Netflix’s drama ‘The Perfect Couple’ features stunning sunsets and memorable establishments

The idyllic seaside oasis exists, and it’s on full display in Netflix’s mystery drama The Perfect Couple.

Based on the novel of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand, the six-episode series, starring Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber, features the wealthy and seemingly perfect Winbury family. But when a body washes up at Summerland, the family’s historic seaside estate, they’re suddenly at the center of a murder investigation that could expose all their secrets.

Apart from its captivating whodunit element in the midst of wedding celebrations, The Perfect Couple is also placed against a picturesque backdrop — making the killing even more disorienting.

In Hilderbrand’s signature style, the 2018 book is set on Nantucket, Mass., but it wasn’t the only destination visited when the bestseller was brought to the small screen. That said, the author assured Boston.com in June 2024 that the limited series has an “authentic Cape and island feel.”

So where is The Perfect Couple filmed? Here’s everything to know about the show’s real-life locations.

Was The Perfect Couple filmed on Nantucket?

Eve Hewson as Amelia Sacks and Billy Howle as Benji Winbury in ‘The Perfect Couple’.Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Netflix

The majority of The Perfect Couple was not filmed on Nantucket, despite Hilderbrand using the island as the book’s setting.

However, in September 2023, Liliana Kondracki, the location manager for The Perfect Couple, and a crew of roughly 50 people shot footage on Nantucket from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

They captured B-roll of a car driving by Mitchell’s Book Corner, the Brotherhood of Thieves restaurant and the Soldiers and Sailors Civil War Monument on Main Street — all three locations were decorated for the Fourth of July, according to Nantucket Current.

Speaking to the Motion Picture Association’s online magazine The Credits in September 2024, cinematographer Shane Hurlbut shared what it was like working with director Susanne Bier and fellow cinematographer Roberto De Angeles.

According to Hurlbut, Bier gave him and De Angeles free rein to design the show as long as they kept her vision. “This idea of rich, wealthy, sun-drenched July 4th at the Cape. She described it as a ’popcorn suspense thriller,’ ” he recalled.

Liev Schreiber as Tag Winbury ‘The Perfect Couple’.Seacia Pavao/Netflix

The two cinematographers made several decisions, including when filming occurred outdoors. With the show’s intense plot in mind, they used the location as another character to magnify storylines and emotions.

“We specifically made stuff not during the night because we felt it was going to be the script and the actors who brought the darkness, the drama, the suspense, and the skeletons in the closet,” he explained. “We wanted to have these light, airy, and beautifully sun-drenched visuals and show you Nantucket like you’ve never seen it before.”

To pull it all together, Hurlbut and De Angeles captured the island from the sky.

“The aerial was everything to us. We flew a helicopter a mile and a half away from Nantucket and captured the whole island as an essence,” Hurlbut added. “Roberto and I wanted to see the scope of this island and take in the glamor and the wealth that Nantucket and the Cape are all about.”

Where was The Perfect Couple filmed?

Nicole Kidman as Greer Winbury and Liev Schreiber as Tag Winbury in ‘The Perfect Couple’.Seacia Pavao/Netflix

The Perfect Couple was largely filmed in the seaside town of Chatham, located on the southeast tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Although scenic shots were taken on Nantucket, there were several locations in Chatham where key moments happened, including Eastward Point. The Chatham neighborhood served as a backdrop for the show, with its single-family homes and private beaches on Pleasant Bay, per Cape Cod Times.

In addition, production filmed at the historic Chatham Beach and Tennis Club, located at Lighthouse Beach, as seen in one of the trailers for The Perfect Couple.

The crew also transformed Northport Plaza, now home to Elwood’s Raw Bars, into the Nantucket Police Department. Netflix built an interrogation room and a jail cell in the basement, which Elwood co-owner David Eldredge hoped they’d leave behind but didn’t.

“They took everything,” he told Cape Cod Chronicle, explaining that he wanted to turn the set into an exclusive dining space.

Is Summerland in a real place?

‘The Perfect Couple.’.Netflix

Summerland isn’t a real place, but the home seen in The Perfect Couple appears to be.

As of right now, there are only a few details available about the Massachusetts house where the limited series was shot.

According to Cape Cod Chronicle, The Perfect Couple was filmed at a waterfront estate in Chatham’s Eastward Point neighborhood.

During an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, showrunner Jenna Lamia confirmed that the real-life Winbury estate was located in Chatham.

“That was our home base, and we did enhance it with blue hydrangeas,” she explained.

Why does Elin Hilderbrand set her books on Nantucket?

Nicole Kidman as Greer Winbury in ‘The Perfect Couple’.Seacia Pavao/Netflix

Over the course of her two-decade career, Hilderbrand has written nearly 30 books set off the Massachusetts coast, and this was by design from the start.

In a May 2020 interview, the writer opened up about spending summers in Brewster, Mass., where she and her family rented a cottage every July and spent their days at the beach, grilling and playing miniature golf. She told the outlet it was some of “the happiest times” of her life.

Unfortunately, Hilderbrand’s dad died when she was 16, and the tradition came to an abrupt end. Still, she vowed to return to the beach one day.

After graduating college in Maryland and moving to New York to teach English, Hilderbrand started vacationing on Nantucket during her summer breaks. Eventually, she decided to move there permanently in 1994 and six years later, she came out with her first book, The Beach Club.