January is a bleak wasteland for television. The holidays are over, the awards-bait dramas have wrapped, and we’re left scavenging for scraps of watchable content. Enter STARZ, seemingly aware of this content drought, with “The Couple Next Door,” a six-part thriller arriving hot on the heels of the “Outlander” season finale. Coincidence? I think not. STARZ knows its target audience. Take a look at the trailer below.
While this might not be the reunion “Outlander” fans envisioned for Sam Heughan (trading kilts for khakis, alas), “The Couple Next Door” at least offers him a chance to shed the romantic hero persona and dabble in something darker. Alfred Enoch and Eleanor Tomlinson star as Evie and Pete, a seemingly ordinary suburban couple whose lives become anything but when they strike up a friendship with their glamorous new neighbors, Danny (Heughan) and Becka (Jessica De Gouw). As the trailer reveals, a night of uninhibited intimacy throws these two couples into a tangled web of secrets, lies, and potentially criminal behavior.
The premise isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel (we’ve seen variations on this suburban noir before and it’s based on a Dutch original called New Neighbours), but the series has a few things going for it. The cast is appealing, it’s UK airing on Channel 4 generated a lot of buzz, and, let’s face it, sometimes a bit of soapy intrigue is exactly what’s needed to combat the January doldrums.
“The Couple Next Door” offers a bit of escapism, a dash of salaciousness, and, yes, even a smoldering Sam Heughan. In the barren landscape of mid-January television, that’s more than enough to pique my interest.
“The Couple Next Door” premieres Friday, January 17, 2024, at 9:00 pm ET/PT on STARZ.
