In The Residence, eccentric detective Cordelia Cupp is called upon to investigate a suspicious death in the White House. Can she figure out what happened amid the chaos of this household? Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba) is a strange bird in the new Netflix series The Residence. This eccentric detective is called in to investigate the case when a dead body is found in the White House. Although they initially try to keep the investigation secret, it doesn't take long for everyone to know about it. Because the deceased was found during a state dinner, there are many witnesses. Cordelia's task is to find out whether this is a suicide or murder.
When watching The Residence, viewers cannot fail to notice that Cordelia Cupp is somewhat reminiscent of Hercule Poirot from the Agatha Christie stories.
The story of The Residence is told over several timelines. Most of the time we see what happened in the house just before and after the body was found. A small part of the story takes place during a hearing that takes place some time after the incident. In Washington, they are still not sure what happened that night and with the testimonies of several key characters, the government hopes to find out. Then there is also the part of the story that focuses on Cordelia's private life. Although we don't learn much about her, we do get to see a little of her personality outside of her work and what makes her the person she is.
When watching The Residence, viewers cannot fail to notice that Cordelia Cupp is somewhat reminiscent of Hercule Poirot from the Agatha Christie stories. The unique characters and classic style of the environment in which the story takes place also have many similarities with the books and films of Agatha Christie. The fact that the location of the investigation is the White House makes it a nice insight into what it is like to work there. All details in that area come from the book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, which was written by Kate Andersen Brower and contains actual stories from the White House. Despite the fact that the series is fictional, there are many real details included.
The deceased found at the beginning of the series is head of housekeeping A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito). He is loved and hated by his colleagues at the same time. It turns out to have been a big chaos in the run-up to and during the state dinner. The Australian guests had specific requests that chefs Marvella (Mary Wiseman) and Didier (Bronson Pinchot) had difficulty meeting, social secretary Lilly Schumacher (Molly Griggs) kept changing all the schedules and planning and then there was superstar Kylie Minogue who suddenly came up with specific demands. This chaotic mess causes the necessary conflicts but also funny moments during the episodes.
The pace at which the story of The Residence is told is slow. It is a typical whodunnit that takes all sorts of side paths before finally answering the most important questions. Although the idea of the series is nice and the star cast is wonderfully chosen, I must honestly admit that I was a bit bored at times. The whole thing is not badly made, but I also don't have the feeling that you are missing something if you don't watch the series. It is not innovative, the mutual intrigues were sometimes a bit too obvious and the humor was a bit too bland for me. Moreover, I had already figured out how it all fit together before the denouement itself.
The whole thing is not badly made, but I also don't get the feeling that you're missing anything if you don't watch the series.
Australian actors were cast for the Australian characters, which I personally thought was a nice touch. Julian McMahon and Brett Tucker only had small roles as the Australian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister but made a good impression. Andre Braugher was originally supposed to play the role of A.B. Wynter but unfortunately he died halfway through filming due to cancer. The decision to re-cast his role and re-shoot his scenes was a difficult one but in my opinion the right one. Esposito is a worthy successor to Braugher and it is nice to see that the makers have dedicated the series to Braugher.
After watching all eight episodes I am not convinced that The Residence deserves a second season. This was certainly not due to the actors, they all convincingly played their roles. It was certainly not all yawning, I actually enjoyed watching it at times. Details such as the fact that the President of America is homosexual and therefore has a First Gentleman make it contemporary, which I also thought was a nice addition. It is also typical for Shondaland series to incorporate these kinds of diverse storylines into their shows. However, these details are not enough to make you forget the long-winded dialogues and boring background stories. That is why I unfortunately give The Residence a narrow pass mark.
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
