Starz‘s new thriller The Couple Next Door stars Outlander heartthrob Sam Heughan as hunky motorcycle cop Danny in suburban Leeds, England. While he and his drop dead gorgeous wife Becka (Jessica De Gouw) seem to enjoy the perfect (open) marriage, their idyllic situation is soon thrust into chaos by the arrival of an attractive new couple in the otherwise boring cul de sac. New neighbors Evie (Eleanor Tomlinson) and Pete (Alfred Enoch) soon become intwined with Danny and Becka, sparking some truly shocking and sexy developments.
**Spoilers for The Couple Next Door Episode 1 “Welcome to Suburbia,” now streaming on Starz**
The Couple Next Door Episode 1 “Welcome to Suburbia” deftly sets up the foundation of your typical erotically-tinged psychological thriller. Pregnant Evie and partner of 17 years Pete have moved the boring suburbs in anticipation of their first child being born. Immediately, they become friends with the hot couple across the street. Evie is enraptured with these nice hotties, while Pete feels emasculated when Danny singlehandedly carries a dishwasher into their new home. There’s also a creepy guy on the block who is obsessed with stalking yoga teacher Becka all while keeping his mobility-challenged wife stuck on the house’s ground floor. (More on this later!)
Everything shifts for Pete and Becka when she learns that their unborn daughter has perished in utero. It’s a particularly awful blow because they’d tried and failed for years to get pregnant with IVF. This pregnancy only came about thanks to a sperm donor. Strangely, it is Becka, and even Danny, who are more there for Evie at this time than Pete.
The first episode of The Couple Next Door ends with Danny giving Evie a spin around the block on his motorbike in the rain. Evie is immediately smitten. So much so, she initiates sex with Pete for the first time in ages and soon finds herself trading lustful glances with Danny. What’s going to happen next? Well, based on the violent cold open, bad stuff, folks!
That’s your quick overview of what went down in The Couple Next Door Episode 1 “Welcome to Suburbia,” but here are five things that jumped out to me, an American woman watching the UK-set series for the first time:
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Wait, But Alfred Enoch is Hot, Though
Look, I understand that Sam Heughan is considered one of the hottest international sex symbols of the last decade. Jamie Fraser has probably starred in millions of people’s private fantasies and Heughan himself is a gem of a human being. However, it was incredibly strange that The Couple Next Door pretended that this meant Pete actor Alfred Enoch was some sort of hideous loser. Alfred Enoch is a very attractive man! He’s starred as the male lead in a Shondaland show for crying out loud!
Pete might be a drip, personality-wise, caring more about his koi fish and local corruption stories than boinking Evie, but Alfred Enoch is hot, damn you! I feel so gaslit!!!
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Wait — The Couples Live ACROSS the Street From One Another, Not Next Door?!?
Maybe I’m missing something, but this show is called The Couple Next Door, and yet, the couples in question live across the street from one another. That’s why the first episode can end with Danny and Evie can look at each other from opposite sides of a paved road in the rain, their eyes hot with desire, their wet pjs clinging to their bods.
I suppose that Danny and Becka’s house could technically be “next door” to Pete and Evie’s home, as they live in a cul de sac. However, I swear, I can always see the vague outline of a house in between their homes in shots. What’s going on here? Do these people really live next door to each other? Is there just a vacant lot rounding out the cul de sac? Did “The Couple Next Door” just sound better than “The Swinging Neighbors Across the Street“?
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Evie is Lucky She Can Legally Get an Induction Where She Lives
In one of the most tragic storylines in The Couple Next Door‘s premiere episode, Evie visits the doctor to make sure her unborn baby is okay. Unfortunately, there’s no longer a heartbeat, meaning the child has died. Evie is still pregnant, though. Rather than have to carry this dead infant to term, only to risk a perilous delivery, Evie returns to the hospital for a medical induction. Her non-viable pregnancy is safely aborted, allowing her to (sort of ) move on with her grief.
As an American woman living in 2025, it occurred to me that Evie is lucky insomuch that she lives in the UK. This incredibly straightforward and human procedure is now banned in several states and there are many doctors afraid to perform this sort of induction for fear of legal reprisal. Anyway! Way to bring me cratering down to reality, sexy, escapist show on Starz!
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I Would Not Trust Any Man Who Didn’t Want Me Upstairs
The Couple Next Door makes no bones about the fact that neighbor Alan (Hugh Dennis) is total creep. The man not only obsessively thirsts over Becka to an unsettling degree in her yoga classes, but he’s also stalking her. The weasel’s got a telescope set up in an otherwise sad upstairs office space.
Still, that’s not even the biggest red flag for me. Oh no. I’m flummoxed by the idea that he’s so sangfroid about his poor wife Jean (Kate Robbins). The man has completely shut down and shut out her wishes to get a chairlift installed so she can go upstairs. Not only that, but it’s so weird he seems to not want to give his wife mobility in the house they share.
Sorry, but if I was married to a man and he didn’t seem amenable to helping me upstairs, I would not trust him. Jean, run!
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Are People Now Wearing Cocktail Dresses and Pantyhose to Backyard BBQs?
Okay, full disclosure: I grew up in the sleepy suburbs of Wilmington, Delaware, but have lived in cities for my whole adult life. I have been fortunate enough to attend many backyard barbecues in my youth and even a few similar outdoor parties at friends’ apartments. I have only ever been to one dressy barbecue and it was dressy as a gimmick. The rest have seen me in tees and shorts, cotton sundresses with canvas slip-ons, and even swimsuits under activewear.
So when I saw Becka in a vampy red cocktail dress and Evie clad in a similar “going out frock” for a casual backyard dinner, I was like, “Oh, wow, is this a thing now in the suburbs?” My confusion only intensified later in the episode when the ensuing sex scene between Evie and Pete revealed…she had been wearing sheer pantyhose!!! The whole time?!!?
I have to once again ask, “Is this a thing now in the suburbs?” If you’re heading over to the neighbors for some drinks and grilled food, do you wear something that would equally work at a middle class wedding reception?
What is your reality, The Couple Next Door? And why do your inconsistencies compel me??
The Couple Next Door Episode 2 premieres on Starz next Friday, January 24.
The post ‘The Couple Next Door’ Episode 1 Recap: 5 Stupid Thoughts I Had Watching The Sam Heughan Show appeared first on Decider.
