While waiting for the next group of guests to arrive inThe White Lotusseason 4, Netflix’s murder mystery show from 2024 provides a similarly entertaining viewing experience. WithThe White Lotusseason 3 only being eight episodes long, the Thailand-set outing’s conclusion felt like it had arrived rather quickly following a nearly three-year gap after the season 2 finale. ThoughThe White Lotusseason 4has been confirmed,it’s unclear how long it’ll take for the HBO series to return, increasing the need to find similar shows to watch in the meantime.
Since its 2021 debut,The White Lotushas had a big hold on the market for black comedy satire murder mysteries, with Mike White’s anthology series following the staff and wealthy guests at differentfictional White Lotus resort locationsaround the world. Each star-studded season begins by revealing that someone dies at the end of the week, leaving audiences to guess the killer and victim’s identities. Other studios have put out their own TV answers to the satirical murder mystery craze, withNetflix’s 2024 Nicole Kidman-starring miniseries containing some of the trademarks that have madeThe White Lotusso popular.
The Perfect Couple’s Themes & Murder Mystery Setup Are Similar To The White Lotus
It’s A Great Next Show To Watch After The White Lotus
LikeThe White Lotus, Netflix’s 2024 seriesThe Perfect Couplebegins by revealing that a major character dies. However,The Perfect Coupleoperates more as a whodunit, as we know exactly who dies and have to try to figure out who killed her. Also similarly toThe White Lotus,The Perfect Couple’s cast of charactersarecentered around a wealthy, privileged family at a lavish beachfront location, though we also have several figures who don’t come from money. That said, they each bring plenty of secrets and twists that could have led them to commit murder.
90%
The Perfect Couple
65%
The Perfect Couple’s closest similarities toThe White Lotuslie in its tone and themes,satirizing the ultra-rich while tackling the murder mystery and family dynamics through black comedy. However, whileThe White Lotusis masterful when it comes to the darker, more dramatic, and bleak themes of its story,The Perfect Couplestruggles with that balance. As such, while both are entertaining murder mysteries,The Perfect Couple’s 65%Rotten Tomatoesscore being so much lower thanThe White Lotus’ 90% overall rating reflects the differences in how effectively their overall narratives are executed.
The White Lotus' Sam Nivola & Meghann Fahy Also Star In The Perfect Couple
Daphne & Lochlan’s Actors Were Also On The Perfect Couple
The overlap betweenThe White LotusandThe Perfect Coupledoesn’t stop at their themes and premises. The two shows also share some major cast members.Meghann Fahy, who portrayed Daphne inThe White Lotusseason 2’s cast, stars inThe Perfect Coupleas Merritt, who is revealed to have been killed in the first episode. Additionally,The White Lotusseason 3’s Lochlan Ratliff actorSam Nivola stars inThe Perfect Coupleas Will, the youngest son of the show’s main Winbury family.
Considering there are already some shared cast members betweenThe Perfect CoupleandThe White Lotus, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see more actors from Netflix’s series pop up in the HBO show’s future outings.Nicole Kidman has already expressed interest in joiningThe White Lotus(viaIndieWire), with big names like Dakota Fanning and Liev Schreiber also being great choices topotentially joinThe White Lotusseason 4’s cast. Of course, there’s always the opportunity forThe Perfect Couple’s Fahy and Nivola to reprise their roles fromThe White Lotusif Mike White goes ahead with his “all-stars” season idea.
