The idyllic There is an oasis by the sea, and it is on full display in Netflix’s mystery drama The perfect couple.

The six-part series, starring Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber, is based on the novel of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand and is about the wealthy and seemingly perfect Windbury family. But when a body washes up at Summerland, the family’s historic seaside estate, they suddenly find themselves at the center of a murder investigation that could reveal all their secrets.

Apart from its gripping crime element amidst the wedding festivities, The perfect couple is also set against a picturesque backdrop, which makes the murder even more confusing.

In Hilderbrand’s typical style, the 2018 book is set on Nantucket, Massachusetts, but it wasn’t the only destination visited when the bestseller hit the screen. Still, the author assured Boston.com in June 2024 that the limited series had an “authentic Cape and island feel.”

So where is The perfect couple filmed? Here you can find out everything you need to know about the real filming locations of the series.

Was The perfect couple filmed on Nantucket?

The majority of The perfect couple was not filmed on Nantucket, although Hilderbrand chose the island as the setting for the book.

But in September 2023, Liliana Kondracki, the site manager of The perfect coupleand a crew of about 50 people shot footage on Nantucket from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

They filmed a car driving past Mitchell’s Book Corner, the Brotherhood of Thieves restaurant and the Soldiers and Sailors Civil War Monument on Main Street – all three locations decorated for the Fourth of July, Nantucket Current reports.

In an interview with the Motion Picture Association’s online magazine “The Credits” in September 2024, cinematographer Shane Hurlbut talked about what it was like working with director Susanne Bier and his camera colleague Roberto De Angeles.

According to Hurlbut, Bier gave him and De Angeles free rein to design the show, as long as they kept their vision. “This idea of ​​a rich, wealthy, sun-drenched Fourth of July on the Cape. She described it as a ‘popcorn thriller,'” he recalls.

The two cameramen made several decisions, including when to film outdoors. Given the show’s exciting plot, they used the location as another character to enhance storylines and emotions.

“We intentionally didn’t shoot at night because we thought it would be the script and the actors that would bring the darkness, the drama, the tension and the skeletons in the closet,” he explained. “We wanted to have these bright, airy and beautifully sunlit images and show you Nantucket like you’ve never seen it before.”

To top it all off, Hurlbut and De Angeles photographed the island from the air.

“The aerial photography was everything to us. We flew a helicopter a mile and a half from Nantucket and captured the whole island as a whole,” Hurlbut added. “Roberto and I wanted to see the full expanse of this island and experience the splendor and wealth that make up Nantucket and the Cape.”

Where was The perfect couple filmed?

The perfect couple was mostly filmed in the coastal town of Chatham at the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Although landscape photography was done on Nantucket, Chatham featured several locations where key moments took place, including Eastward Point. The Chatham neighborhood served as the backdrop for the show, with its single-family homes and private beaches on Pleasant Bay. Cape Cod Times.

In addition, the production was filmed at the historic Chatham Beach and Tennis Club on Lighthouse Beach, as shown in one of the trailers for The perfect couple.

The crew also transformed the Northport Plaza, now home to Elwood’s Raw Bars, into the Nantucket Police Department. Netflix built an interrogation room and jail cell in the basement, which Elwood co-owner David Eldredge had planned to leave behind but never did.

“They took everything,” he said Cape Cod Chronicleand explained that he wanted to transform the set into an exclusive dining area.

Does Summerland really exist?

Summerland is not a real place, but the house in The perfect couple seems to be.

Few details are currently known about the house in Massachusetts where the miniseries was filmed.

Accordingly Cape Cod Chronicle, The perfect couple was filmed on a waterfront property in the Eastward Point neighborhood of Chatham.

In an interview with the Netflix series “Tudum,” showrunner Jenna Lamia confirmed that the Winburys’ real estate was in Chatham.

“This was our home and we decorated it with blue hydrangeas,” she explained.

Why does Elin Hilderbrand set her books on Nantucket?

Over the course of her twenty-year career, Hilderbrand has written nearly 30 books set off the coast of Massachusetts, and that was intentional from the start.

In a May 2020 interview, the author recounted her summers in Brewster, Massachusetts, where she and her family rented a cottage each July and spent their days at the beach, grilling and playing mini golf. She told the outlet it was one of the “happiest times” of her life.

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

After graduating from college in Maryland and moving to New York to teach English, Hilderbrand began vacationing on Nantucket during the summers. She eventually decided to move there permanently in 1994, and six years later she published her first book, The Beach Club.