The Residence on Netflix - a No Spoiler Review of a Satisfying Murder Mystery

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Read why I Highly Recommend this sly little pressure cooker.

Uzo Aduba stars as Detective Cordelia Cupp in The Residence, Netflix’s sharp and surprising limited series. © Netflix

Looking for something to keep my brain busy while folding laundry, I recently pressed play on The Residence. Yesss. I could get down with a smart, White House–set whodunnit.

On the surface, that’s exactly what this Netflix limited series delivers: state-dinner pageantry, a dead body, and a cast to die for.

Think Murder, She Wrote meets Knives Out, with a dash of Clue: The Movie.

Uzo Aduba mesmerizes as Cordelia Cupp, a Holmesian detective with a pair of binoculars and deep-rooted ornithological passions. Giancarlo Esposito embodies the White House’s murdered head usher, a penultimate professional whose demise becomes the story’s gravitational core. In his orbit: a spicy ensemble of wacky suspects, including comedy ringers Jane Curtin, Jason Lee, Bronson Pinchot, and more - each adding layers of charm, suspicion, or sorrow.

By the eighth and final episode, the mystery snaps into place with the kind of narrative satisfaction one might compare to The Usual Suspects (minus the baggage of having to reckon with Kevin Spacey).

The twists are juicy.

The satirical metaphor that emerges? Even tastier.

But I have to come back to those stellar performances. Every character pulses with layered contradiction because every actor leans all the way in. Together, they deliver a delicious distraction. In fact, you’re so busy watching the mystery unfold, you might not get the laundry folded, and you won’t recognize yourself in the mirror until the dénouement.

I watched that final episode just hours after publishing my post & poem titled This Is Not a Game, and still didn’t ken that The Residence is really America, the ensemble. Not until the final reveal. Or maybe I’m inventing subtext. You should decide that for yourself.

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Byrne Alive Highly Recommends The Residence on Netflix for everyone (13+). It’s smart, sassy, hella fun, and the ending is well earned. If you watch it, let me know what you think!