The Residence stars Uzo Aduba as a new sleuth who joins a pantheon of favorite sleuths such as Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, and Benoit Blanc. As the world’s greatest detective, she gets called to the White House to solve a seemingly unsolvable murder – or was it a suicide?
The Residence is a Shondaland production with all the humor, independently precise characters, and multiple subplots that Shondaland implies. The series was created by Paul William Davies, based on a book by Kate Andersen Brower. It’s whimsical, clever, and a great watch.
Cordelia has 157 suspects – not counting the people at the Australian State Dinner downstairs – to sort through in solving the murder. Local police, FBI, park police, the secret service and everyone else with a hope of jurisdiction are there looking over her shoulder. She’s most often paired with FBI Agent Edwin Park (Randall Park), who provides a lot of deadpan humor as he struggles to interpret Cordelia’s investigative style.
There are 8 episodes (Liza Johnson directed about half of them) in which Cordelia uses birds to inform her search among the many suspects. It’s a fabulous cast with every single person turning in a top notch performance.
A few characters I found fun were Jasmine Haney (Susan Kelechi Watson) the ambitious assistant usher, A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) the head usher, Lilly Schumacher (Molly Griggs) the White House social secretary, Harry Hollinger (Ken Marino) the President’s a**hole best friend and advisor, Sheila Cannon (Edwina Findley) a normally drunk butler, David Rylance (Brett Tucker) an Australian diplomat, Senator Filkins (Al Franken) the head of the Senate committee investigating the death, and Jane Curtain as the First Gentleman’s mother. The story began and ended with Jane Curtin, which I found a charming and fitting way to honor her comedy chops.
It was homage on top of homage. The episode titles were named things like “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Dial M for Murder,” and “The Third Man.”
Kylie Minogue was there as herself. A running gag about Hugh Jackman being among the Australians managed to last to 8 episodes without more than an ear or a pair of shoes revealing a supposed Hugh Jackman in the house.
Uzo Aduba can do no wrong in my book. She was positively a shining star as the eccentric detective. Everything from the way she walked and stood, the way she handled the heavy case she carried, the look in her eyes, and the perfectly phrased statements she made with panache hit just the right tone. She loved birds and tinned fish, in that order.
The mystery of the murder was mysterious until almost the last minute. A long Miss Marple style explanation of method and killer reveal in episode 8 capped the story. I thought the summation was a little heavy handed and long. It was delightfully political and contemporary to the state of the world. I certainly wasn’t complaining when the long wrap up wrapped.
Netflix dropped all the episodes at once, so you can see the whole delightful series as quickly as you want. I have no news about a 2nd season, but it would be most welcome.
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