Death and Other Details - Season 1

Stuck in the middle of an ocean, a dead body is discovered. Fate have it be that the world’s greatest detective is aboard. Can he crack the case? Not on his own, it turns out.Death and Other Details echoes the classic Agatha Christie-style murder; a locked room, a bunch of suspects with some seriously messed up history and bad blood among them, and all this set against the backdrop of a luxurious, high class art deco boat. And, of course, a murder. Yet in many ways, it is also different. Spanning ten episodes, it delves deeper into the story compared to traditional mysteries, with a broader cast of characters. But what sets it apart most is that the main character is not the world’s greatest detective (even though he is on the ship), but a young woman named Imogene (Violett Beane, God Friended Me), who is accompanying her friend trying to negotiate the business deal of a lifetime. Despite lacking detective credentials, Imogene gets involved in the solving of the murder, partnering up with our detective Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkin, Homeland).

And so the story goes. The first episode serves as as an introduction to the large amount of characters on the boat. While it took me a while to get used to everyone, it was not too overwhelming. After that, the focus shifts to the murder. Besides the murder in the present-day, we quickly learn that Imogene has some more experience with murders; her mother was killed in a bombing when she was little, a crime Cotesworth has never been able to solve. This new murder then provides him with a new opportunity; will Cotesworth and Imogene be able to solve the crime this time?

Overall, I enjoyed the show

Overall, I enjoyed the show. While it took me some time to get into it, I really started enjoying the show from around the third episode. I think this was partly because at that point it became clear that the pretentiousness that surrounds the whole thing was intentional, and part of the ‘joke’/critique that the show tries to convey. In that sense, Death and Other Details tries to be both an homage as well as a parody on the detective genre, in a way that is similar to how the Knives Out and Glass Onion movies do so. Yet, it does not manage to quite reach that level. It starts out too serious, and too pretentious. Only later, the parodic elements start to become more clear, and even then, it could have been more prominent. Half of the time we are unsure whether they are trying to make a point by being serious or making the opposite by being a parody. This confusion is annoying more than anything.

The series has a particular way of story telling, however, that is less common among the hundreds of detectives that are out there. This helps keep the viewer engaged throughout the ten episodes. Episode seven positively stands out in that regard, but it is not the only one. A central theme is the way memory works (or does not work), which is also what we see in the opening theme song. This is a nice addition to the genre, and makes that as a viewer you are not too sure about who or what to trust.

The ending, however, was somewhat disappointing

The ending, however, was somewhat disappointing. While it did tie up most loose ends, it fell short of expectations, a common pitfall in mystery shows; if you hype up a murderer for so many episodes, there is a good chance they cannot live up to that hype. Nonetheless, the ending was not a complete disaster, and did complete most story lines, even though there are some things that do not make sense to me still. It also left an opening for a second season, although it has recently been announced that there will be no second season.

So while not perfect, I did enjoy this Hulu show. If you decide to give it a try, try to not be bothered too much by the pretentiousness. A lot of it is just for show, and it will get better as the show progresses.