Dial M for murder: The White House whodunit that will keep you guessing ’til the end
If you were a fan of The Mentalist and have a thing for Miss Marple, chances are you will enjoy this pacey new Netflix series – a crime mystery set in the White House.
A murder has taken place in the president’s private residence in the White House – but there are no CCTV cameras there. Meanwhile, a state dinner for 160 people is happening on the floor below – an event in honour of Australia that includes our prime minister and the queen, aka Kylie Minogue. So far, so good.
The Residence, the latest offering from Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland (Bridgerton, Grey’s Anatomy) on Netflix, is a whodunnit in a confined space. Okay, so the White House is a pretty large confined space, but a consulting detective for the police by the name of Cordelia Cupp has her work cut out for her in trying to piece together what led to the murder of the White House’s chief usher, A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito).
The eight-part series jumps back and forth in time as we go from the night of the murder to a congressional hearing a few months later, with characters testifying.
Uzo Aduba as Detective Cupp. Photo: Courtesy Jessica Brooks/Netflix ©
Uzo Aduba was mesmerising as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” in hit TV series Orange is the New Black (2013-2019). She’s earned the right to helm a major TV series. As Cordelia Cupp she’s part Miss Marple, but with a lot more attitude, and part The Mentalist, with an uncanny ability to read people and notice small details no-one else seems to.
Paul William Davies (a writer on Shondaland show Scandal, also set in the White House) created and wrote the series, which was inspired by Andersen Brower’s book, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House. The building has been a never-ending source of fascination for film and TV makers, while comedians and satirists are lamenting that nothing, they can come up with these days can match the absurdities going on in there in real life.
The Residence also offers some absurdities and genuine laughs as it attempts and often succeeds to mix a light comedic tone with occasionally more serious aspects. But is it binge-worthy? Maybe not, because it lacks the element that makes you want to know what’s going to happen next.
In this version about the top seat of US power, the male president is gay and lives with his husband … so there’s an element of fantasy, too. But closer to reality is the fact that the president (played by Veep’s Paul Fitzgerald) has managed to create a toxic relationship with Australia. One line has a character saying, “Do you know how sh**ty you have to be to piss off Australia?” Too right, mate!
Thankfully, we don’t have to listen to the typically cringey attempts by Americans to do Aussie accents. There’s our Kylie getting to sing a few ditties and say a few lines, and Julian McMahon plays the Aussie PM. (Anyone old enough will remember that his dad, Billy McMahon, was our actual PM between 1971-72.) Brett Tucker of MacLeod’s Daughters plays the foreign minister.
Det Cupp is teamed up with FBI agent Edwin Park (Randall Park) – and they end up with quite a nice rapport, playing off each other. And, of course, Det Cupp has to have some sort of quirk, which is that she’s an avid bird watcher, even pausing at times to get out her binoculars to study a feathered friend in the White House grounds.
To be a successful birder, you have to be quiet and stealthy, as well as good at waiting and observing. These are Cordelia Cupp’s super powers. During one amusing scene, she merely sits there staring at some poor guy who says he won’t talk but who ends up spilling his insides, despite her remaining silent the entire time.
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Ken Marino, who plays the president’s best friend and closest adviser, is another main character who behaves suspiciously, while Susan Kelechi Watson (This Is Us), Jane Curtin (3rd Rock From the Sun) and Jason Lee (My Name is Earl) are some very familiar faces.
Sadly, the role of the deceased, which Giancarlo Esposito plays, was originally intended for Andre Braugher, the lovable captain from Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Frank Pembleton from Homicide: Life on the Street. Braugher died during filming and Esposito took over. He does well enough here for a character who doesn’t really elicit much emotion from the viewer. (I challenge any Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad fans to look at him and not get chills from remembering him as “the chicken man”, Gus Fring.)
The Residence is amusing enough to be entertaining, lighthearted viewing, but long periods of talk by Cordelia Cupp, especially in the final 88-minute episode, which seemed to go on forever – are tiring to watch. Pontificate by all means, but know when to wrap up.
The Residence is now on netflix.com