'The Couple Next Door' Sets Up an Overly Complicated Web of Not-Sexy Drama

The reviews for The Couple Next Door are in and they aren't great. However, if you heard the words "Sam Heughan erotic thriller" and came for the plot, that's a personal problem. Today, we are only talking about the first episode of the six-part first season, and while it's not perfect, it did check the boxes regarding what one should expect from the aforementioned description. 

Alfred Enoch (The Critic) and Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark) star in the Eagle Eye drama as Pete and Evie, a young couple that moves into an idyllic new neighborhood in Leeds, only to discover that their picture-perfect neighborhood is not what it seems. They are immediately greeted at their moving truck by their next-door neighbors, Danny (Heughan) and Becka (Jessica De Gow). While Evie is immediately taken with the couple, investigative journalist Pete isn't so sure about the enthusiastically fit duo. That all changes when Evie experiences a miscarriage shortly into the premiere episode. She and Pete have been struggling to get pregnant and went through two rounds of IVF before a sperm donor finally did the trick. Evie is devastated to learn that the third try also won't lead to another baby, and Becka is right there to pick up the pieces, cementing her friendship with Evie. 

Pete is a supportive husband, but he's wracked with his own insecurities about not being able to get his wife pregnant. Those insecurities aren't helped by looking at Danny every day (which we totally get, dude. That is an unfair standard to measure yourself with). Distrust turns to intrigue when Pete catches Danny and Becka sharing a very affectionate nightcap with a couple they met on vacation. It's wild how no one on this show has considered closing their curtains or blinds, and they flaunt their personal business in front of their windows, but that is not a complaint. 

After two months of mourning, Evie is ready to reclaim her youth and sense of joy. The desire to live it up is only reinforced after she and Pete go visit her parents, who apparently run a religious cult. We'll circle back to that in a moment. They bailed on Evie's parents to have a barbecue with Danny and Becka, where Evie downed a few glasses of wine. The liquid courage pushed her to ask Danny for a ride on his "sexy motorbike," which he happily obliges. Good on Evie for voicing what she wants. Also, kudos to her for making the most of the experience. When riding on the back of a motorbike with Sam Heughan, you should hang on as tight as humanly possible. We get it, girl, and we are on your level. 

To Pete's credit, even though he was concerned about the pair going on this ride slightly impaired, he let Evie go with relatively little fuss. And when the ride led to her craving some kinky sex in the kitchen later that night, Pete went along with it. He's not stupid and knows that the motorcycle ride inspired this new exhibition streak in his wife, but he's also there to support her choice not to drown in grief over the miscarriage anymore. Of course, the kitchen sex was not enough. Evie ran out in the rain to throw out the week's trash and came face-to-face with Danny, doing the same with his household trash. The heat between them was palpable as they stood in the pelting rain. Evie wants more, and Danny seems willing to oblige, so let the swinging begin! 

The Couple Next Door premiere would be perfectly acceptable if everything above is all that happened, but the drama decided to throw in everything and the kitchen sink. The main problem with the show at this point is that it's doing too much. Sexy people having sex with each other is enough in an erotic thriller! They already have Pete and Evie's fertility issues, and the fact that Evie has only ever been with Pete makes the dynamics between them and their neighbors interesting and complicated. 

That's not all that's going on, though. Their nosy neighbor Alan (Hugh Dennis) is obsessed with Becka. He spied on her with his telescope. He's saved every photo she posted on social media in a series of folders on his computer. He took her yoga class and looked deeply peeved when she told him to drop down to the beginner class, but he refused to do private lessons. That doesn't bode well going further into the series. 

Meanwhile, Danny and Becka allegedly are dealing with some money issues, pushing Danny to pick up some nefarious bodyguard work on top of his job as a police escort. He's escorting dangerous criminal and their contraband across the city for cash. How many episodes will it take before Danny's bodyguard job gets entangled with Pete's investigation into the corrupt mayor? I say three, maximum. And we can't forget about that religious cult. That is such an intense detail to throw into this premiere episode, so it will come back and haunt us at some point, and I do not look forward to it. 

This show is going to get messy and overly complicated, but let's hope it gets sexier first. That is what we came for, after all. 

The Couple Next Door will release new episodes on Starz every Friday through Friday, February 21, 2025. Episodes are available to stream on the Starz app with a subscription. Season 2 (god help us all) is already greenlit.