If only the real White House was this much fun.
If you’ve got eight-and-a-half hours to kill, you could do a lot worse than spend it watching Netflix’s The Residence. If you are a fan of the recent Daniel Craig “Knives Out” films, or mystery movies from the past such as “The Last of Sheila,” “Clue” or “Murder on the Orient Express,” you’ll especially want to check in to this Residence.
Lavishly produced by Shondaland’s Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers and created and written by Paul William Davis (Scandal), the series is long and talky and bogs down in spots in a few early episodes. Stick with it. The surprises keep piling up as fast as the clues, thanks to a terrific cast of veteran players you’ll welcome back, fresh faces you’ve never heard of and a couple of people who step up beyond expectations.
At the centre is Uza Abduba, who some will remember as “Crazy Eyes” from Orange is the New Black. She plays Cordelia Cupp, a character who runneth over with murder mystery tropes. She is, just like Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hurcule Poirot or Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc, “the world’s greatest detective.” She is just as arrogant and relentless as those other characters, letting nothing derail her single focus. She is eccentric as hell, fixated on birding to the point it shapes her entire view of a crime scene. She can hold a stare longer than Norm Macdonald did back on Weekend Update. When it calls for it, she can also sping into action and lead a charge through three floors of the White House.
The other big star of The Residence is the residence. It is the White House, recreated right down to the blood stains in the Lincoln bedroom. The producers spared no expense building and set dec-ing this iconic playpen right down to the lamps, clocks and cutlery. The paintings and statues of former presidents are moved around like chess pieces. Every good mystery needs a rich and intriguing setting, and this one is incredible.
The whole upstairs-downstairs dynamic drives this series. It is inspired by a book: The Residence: Inside the Private World of The White House. Presidents and chief of staffs come and go but the real residents of the White House are the staffers who, some of them, date back to the Johnson administration.
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The storytelling is a throwback to an earlier era of mystery novels and classic films. Yes, there is plenty of electric, fast-paced, crackling dialogue, but it all takes place in a series of keenly observed tableaus. The Residence is a welcome hybrid aimed at both 20th and 21st century attention spans.
Cupp is called in to investigate a murder when the body of the White House’s chief usher, A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito in an Emmy-worthy performance), is discovered upstairs. The murder occurs in the middle of a State dinner honouring the Australian Prime Minister (Julian McMahon from Nip/Tuck). The body is discovered by Nan, the mother-in-law of the president of the United States, played to the hilt in her strongest supporting role in years by Saturday Night Live original Jane Curtin.
Just listing all the actors takes about as long as watching the series so I’ll pick up the pace. Curtin’s not the only SNLer here. Al Frankin, who once was really a senator, is perfect as a senator. He’s presiding over a senate investigation of the murder, which is the clever frame holding this picture together. Franklin is so good here as an actor you wonder why he never acted his way out of having to quit the senate.
Detective Cupp brazenly ignores a host of top-ranked Washington investigators and officials. The one who plays Watson to her Sherlock is Randal Park as Special Agent Edwin Park. Those two are fun to watch as their relationship evolves.
Esposito, as victim Wynter, is very much alive in every episode through flashbacks as Cupp pieces together the moments leading up to the crime. The Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star never makes a false step in a role calling for both rage and control. Astonishingly, he stepped in after production had already started after the death of his friend Andre Braugher, who died in December of 2023. It is a shame not to see Braugher in this role, but he’d be the first to applaud Esposito’s performance.
Part of the fun of watching this series is recognizing many members of this incredible cast. (“Isn’t that whats-her-name from Star Trek: Discovery?”) I’ll single out two: Bronson Pinchot plays Didier, a White House executive pastry chef. He is deliciously over-the-top in another of his sly scene stealers. Jason Lee (My Name is Earl) plays Tripp Morgan, the president’s loose cannon, freeloading, slipper and robe-wearing brother. He makes Billy Carter look like Jimmy Carter.
One of the funniest characters, supposedly a member of the Australian entourage, is Hugh Jackman. Everyone keeps running into him throughout the long night at the White House — even though the actor is never really in the series.
Another famous Australian, Kylie Minogue, is a guest at the State dinner. She plays herself and is drafted into performing. That occurs as the night goes on and on after Cupp lays down a far-fetched “nobody leaves” directive. This is respected even by the president (Paul Fitzgerald), the first husband (Barrett Foa), the head of the FBI and all the Australians in one of those “go with it” plot tricks that only work in murder mysteries.
The eighth and final episode lasts 88 minutes and believe it or not it flies by. The series gains momentum as, one after another, various suspects rise to the top of Cupp’s long list. They are all found in her notebook, along with some impressive illustrations that could be spun off into their own Residence companion edition.
Will you guess whodunnit? The series playfully suggests that you could. It is always the one you suspected all along, one character proclaims. That wasn’t true for me, even though, as you find out at the end, Jane Curtin’s kooky character Nin knew it all along. She could have saved all of us eight-and-a-half hours, but, believe me, you don’t want to jump to the end of The Residence.
