While I haven’t been following any marketing for The Residence, shows like it are why I love getting to write about TV for a living. From Knives Out to Only Murders in the Building, I love a good whodunnit and with the added twist of the White House setting, plus Uzo Aduba and Randall Park as the lead detectives, I had a feeling this was going to be a fun time.
And thankfully, my suspicions were correct. The Residence is an incredibly watchable murder mystery with clever twists and turns, a strong ensemble cast, and a consistently intriguing question at its core that, if you’re anything like me, will leave you guessing in the best way possible. Though keep in mind that this only applies to the first seven episodes, as that was what was made available to me at time of writing.
The plot
During an already stressful State Dinner, things go from bad to worse when an important staff member of the White House’s Executive Residence is found dead in the floor above the festivities. In order to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, the MPD Chief of Police enlists the aid of Cordelia Cupp, played by Uzo Aduba, one of the most renowned detectives (and birders) on the planet. Working alongside FBI agent Edwin Park, played by Randall Park, the two must figure out who among the 157 suspects could’ve done it over the course of one very long night.
The review
The most important element in creating a great whodunit is the right balance of unpredictability and logical consistency. You don’t want the audience to figure things out right away, but you also want to make sure the final answer makes sense. The Residence absolutely nails this idea. Every single twist had me shocked but they all consistently lined up with previously known information. I simply wasn’t thinking about said information in the right way until the respective twist. This kind of nuance is extremely important for a mystery story and I’m sure I’ll pick up on even more of it on rewatch.
This is obviously helped by just how well-crafted the show’s main setting is. Every room of the White House is meticulously laid out and presented in vivid detail, with swooping panning shots and other forms of creative, perspective-shifting cinematography ensuring that the audience has a full and firm sense of the geography and who was in what place at any given time. Speaking of who, that brings me to one of the other important ingredients of a good whodunit: the characters.
You want the detective to be a compelling hero and someone who could believably solve the case while struggling enough to let the audience guess on their own. And you want each suspect to be complex and layered enough that people will root for their guilt or innocence in equal measure without fully knowing where they stand until the very end. Again, this is something The Residence nails right out of the gate.
The ensemble cast of suspects are not only a fun-to-watch group of colorful characters each with their own compelling backstories and unique personalities, but basically all of them have motives and/or alibis for the murder. My own guesses frequently changed from episode to episode, sometimes within the same episode. I don’t think I could tell you who the killer is even if I wanted to, that’s how much this show keeps you on your toes. But it never feels frustrating or nonsensical, but rather like solving an increasingly elaborate but nevertheless fun puzzle.
However, what really makes The Residence work is our two lead detectives, Edwin and Cordelia. Randall Park as Edwin is fantastic because Randall Park is fantastic in everything he’s in and he manages to do a lot with the second banana role he finds himself in here. But of course, it’s Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp that’s the real star of the show. Cupp is an extremely methodical, analytical, and intellectual detective and the way she’s able to pull the truth out of people, sometimes with nothing but a hard stare, is captivating to watch. And it’s Aduba’s performance that really makes it believable.
Admittedly, I was worried that “murder mystery at the White House” would feel awkward given just how horrible and chaotic the current White House is, but the show’s characters and world were compelling enough that I didn’t really think about that. However, that does bring me to my one major criticism of The Residence; namely that its political commentary is weirdly absent to the point of near nonexistence.
Obviously, the focus of the series is on the White House residential staff, as in chefs, housekeeping, general maintenance, and so on, which are largely permanent and don’t change between administrations. As such, I understand why political commentary wasn’t made a main focus despite the setting. But the setting in question is still the White House and the President of the United States is a major character. It would only make sense that some level of political commentary would play a role in the story, but they often deliberately avoid it.
The show’s President has no explicitly stated political party and the presentation of both him and his administration has such a mishmash of both liberal and conservative ideologies that it feels almost impossible to guess his party by design. Early on, one of the staff members remarks that the work they do is “not political in any way” as if to make a statement about the show itself. It feels like an attempt to avoid distracting from the main narrative that ultimately ends up being more distracting than if they had taken a strong political stance in the first place.
Is The Residence worth watching?
I was consistently enthralled by The Residence in a way I was not expecting to be. The characters are layered and compelling, the cinematography is top-notch, it’s funny, it’s thrilling, and its central mystery legitimately kept me on the edge of my seat, if you’ll pardon the cliche. I have no idea how this story ends or what the final answer is, but I cannot wait to find out.
The Residence is now streaming on Netflix. Seven out of eight episodes reviewed.
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