SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for The Perfect Couple.
Everything is not what it seems in the wealthy Winbury family of Netflix’s The Perfect Couple.
Their Nantucket home is pretty much the only idyllic thing about them, viewers will learn in the six episodes of the series, directed by Susanne Bier and adapted from Elin Hilderbrand’s novel by Jenna Lamia. Several key changes — big and small — take the show in a different direction than Hilderbrand’s book.
For name changes, entirely new characters and other different plot points in the show vs. the book, read more below:
Name Changes
Eve Hewson’s bride-to-be, Amelia Sacks in the show, is named Celeste Otis in the books. Isabelle Adjani’s French family friend Isabel Nallet also goes by a different name in the novel — Featherleigh Dale, and she is from London in the book, not France. Gosia, the Winbury’s housekeeper, is named Elida. Shooter Dival is also Shooter Uxley in the book, and “Shooter” is just his nickname.
The third Winbury brother
Sam Nivola as Will Winbury, Meghann Fahy as Merritt Monaco in ‘Perfect Couple’
Will Winbury (Sam Nivola) does not exist in Hilderbrand’s book. While there are three Winbury brothers in the show, there are only two in the novel — Thomas and Benji. Will’s plotline incorporates more of Chloe Carter (Mia Isaac) into the show. In the book, she still catered at the rehearsal dinner, and she caused some broken glass. She also knew that Merritt was pregnant with Tag’s baby.
Detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin)
Donna Lynne Champlin’s no-nonsense detective was originally Nicholas Diamantopoulos, aka the Greek, in Hilderbrand’s novel. In the book, Nick tries to “catch more flies with honey” as Chief Dan Carter says in the show while Nikki Henry cuts right past the entitlement of the Winbury family.
Donna Lynne Champlin as Nikki Henry in “The Perfect Couple”
Benji and Amelia’s Dynamic
Amelia is still aloof and very different from Greer Garrison-Winbury (Nicole Kidman) in the show, but she doesn’t pick up a stutter when she is stressed like her book counterpart, Celeste. Her husband-to-be Benji (Billy Howle) has some added wrinkles that make him a bit different on screen.
For starters, he likes to paint. He also gets caught with photographs of Merritt, but that was because she asked him to paint her. These details make Benji slightly more shady in the show.
Amelia’s dynamic with Shooter is also a bit different in the show, as Benji walks in on them kissing, but in the book, their affair is a secret until the wedding.
Merrit’s jewelry from Tag
In Hilderbrand’s book, Tag bought Merritt a ring, but in the show, it was a very expensive bracelet. It wasn’t a wedding ring, but a thumb ring. There was more confusion because the jeweler in the book knew that the ring was for a pregnant woman, which Greer confused for Abby (Dakota Fanning in the show). Greer also thought of wedding bands for Celeste and Benji.
In the show, the jeweler straight up asks about a bracelet because she sees Greer isn’t wearing one, and Greer plays it off like she understands the situation. She then finds the receipt in Tag’s desk drawer.
Nicole Kidman as Greer Winbury in “The Perfect Couple”
Broderick Graham
There is no Broderick Graha (Tommy Flanagan) in the book. Not only is he Greer’s long-lost brother in the show but he also is connected to a key part of her background that, until the finale, she had kept secret from her children. His entanglement in the murder case with Shooter’s money also does not exist in the book.
The Book Party
Greer is working on a new novel in Hilderbrand’s book, but she doesn’t have a chaotic launch party for it where her husband begins to unravel their perfect image.
Greer’s past
Greer’s true identity, which is unveiled in the finale of the show, is not part of the book. In the show, she reveals that she used to work as a high-profile escort, and that her brother Broderick organized the clientele. Tag was one of her clients, who paid three times for her services before he stopped.
The killer combination & motive
The whodunnit aspect of the story results in a different combination of events than what happened in Hilderbrand’s book.
In the book, Abby put one of Greer’s sleeping pills into a drink that she thought was going to Featherliegh (Isabel’s equivalent in the show), but the drink was instead served to Merritt. Merritt did go on a kayak ride with Tag in the book, but her drowning was accidental because she had drifted into the water to get back the ring Tag bought her, which she had thrown into the ocean in frustration. The sleeping pill took effect as she waded into the sea, and she drowned trying to reclaim the ring.
Dendrie Taylor as Karen Sacks in “episode 106 of “The Perfect Couple”
In the show, Thomas does still catalyze the events with his confession to the police, like in the book, but Dakota Fanning’s Abby deliberately drugs Merritt. She crushes up a pill that she took from Amelia’s (Celeste) mother’s secret stash of euthanasia because Karen Otis/Sacks (Dendrie Taylor) has cancer in both stories. Thomas in the show plays prescription roulette where he takes random pills from people and pops them by chance. Abby took a pentobarbitol pill that Thomas had thought was oxycontin. Putting the pill in a glass of orange juice, Abby waits for it to take hold before she smothers Merritt underwater and kills her.
