Entangled Desires: "The Couple Next Door" Review
The Couple Next Door is about a young couple settling into a high end neighbourhood (at the beginning of their family) just across the street from their new neighbors. But their lives go all awry when they become entangled in the lives of their strange, youthful and alluring neighbors. The traits of desire, betrayal and hidden longings entices the characters into a suspenseful emotional journey.
This series revolves around infidelity, obsession and people’s facades in their personal lives. Suspenseful and intense, layering out the darker aspects of suburban life. It elegantly does a fine job of capturing the duality of wanting and the frailty of humanitys ties.
Sam Heughan and Eleanor Tomlinson are fantastic as their characters messy figures stick out. Alfred Enoch and Jessica De Gouw give their characters a twist with their interesting portrayals and the ensemble cast becomes a dynamic force.
Its both gripping and nuanced approach to life, well detailed by Dries Vos in its storytelling. It strikes just the right note with its eye for detail and clever hand at capturing the subtleties of suburban intrigue.|The series also scores straight, as its score is judicious in its augmentation of dramatic moments with understated melodies. The subtle tease of the music throughout the air of suspense, serves to keep the viewers on their toes.|The cinematography emphasises suburban life in a beautiful manner, mixing those pristine exteriors with the warm sweaty interiors as we are made to become engrossed in relatively claustrophobic scenes. Lighting and angles highlight the building sense of unease in the narrative while production design shows the opulence of the upscale neighborhood while also showing cracks in the character’s lives. Each setting is worked to a tee, including special effects for dramatic effect, while maintaining the storyline in the realms of the realistic.
Special effects are kept to a minimum - working well in the series themes of deception and desire. Thus, human drama can shine with minimal distraction.
The editing is sharp and well done, keeping a steady pace that binds together a couple of story lines together. It helps to create so much more tension and emotional impact, changes to and transitions between scenes.
And the series sustains an engaging pace that builds a little at a time. It almost makes one feel like you could read a whole book (okay – two books) a day, knowing how much tension is building up and how apt climactic revelations can be simultaneously satisfying and thought provoking and how well-written dialogues are. It has conversations layered with subtext; making the interactions deep, and somewhere in the series, the pacing will be slow for some (and might prove frustrating) but the series nails the build of suspense. The Couple Next Door is an engrossing drama, one that enmeshes desire and betrayal into a compelling narrative rewarding patience with a rich one.
And while it is a thriller, the deliberate buildup pays off, yielding a good one. The series perfectly manages despite its heavy, dark storytelling, to keep its viewers glued to the screens by delivering some pretty strong performances. Those who are looking for a thought provoking and intense series will find this series both hitting the right spots and being memorable.
