Just finished The Residence on Netflix, and it’s definitely an interesting take on the murder mystery genre. The show revolves around the murder of a White House usher and, as I mentioned in my previous blog, features a girlboss lead and plenty of woke elements. That said, I actually found it pretty entertaining.
Now, let’s get into it—spoilers ahead.
First off, I wasn’t a fan of how Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba) had a Monk-like quirk. The whole birding obsession didn’t really do it for me. I get that it plays a key role in the story, but it felt like an over-the-top character trait slapped onto a girlboss who seems to have a general disdain for men.
As for the rest of the cast, the murder mystery itself was solid, but aside from Aduba, Randall Kim, Jason Lee, Ken Marino, Bronson Pinchot, Giancarlo Esposito, and Al Franken, most of the characters felt like overacting Grey’s Anatomy White House versions. The housemaid-engineer love story was annoying, the President and First Gentleman weren’t given much to do, and a lot of the side characters were trying way too hard to be funny and relatable. Then there’s the “third man,” the bumbling calligrapher, and the White House kid stalker—characters that make you question the plausibility of this world. Even in a chaotic administration, the Secret Service wouldn’t be this sloppy. We just saw how they were blaming their selves when Donald Trump was almost assassinated during a campaign rally. Veep had absurd moments, but it never made the officials look this incompetent.
Now, for the fun parts. The show serves as a tribute to Andre Braugher, and I loved that. Captain Holt was a key reason Brooklyn Nine-Nine was amazing, and you could tell Braugher was going to bring that same gravitas here. Esposito also stepped up as Braugher's replacement and made the role his own. Another highlight was the Senate investigation. The dynamic between the Republican and Democrat senators (I assume) was fun to watch—how they got so caught up in the drama that party lines blurred was a great touch. I just wish they had been given more political weight rather than being overshadowed by the show’s chaotic side plots.
The mystery itself was engaging, even if it took a while to get there. But looking back, the real suspect felt too absurd. This is the White House—we’re talking about a place that should be packed with agents, cameras, and top-tier surveillance. With all the high-tech resources at their disposal, you’d think the FBI would have been more useful instead of relying on a detective with a thing for birds. The fact that they didn’t even have a tool to detect a woman mimicking a man’s voice was just baffling.
And finally, Cordelia Cupp. Uzo Aduba made this character work. She’s definitely a girlboss to the extreme, but Aduba’s performance sold it. A lesser actor would have crumbled under the insanity of Episode 8, but she pulled it off. Her crime-solving methods were actually well thought out, and her chemistry with Edwin Park was a highlight.
Bottom line: If you love murder mysteries—any murder mystery—you’ll probably enjoy this. It’s messy, it’s absurd, but it’s also a fun ride.