Since I wrote yesterday about how disappointed I was in Apple’s “Dope Thief,” let me recommend a streaming show I really enjoyed.
The Netflix series “The Residence” will appeal to anyone who liked the “Knives Out” movies. Like those, it’s a murder mystery, but this one takes place at the White House. Fortunately, no one named Trump is among the characters. Rather, the show centers on Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), a detective with brilliant deductive powers in the Columbo/Benoit Blanc/Hercule Poirot style. It’s her job to figure out who killed the White House Chief Usher, A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito, perfect as always).
Like her predecessors, she is more than a bit quirky but doesn’t miss a thing as she questions various people who work behind the scenes as the staff of the White House residence (there isn’t even a glimpse of the Oval Office). Naturally, the more Cupp investigates, the more possible suspects she uncovers. There’s also a parallel timeline involving a Senate inquiry into the murder, with Al Franken as the committee chairman and Eliza Coupe as a congresswoman from the other party who can’t believe what she’s hearing from the witnesses.
Aduba is great as Cupp, as is the supporting cast, which includes Isiah Whitlock Jr., Jason Lee, and an almost unrecognizable Bronson Pinchot. If you’re worried you’ll only see Esposito in the earliest scenes before becoming a corpse, be assured his character, Wynter, is seen in the show’s many flashbacks.
“The Residence” walks right up to the too-silly line without stepping over, thanks to the series’ showrunner/writer, Paul William Davies. We breezed right through all eight episodes and finished hoping to see another season with a new Cordelia Cupp mystery.
Now streaming on Netflix.