‘A Couple of Lies’ Season 1 Review: What Happens When Nobody Hands Over the Whole Truth
Handing your house keys to total strangers is already an act of faith, and ‘A Couple of Lies’ builds an entire thriller out of that leap. The Swedish series, originally titled ‘Bytet’, landed on Netflix on October 30 as a four episode limited run. It adapts Stefan Ahnhem’s novel, with Kasper Barfoed directing and Amanda Högberg and Axel Stjärne writing.
Two wealthy couples agree online to swap homes, one in the Stockholm archipelago and one in a Sicilian villa. Helene and Carl Wester, played by Frida Gustavsson and Fares Fares, head south, while Scarlett and Adam Harris, played by Emma Appleton and Jakob Oftebro, settle into the cool Swedish house. They have never met, and none of the four is being entirely honest about why they wanted to get away.
This is where the series earns its attention, and also where it starts to wobble. The setup is deliciously uneasy, full of surveillance and small domestic wrongnesses, and the contrast between sunlit Sicily and the chilly Stockholm interiors gives the early going real texture. Then a body turns up on the Sicilian property, and the show trades slow paranoia for a busier, more plot driven scramble.
That pivot is the central gamble, and it only half pays off. If you have spent any time with this genre, you will guess plenty of the twists, and a few reveals arrive with more clatter than they deserve. I did not mind feeling a step ahead for stretches, but I kept wanting the story to deepen its people rather than simply stack up another surprise.
The cast keeps everything afloat. Fares Fares has a gift for playing a man whose confusion curdles into anger, and he makes Carl compelling even when the character is hard to defend. Emma Appleton is the most magnetic presence here, giving Scarlett a restless unpredictability that charges every scene she walks into.
The bigger problem is that these four people are difficult to love. They are selfish, evasive and quick to scheme, which gives you plenty to watch but very few people to root for. That suits a puzzle box, though it keeps the series at arm’s length emotionally.
The short running time is a genuine blessing. With only four episodes, and a score from Johan Söderqvist keeping the mood taut, the story never has room to sag badly, and you can finish the whole thing in a single evening.
Overall I enjoyed ‘A Couple of Lies’ more than I expected to, even while it frustrated me. It is a sleek, quick and handsomely located thriller with two excellent performances and a premise that gets under the skin, held back slightly by predictable turns and characters who keep you at a distance. I give it 7 out of 10.
How did you like 'A Couple of Lies'?
Do you agree that ‘A Couple of Lies’ is a smart weekend binge undone by guessable twists, or did it fool you completely, so share your verdict in the comments below?
