The Residence S1E1: Fall of the House of Usher
The White House is a place where secrets are kept. FDR’s disability. JFK’s affairs. Not to mention the espionage and backroom diplomacy that goes on within its walls. It would be an irresistible location for a murder mystery even if it wasn’t one of the most iconic buildings in the world and didn’t have heightened security and scrutiny to complicate every step of an investigation. You don’t need a convicted felon in the White House to make it a compelling scene-of-the-crime. And like Columbo and its unofficial remake, Poker Face, it’s satisfying to see powerful, dastardly people brought low by a dogged, clever underdog. Especially in 2025.
So that’s the killer premise of Shondaland’s latest (the series was produced by Shonda Rhimes and created by Scandal writer Paul William Davies), which stars Orange Is the New Black‘s Uzo Aduba as eccentric, renowned detective Cordelia Cupp. She’s introduced as a “consulting detective,” a title previously only used by Sherlock Holmes, and like Holmes, she’s hyper-observant, several moves ahead of everyone else, and has very little patience for anyone who can’t keep up to her, which is to say, everyone.
Cupp is called in when White House Chief Usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) is found dead in the billiards room while a state dinner goes on downstairs. It’s an apparent suicide, which Cupp quickly susses out was in fact murder. But first we get a sweeping tour of the show’s White House set, and a framing device in which a Congressional hearing led by Senator Filkins (former real-life Senator and ex-SNL head writer Al Franken) tries to unpack the events of that night.
Filkins begins by questioning Jasmine Haney (Susan Kelechi Watson), a White House usher who took over for Wynter after his death, and manages the chaos in the immediate aftermath. We’re also quickly introduced to her as a possible suspect, as flashbacks make it clear that she was slated to take Wynter’s job after he retired, and was furious upon learning he had abruptly decided to stay for a few more years.
We’re also introduced to our core cast of characters/suspects. Nan Cox (Jane Curtin) is the President’s blunt mother-in-law, found the body (and disapproves of her son’s husband, most powerful man in the world or no). Harry Hollinger, the President’s best friend and chief advisor just wants to sweep everything under the rug (Ken Marino plays Hollinger as essentially Ron Donald from Party Down with vastly more responsibility and barely more competence or composure.) We also briefly meet a few members of the White House staff, the visitingn Australian Prime Minister and his staff, a few Secret Service and FBI agents (chief among them Randall Park), who are frustrated that they don’t have jurisdiction over the crime scene, and have to take a backseat to D.C. police chief Larry Dokes (Isaiah Whitlock, Jr.), and his eccentric detective.
Which brings us back around to Cordelia Cupp. Netflix largely advertised The Resident as a quirky detective show, but apart from a fixation on birdwatching (which she uses to illustrate that both birds and birders are able to focus; most people are not), she’s a far sight more professional and put together than Charlie Cale or Monk. Like Sherlock, she’s focused on solving the case to the exclusion of all else, which includes White House formality and US-Australia relations.
And beyond that, we don’t actually get enough of Cupp to form an opinion. This is a crowded episode, with a state dinner’s worth of table-setting for the mystery to come. We have enough trust in Aduba as an actor that we’re with Cupp from the first moment. As for the mystery itself, that’s going to hinge on the writing, and again, with an exposition-heavy hour, it may be too soon to judge. But so far the show doesn’t have the zip of Poker Face, and the comic asides that pepper the dialogue often fall flat. Despite the comedic heavyweights in the cast, the show might have been wise to stick to drama, because the murder mystery part works. Apart from the irresistible setting, “Fall of the House of Usher” introduces enough compelling clues and questions to make us want to see how this turns out.
Amendments:
* A few stray details that might be important later: Wynter was a bibliophile who loved the White House Library. The head chef hadn’t been seen for an hour before the murder. When Cupp asks to search Wynter’s office, Hollinger’s already there looking for “political documents” to hide from prying eyes. When Cupp searches Wynter’s desk, she finds a bloody handkerchief on the floor.
* The administration inherited a mess from the previous president but aren’t terribly competent themselves.
* The stacked cast includes Kylie Minogue, playing herself as the state dinner’s entertainment.
* Haney lays out the rooms adjacent to the murder scene like a game of Clue – the sitting room, the linen room, the gym, the solarium, the music room, the kitchen. And two bedrooms down the hall, one belonging to the President’s as-yet-unseen brother (Jason Lee), the other belonging to Hollinger.
* While the comedy sometimes falls flat, Cupp still gets off some terrific lines. She dismisses Randall Park with, “I”ve met a hundred guys like you and I don’t remember the name of a single one.”
* As great as the White House setting is for the show, it does beg the question of how the show can do future seasons without straining credulity.
