billy Howle, and Eve Hewson as part of the main cast. Isabelle Adjani plays a supporting role, too.

As mentioned above, there will not be a second season of The Perfect Couple as it’s a one-and-done novel. That is unless Netflix loves it so much that they demand Hilderbrand write another.

For more of this kind of story, check out what we know about Virgin River Season 6 and The Thursday Murder Club. You can also find out what’s going on with Netflix’s password sharing rules.