The Perfect Couple
This article was published on 9/20 and republished on 9/22.
After two weeks, it finally happened. The Perfect Couple, Netflix’s murder miniseries-that-will-probably-not-end-up-being-a-miniseries, has been dethroned in the Top 10 list by a new show. And guess what? More murder. That show is Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
If the “Monster” prefix sounds familiar, that’s because the first installment of this was Monster: The Jeffry Dahmer Story, the massively-watched retelling of the famed murderer starring Evan Peters, which ended up with six Emmy nominations and a win for Niecy Nash as a supporting actress. Now, Ryan Murphy’s series is moving on to another famous case.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the murders of their parents in 1996, with them stating they did so because they were afraid their father would kill them if they exposed his years of abuse against them. The prosecution said they did it for money, and it was an extremely high profile case. Both brothers are still in prison, a life sentence with no parole.
Top 10
Like Dahmer before it, Murphy’s production has already stumbled into controversy for its subject matter, which has been lambasted on social media. Dahmer, similarly, was accused of exploiting the murders in a fictionalized way that some believed even glorified him as a killer in some ways. But controversies aside, Dahmer ended up being the literal third most-watched Netflix series in history with over a billion hours of viewing time. That immediately led to a greenlight for two more seasons, this Menendez one and a third one about serial killer Ed Gein where Charlie Hunnam was just announced for that part.
As for The Perfect Couple, after two weeks at #1 on Netflix’s Top 10 list, yes, it is almost certainly going to get a second season, despite that not being the original intent and the fact that there is no more book source material. Enough characters survived and even megastar Nicole Kidman is saying it should return so yes, it will return. No announcement has been made yet.
Elsewhere on the list, Zack Snyder has found a bit of redemption for Rebel Moon with his new animated series, Twilight of the Gods, which is reviewing well among critics and fans with a 67% and 70% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes, a far cry from those Rebel Moon scores in the low 20s and teens. The show follows the Norse god pantheon, and it is no doubt angling for a second season. It has debuted at #7 on the Top 10 list, and we’ll see how it’s supposed to perform to be renewed.
Expect to be hearing a lot about the Menendez show, it’s going to be a controversy magnet, just like the last one.
Update (9/22): If you were wondering if The Perfect Couple was going to get a season 2, there is some movement on that, even as it was supposed to be a miniseries. The show has done well enough where it will likely get renewed and move past the book source material. Here is star Nicole Kidman, who is on board, speaking to USA Today:
“I think it’s ripe [for more]…I think there’s still an enormous amount of history and an enormous amount of future.”
And her onscreen husband Liev Schreiber feels the same:
“They’re taking a break for now, but who knows? You can have the best cast, you can have the best director, you can have tons of money, but you don’t always get that synergy between people where they’re making room for each other. And this group of actors was really, really great at that. It was a lot of fun.”
Give its performance, the show will likely see that season 2, especially if its two biggest cast members are on board. We’ll look for more information on that soon, but for now, the show is still hanging out as #2 on the charts, and no doubt still putting up big numbers. But Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez story as a “sequel” of sorts to Dahmer is now likely to stay at #1 for a very long time, and I do not expect The Perfect Couple to reappear in that spot anytime soon, if ever.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
