IIt’s beautiful to look at, it’s a 4,000-bedroom mansion on a beautiful stretch of U.S. coastline, and it’s full of lavish lifestyles funded by fifth-generation wealth. There are cashmere knits in impractical colors, plus more beautiful coastline, a murder that almost everyone in the neighborhood had a motive to commit — and did I mention the beautiful coastline?

We can only be in the presence of Nicole Kidman’s latest vehicle. This time around, it’s called The Perfect Couple , but you can think of it as Big Little Lies relocated from Monterey, California, to Nantucket, Massachusetts. Or The Undoing with a plot. Or Nine Perfect Strangers , but not crazy. It’s also, like every luxury murder mystery these days, part The White Lotus — which Kidman didn’t star in, but who remembers that?

So what are the tweaks to the spec? The perfect couple of the title are a bestselling novelist named, for some reason – perhaps abusive parents, perhaps a case of Bertie Wooster’s “rough work pulled at the type” – Greer Garrison Winbury (Kidman) and Tag (Liev Schreiber), her husband of 29 years. It’s possible they’re not as perfect as they seem. They have three sons – Thomas (Jack Reynor), a piece of work, golden boy Benji (Billy Howle) and youngster Will (Sam Nivola) who didn’t appear in the episodes available to reviewers, but rare indeed is the character in these Chess-like productions who goes unused, so we’ll just have to watch and wait for his move.

Benji is to marry Amelia (Eve Hewson), whom he loves dearly, even though she grew up without a view of the sea or cashmere knits. Greer is icily furious about this and takes it out on everyone in the most Waspy way possible – by creating the perfect wedding for the couple, admiring the fruit basket Amelia’s parents bring as a gift, and beating up the bride behind her back at every opportunity.

Almost as adept at slicing and dicing those not born in purple are Thomas’ pregnant wife, Abby (Dakota Fanning, having a great time as a weakness-seeking missile) and the wedding planner, Roger (Tim Bagley), deeply infatuated with the glamour of his betters. “They’re ‘I’m bored – let’s get a monkey’ rich!” he says with delight. “‘Kill someone and get away with it’ rich.”

Subtle foreshadowing is appropriate, but not here. There’s also Winbury’s loyal housekeeper (Gosia, played by Irina Dubova), who is contemptuous of anyone not born into the family or who has worked for it for at least two generations, and a particular admirer of Greer’s tight rein on everything. “Without fear, there can be no control.” Their interviews with the police intersperse the action, casting a sidelight on the main characters, much like those of potential witnesses and suspects in Big Little Lies. It’s just as effective.

Added to this small group is hard-partying maid of honor Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy) – more “raw stuff” – an $18,000 bracelet bought by Tag but not given to his wife, and lustful glances from Amelia at the best man, Shooter (Ishaan Khattar). There are lots of ignored phone calls to Greer from someone named Broderick Graham, free pills and weed for all, and a bloodstained shirt hidden under the bed of the police chief’s daughter. Throw in Isabelle Adjani as an old family friend (and Semtex in human form) and the stage is set for us to have a ridiculously good time on the very worst days of summer.

Once the police investigation begins, it becomes clear who the star of the show is – neither Kidman, nor the mansion, nor even the knitting, but Donna Lynne Champlin as Detective Nikki Henry. What a performance. Every thought the detective has about these terrible people flashes across her face, but never long enough to jeopardize the case, no matter how much she rails against the local police chief, Dan (Michael Beach), for cozying up to the family who fund so many community activities.

The Perfect Couple has a decent plot—and then some. The carousel of suspects spins and reveals drops at perfectly spaced intervals; if anyone can resist binge-watching all six episodes once they’ve started, I’m eating a fruit basket. It may or may not have something to say about the haves and have-nots, the power of money to corrupt, and class consciousness, but it doesn’t have the interest in such questions that, say, The White Lotus did. Adapted by Jenna Lamia from the book of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand, who’s known as the queen of beach reads, Lamia has preserved exactly what makes such books great, and given us a gloriously ridiculous treat. Nothing to do but sit back and enjoy.

The Perfect Couple is on Netflix