No Filter Needed: Watching The Perfect Couple with Grace-Filled Eyes

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers The perfect couple.

When I write these words, anyone who knows me will be shocked, but I don’t look like Nicole Kidman. Or Dakota Fanning about that. Also, I don’t live in a multi-million dollar mansion from the beautiful Nantucket coastline with servants, drugs, gender and Botox in my Beck and Call. However, Netflix’s murder mystery The perfect couple, It resonated with me – than a Catholic wife and mother who are far more likely to be eating an annoying Netflix show with too much popcorn on Saturday night, dancing ridiculously in a cocktail dress with a friend But more than dancing in Megan trainer’s cocktail dress Criminal As seen in that glorious opening credits of the Smash Hit series.

Ok, I’ll be totally honest here: Sometimes you may find me in my kitchen Pretend Dance like this. Sometimes you may dream of me living from the Nantucket coast. The dogs barking and the children who are happy to stop, but are portrayed like this.

As I saw The perfect coupleI thought about the tendency to fantasize about the seemingly perfect life of others. Friends and family who know me well know that it’s not difficult to find something I’ve lost in books. It’s also not difficult to find yourself staring at a mansion you haven’t reached on Zillow or scrolling through the unruly life of others on Instagram.

The perfect couple Give viewers a rare permission to Gawk and dreams. It is filled with beautiful people who live beautiful lives. Viewers can get a rare glimpse into the flashy world they dream of most. We always have a lush wedding ceremony for the stunning Nicole Kidman and her charming and handsome husband tag (Liev Schrieber) for his son Benji (Billy Howl) and his impressive fiancé. Planning is granted free permission to stare as the famous novelist Greer Winberry Amelia Sachs (Eve Hewson).

The series juxtaposes Greer and Tag, the 29-year-old marriage of “The Perfect Couple,” and lists Benji and Amelia, who are just beginning in the next generation. Like viewers like me, Amelia is an outsider of Nantucket’s culture and wonders if she would fit this pristine family and their fantasy life. Naturally, Greer doesn’t believe she will, but that doesn’t stop her stepdaughter or her friends.

Amelia also wonders whether it’s worth the effort to even try to do so, even with all the perks that appear. At the beginning of the show, Amelia and her beautiful model Maid of Honor Merritt Monaco (Megan Fahi) ran poolside at Winbury Mansion and curated the post to undoubtedly encourage hope, making mistakes Encourages hope to achieve all intents without encouraging. Just that.

Furthermore, when Will (Sam Nibola), the youngest Winberry’s son, feels sad after a recent breakup, Merritt playfully cheats with him, takes a photo with him, and intentionally openly tag him I’ve attached it. The merit is that in her tanned bikini-covered body, the scenic ocean views and the sparkling smile set up towards a multi-million-dollar home, it becomes something that will cheer him up and make him an ex-jealous I am keenly aware of this. Importantly, envy only works if such a photo is posted for the world to see. There is no real emotional connection between the two.

After all, of course, even if the youngest Winberry shoots her dream looks, Merit is uninterested will. The “perfect couple” and shining smiles are what ex-girlfriends watch online, like most of the “perfect” relationships the series portrays. That’s how perfect life is for painting all stage.

As soon as this photo was shared, viewers discovered that Merritt had something to do with Will’s father. There is nothing that appears to an outside viewer of this family’s life.

The next day, Merritt is found dead and floating in the water near Winbury’s house. Her best friend’s wedding is cancelled and everyone at the wedding party is marked as a potential criminal. Or, to put Catholic terminology, they are all marked as potentially sinful. They may have seemed perfect on the outside, but it is clear that it is not the case now in the whole world. As journalists flock to the house, the crimes of Winbury’s family and their circle are on display.

Romance novelist Greer promoted a seemingly perfect life with tags as part of her brand, creating an image of an idyllic marriage, and boosting the book’s sales. But the real issues in their relationship are not the relationship between tags and merit, nor even the violence that occurs on their property. What’s even more problematic with the show’s parameters is the mutual adhering of the couple to maintain a wealthy, perfect Nantucket lifestyle at the expense of actual human connections. Their desire for outward acceptance overturns real efforts to form a genuine bond, together with each other, with family and friends.

Greer and Tag don’t seem to know whether the others killed Merritt or Care. They just want to maintain surface level happiness.

While watching the show, I couldn’t help but notice similarities between the portrayal of lifestyle marketing and concerns about the tendency to idealize perfectionism between couples and family members, both through book promotions and social media. Not there. IdolIt is a phenomenon that has expanded the perfectionism of couples and families, and I have increasingly observed within the church community, including my own Catholic circles.

In one of the early scenes where only Greer and Tag were first seen, they relax outside the exquisite home, initially sharing a reading moment with an outsider. Instead, Greer uses this precious time to laugh at Nantucket’s neighbors and observes at the judge that “anyone who wears the flip outside the boundaries of his house should be arrested.” .

Immediately I remembered the stories I saw this summer about proper dressing at Mass. Like Greer, the article is “flip flops” Specifically. I’m not saying this is a complete comparison. After all, the writers aren’t mentioning arrests! But I do, and I think the family members look at certain ways to act. I worry about the general sentiment that I should or is at risk that I am not completely included in church life.

Catholics often focus on the idea of ​​a “domestic church” that emphasizes a unique call to holiness for Catholic couples and families. Vatican II Documents Lumen Gentium This explains:

The family is, so to speak, a church in the country. Among them, parents, by their words and examples, should be the first preachers of faith in their children. They should encourage them in professions that are appropriate for each and raise them in special care occupations to the sacred nation.

what Lumen Gentium It suggests that Catholic couples and their parents should first and foremost develop a genuine, loving relationship with the Lord and then spring out of each other.

What that doesn’t suggest is that Catholic couples and parents should be universally prohibited from wearing flip-flops in large quantities, or that they should police other couples and parents about what That’s what it is. They are I wear it on mass.

The end of The perfect couple The main character remains at a crossroads, including Greer, the main character, the romance novelist. Greer “breaks up” the perfect couple appearing in her book series. This decision probably suggests that she is ready to face the incomplete truth of her marriage. Neither she nor Tag apparently murdered Merritt, viewers and the couple discovered similarly, but refusing to unearth the truth about the murder together is a form of a beautiful life and marriage. It showed evil beneath the surface.

First Samuel 16:7 “The Lord doesn’t see what people see. People see the outside, but the Lord sees the heart.” In culture obsessed with culture, culture is large, and (in my heart) ) In a more inexplicable culture in church life, it is free to remember that God is always visible beneath the surface. , or scroll through lies.

There are no perfect couples or people. For this I am grateful to God. God offers loving grace not in our sophisticated appearances, but in our sincere efforts to love each other, our flaws, all.

Yes, even if those flaws include my bad kitchen dance.