The Residence

A fantastic "cozy"-style mystery: light, wickedly clever, and keeps you guessing to the very hand. Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cup is a great lead. The supporting cast has additional strong characters as well, though some of these portrayals are less even. As much as I enjoyed the first season and wish for more, I find it hard to imagine how a second season could live-up to the first: further developing the Cup character (so that she is not just a repetition of the Cup we already know) will be hard. But, then, Columbo was consistently great season after season. Cmon Netflix do the right thing here and renew it !

A. B. Wynter The Chief Usher at The Whitehouse is killed, Cordelia Cupp is brought in to investigate, it's a sensitive time as The President is entertaining The Australian Prime Minister. Cuppa puts the building on lockdown, but her enquiries are hindered by lies and evasion.

Stick with it, that's my advice, just stick with it, I'm going to say I loved it, I have thoroughly enjoyed it, but I found it a little slow to start, for me the first two episodes were a little frustrating, once it got going though, I was hooked.

The final two episodes had me absolutely captivated, the way in which all of the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, it's so satisfying. Arguably it could have been done in fewer episodes.

There's nothing like a Whodunnit, it gets your brain working, and if you're like me, you moved from The Pastry chef, to Sheila, to lily to the next one, who doesn't love a puzzle.

It has more of a Knives out vibe, it's smart, definitely not your Agatha Christie style murder mystery.

It's quite funny at times, in a subtle sort of way, I thought Sheila was a laugh, plus the hope of getting to see Hugh Jackman.

The characters are so rich, even those that seem not to have any significance early on, soon offer something.

Uzo Aduba does a great job as Cordelia, I'd love to see more of the character, she's one smart cookie.

Very watchable.

8/10.

This show looks and sounds quite a bit like 'Only Murders In The Building', and it is quite similar. As if the female detective from season on of OMITB had her own show. But then it rolled out similar to a 'Thin Man' movie and/or an Agatha Christie plot with hints of Upstairs Downstairs.

It's quite entertaining and stands on its own. Each potential suspect has their own story, the writing is witty and the plot is THICK with all kinds of cobwebs. Everyone has a motive, even the guests at a state dinner. Detective Cupp is a very interesting woman and I enjoyed her analogies to birds and situations. I see a franchise waiting to happen and I am here for it.

This show is a bit of a conundrum. On one hand it has all the pitch perfect elements of high end entertainment; humor, an all star cast, a fun setting, a twisty story. But on the other hand, it drags like a wet mop, especially in the last three episodes where it reveals crucial information in clumsy chunks for sake of pushing the plot forward. There is a near masterpiece show buried here that needed a few more rounds of refinement to tighten up, although I'm fairly certain Netflix forced the show runners to stretch this story over 7 episodes. If it had been 4 episodes, where every detail mattered and every revelation built to something greater, this may have been one of the best detective shows of all time. Instead we're left with 5 episodes of red herrings that we know are red herrings from the outset for sake of painting by numbers. Ultimately the payoff is satisfying but not mind blowing like the Usual Suspects or The Orient Express, which will keep the show from having much staying power. Enjoyable? Absolutely. Genius? Not even close.

For those who find this series too long consider this, the plot, the mystery and all the plot twists are not nearly as important as the comedy and the wonderful performances in this fun story. It was smart without being pedantic, funny without being crude or silly, and engaging without pandering. The humor was evenly split between the genius of the writing and the innate ability of the actors. Not once did I feel like the characters were anything other than what they were portrayed to be. In a world where comedians are improving their way through movies, creating interest where the writers had failed and totally carrying the show, this series proves how important it is to had professional writers and actors working together. If I see another rapper, comedian, ex-jock, singer, model, or internet influencer, leading a movie instead of a professionally trained actor, I will drop dead out of boredom. Thank you for making this funny movie without having any puking, pooping, peeing, or farting scenes in it! No one smoked weed or was inadvertently naked either. The language was appropriate for family viewing and yet I hung on every word. And finally I have to save they weren't interested in trying to cast the prettiest people but was more interested in assembling a capable cast of characters who could carry out their vision. I loved it! I hope another season is coming.