Netflix’s New Comedic Crime Caper Is the Perfect Weekend Binge

If this were a book, it’d be a hell of a page-turner. 

Sure, that’s a bold statement. But when it comes to The Residence, I’m going to stand my ground. Netflix‘s quirky new whodunit series from Shonda Rhimes — which premiered on the streaming service on Wednesday — asks the question, what happens when an important dinner at the White House is disrupted by the murder of one of the house’s staff members? Sheer calamity is the answer. Amid the cluttered murder mystery landscape, this show is a delightful standout.

The murder case in The Residence is a numbers game: one dead body, 132 rooms and 157 suspects. Needless to say, to find the homicidal needle in this complicated haystack, the team calls in a highly skilled investigator. As with any good murder mystery, that person must have an unconventional style and peculiar methodology. Well, step aside Adrian Monk: Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba) is in the building. 

Like Sherlock Holmes and Benoit Blanc before her, she’s known as the world’s greatest detective. Her mission, which she obviously chose to accept, is to solve the crime before the night is over in order to keep the news under wraps and maintain the political integrity of the nation’s capital.

As you can imagine, her job hits one challenge after another as she interacts with a cavalcade of strong personalities who each deliver conflicting accounts of the events that transpired. I should point out that the White House isn’t used to a detective combing through every nook and cranny like this. The place has a specific rule structure that keeps the house in order at all hours, making her investigation all the more tumultuous.

If there’s any detective perfect for this weird case, it’s Cupp. And Aduba steps into the role with a delightful ease that makes it feel like she’s always been the bird-loving, unabashedly confident sleuth. Her performance lifts up those of her skilled co-stars Randall Park, Giancarlo Esposito, Jasmine Haney, Ken Marino, Edwina Findley, Bronson Pinchot, Mary Wiseman, Paul Fitzgerald and Jane Curtin. I’d love to tip my hat to each and every one of the actors who grace the screen here, but the list is too expansive. It boggles the mind they all get some room to shine in these eight episodes.

The Residence knows exactly what it’s doing and why, winking firmly at the audience as it plays in a familiar genre sandbox. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel; it doesn’t need to. If you were to ask me to describe the show to my elderly mother, I’d pitch it as if Knives Out got tossed in a blender with Clue, Columbo and Monk, with a sprinkling of Murder, She Wrote on top. And, as this article’s headline states, it’s the perfect weekend binge. Don’t worry, I’ll let my mom know when I’m done writing this.

Former Scandal writer Paul William Davies, who created The Residence, wrote the episodes and served as executive producer and showrunner, revealed during a virtual press conference that movies like Clue and Noises Off greatly influenced the show’s comedic tone. 

The comedy works in both of those examples due to the disorderly nature of each story. Clue finds a group of unlikely house guests scrambling to stay alive and solve a murder while stuck in a giant mansion; Noises Off showcases the chaos that happens behind the scenes as a dysfunctional theater crew perseveres through in-fighting, battling egos and incompetence to bring a stage production to life. 

The Residence stands firmly in the farcical shoes of comedy classics like these. Thanks to the witty writing, succinct directing and editing, the show’s pace stays at a steady clip, which complements the punchy interrogation sequences and delivers red herrings aplenty, keeping you guessing to the very end.

Let’s focus on the White House again for a minute. Having this iconic locale as ground zero for this mystery is an intriguing choice. There are way more rooms in this place than there were in Mr. Body’s mansion in Clue, offering way more places for the story to explore. The show also mines White House history and explores the diverse lives of those who work behind the scenes — like the cooks, ushers and janitorial staff — who add to the upstairs/downstairs situation, which reveals an us-versus-them conflict that further complicates Cupp’s investigation.

Cupp delves deeper into the case as, throughout each episode, a grander tour of the grounds takes place. Did you know there were two basements in the White House? What do you know about the building’s third floor? How about the sinister-sounding Red Room? The mystery of the crime is offset by the secrets of the White House itself, giving us a sort of inside look at the men and women behind the curtain. And it’s fascinating.

In Scandal, Rhimes and Davies brought to life enduring political drama inside the Oval Office, which regularly featured the president of the United States. The Commander in Chief is more of a side character in The Residence, which is a delightful choice. Cupp acknowledges early on in the show that there are just too many dudes here. She’s not wrong.

Moreover, the president and his mostly male staff come off as barely qualified for their jobs. Harry (Marino), the president’s closest adviser and longtime friend, leads this crew in a manic, unhinged way that sets the stage for how things are run. As you can imagine, Cupp disrupts that energy, resulting in many hilarious confrontations with these… well, dudes.

When it comes to murder mysteries, recent entries in the genre have all but sidestepped the laughs in order to maintain their prestige status. It’s about time we brought some silly back. The Residence delivers on that front while maintaining its prestigious veneer. The result is a murder mystery series unlike anything currently on TV. Now, I’m not saying you have to watch the show. But I will put my detective hat on and deduce that you’ll have a rollicking good time if you do.