The Residence Review: A Wild Whodunnit Inside The White House

After action movies kept repeatedly visiting the US President's home, the doors of the White House have now swung open for a new genre — murder mystery.

The Residence is a whodunnit which sees a bird watching detective, Cordelia Cupp, walk into one of the most important buildings in the world to investigate the murder of the chief usher, AB Wynter, played by Giancarlo Esposito.

With an overnight hold over of diplomats and staff to solve the murder, the show's pace is equipped with both action and drama. Its safe to say that the bingeable eight-episode series written by Paul William Davies is a bite-size cousin of Knives Out.

Uzo Aduba, Crazy Eyes from Orange Is the New Black, returns to screens disguised as Cupp, the astutly observant detective dressed in funky neutrals. Seasoned with unhinged comments, Cupp’s confident entrance into the Presidential Palace of bickering men in suits is a treat.

As the show goes on, we see that she is not afraid to delve into a messy mystery even when things get a little ‘fishy’ (pun intended).

As the layers of politics, past, problems and events of the night unfold, the show is driven by Cupp gathering a birdseye view of what went down that evening. With characters who have an unreliable-narrator problems thrown into the mix, the chaos in plot is loud.

Clean graphics take us inside the Executive Mansion with 132-locked-rooms, saturated with over 150 suspects who are people adorned in ridiculously-rich pastels and the White House staff.

Jasmine Haney played by Susan Kelechi Watson makes a notable impression, making one feel the need to straighten up clothes and sit straight with her pristine character. Painted with memorably nuanced characters who delivered stellar performances, the supporting cast makes the show flow effortlessly despite the tangled timeline.

Loaded with Cupp’s animated methods and unapologetic introversion from the affluent crowd, the show offers an immersive ride away from reality. Benoit Blanc's smoother-than-his -southern-drawl crime solving abilities may have worked in Knives Out but here, the manipulative minds of the fabulously moneyed complicate the answers time and time again.

Saturated with subtle clues and tells about the crime, the complex and witty plot still manages to breathe well through the dense drama. The fragments of stories and events shared from past are used to cleverly build the audience's trust on the alibies and stories of the faces on screen.

With refreshing cuts to visuals outside the White House just in time, the show keeps the audience blissfully engaged even though the ending may not be rated a ten on ten by everyone.

Show: The Residence

Streaming Platform: Netflix