User reviews

I feel like I've been watching for months.

I can't remember anyone's name.

The business deal is odd. People at this level should have a better ability to evaluate investment.

What episode am I on. Am I supposed to care about the death of that lady's mother. Why are there so many scenes going nowhere.

The photography is perfect. Composition and montage and lighting is all done away.

The characters are opaque. It's hard to care about them.

Rahul and Hugo make the most of their scenes.

Mandy's accent needed more work.

Violett's hair makes this feel like an SNL skit.

How am I still watching this.

The series has an affable comedic mystery tone, interesting stock characters, decent performances and an engaging pace. Direction and dialogue are generally good.

The main detective repeatedly breaks the fourth wall to exort the audience to pay attention to details and nudges us to notice things. We're apparently meant to follow along and solve the case with (or, if we're sharp enough, ahead of) the protagonists. It's a nice concept for a mystery series but the writers don't even try to pull it off. Instead whenever they paint themselves into a corner they use a flashback to add facts, information, scenes and/or backstories that retroactively alter previous events. No matter how closely you pay attention you can't notice details that won't exist until a flashback exposition dump three episodes later. The writing turns an active concept into passive viewing.

Imogene Scott (Violett Beane) is a guest of her rich best friend Anna Collier (Lauren Patten) on an oceanliner. As a child, Imogene lost her mother in a car bombing and celebrated private investigator Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkin) failed to solve the case. She was raised by the Collier family. While on the ocean cruise, Anna is in negotiations with the Chun family for a corporate takeover. Imogene is shocked that Chuns have hired Cotesworth. She is further annoyed by Anna's loser brother Tripp's entitled investor Keith. She plays a prank on him who later turns up murdered.

This is part Agatha Christie and part White Lotus. It is nowhere near as good as the best of either. It does have some fun with the mixture. It is pretty good for most of its run until the show gets to the season's big reveal. That reveal presents me with some problems. This really should be a limited series, but it seems to have left the closing open-ended. I hope that there is no second season.

Rating: 5.75 out of 10.

"Death and Other Details" aims to be a clever locked-room mystery set aboard a luxury cruise liner but quickly loses steam with an increasingly unbelievable plot and unsatisfying conclusion. Mandy Patinkin does his best as eccentric detective Rufus Cotesworth but is underserved by the messy writing.

The more significant issue is Violett Beane as suspect-turned-sidekick Imogene Scott. While Beane has done OK work on shows like "The Flash" and "God Friended Me", here she struggles to make Imogene either likeable or believable. For a character meant to be brilliant, her choices defy logic. And despite the show's attempts at sultry intrigue, Beane's lack of chemistry with her co-stars makes Imogene the least compelling (or sexy) young female lead in this type of glossy mystery series.

"Death and Other Details" has a polished look you'd expect from the genre, but not even the glamorous setting can make up for the lacklustre plotting and central performances.

What starts as a mildly intriguing mystery soon becomes absurd, wasting a decent supporting cast on dead-end twists. Diehard fans of TV whodunits may find it passable, but this series is ultimately dead on arrival.

Such a dissapoitment.

I must admit I am a sucker for mystery TV shows and a whodunnit gets my juices flowing but this just mystery is dragging. Like who did it already? I'm at episode 8 and I'm fatigued. That is one of my pet peeves with whodunnit mysteries. This show could have easily been 8 solid episodes.

However, one thing I did like is how they placed Imogene in Coatsworth's clothes and set as they are recollecting past events. That was pretty inventive. Other than that, it has been an ok ride. The characters are too many. I would have liked more character development for the Collier family and the Mayor. The Priest character seems just as unnecessary as the social media influencer son.

Nevertheless, I have already invested 8 weeks...what's 2 more lol. Let's hope I don't regret it.

I have seen a lot of mystery series lately from the big movies like glass onion and death on the nile to only murders in the building and the white lotus. The list goes on, but none of them felt like a good mystery. Death and other details on the other hand had me crying. Not due to sadness, but because the mystery is so good. At a certain point you start feeling like the show is about to wrap up, and then the mystery just kicks in so hard it left me in tears. This before the truth was even revealed. I dont get how people are saying this is bad compared to the long list of other mystery series. Clearly people are fangirling over Selena Gomez. I like her too, but Only murders is so boring to me. This show "Death and other details" was anything but.

If you are looking for a good mystery and a good time, then I personally recommend you give this one a go. I now need a second season. I did like The white lotus. Not so much for it's mystery but for it's commentary and silly characters/over the top comedy.

This show however had me hooked, and the ending is crazy! The characters are awesome, and who they all truly are unfolds beautifully. I'm trying really hard not to give shows a 10/10, but if I did, then this would get it! Dont let Only murders fans stop you from watching this, cuz to me this one is so much better.

I was planning on ending my review here, but I need to give credit to the cast (Picking out favourites is impossible as they all nail their roles), the writers, costume department, not to mention the special effects team (especially towards the ending) and pretty much everyone involved. I really hope people give this a go like I did, even tho the reviews had me a bit nervous. Wich is also why I decided to write my own. Something I dont do very often. This was finally a win for me when it comes to the mystery genre. This one truly felt well thought out.

Whose idiotic idea was it to have Mandy Patinkin put on the world's worst English accent for no reason? That's hard to get past, but otherwise so far this is a fun mystery with good pacing and good performances. Even Patinkin if you can get over the useless accent is good. I'm looking forward to the rest. I will say it has a very familiar vibe, so if your into Murder on the Orient express or Hercule Poirot or any of the other ensemble murder mysteries I have a feeling this will be satisfying. The modern time frame set on the vintage yacht provides a little twist on the ambience of the genre. I'm liking it. But get rid of the accent Mandy!

I waited to leave a review until I watched the entire season as everyone should do. This show had me hooked from the first episode. The whole concept of the show intrigued me from the start but each episode just kept pulling me in making me more interested in the storyline. The actors chosen to play the characters were perfect in my opinion. The fake accents didn't bother me at all either. This show is truly entertaining, the plot twist in the last two episodes was completely unexpected. I hope they make a season 2. I feel like the people who left bad reviews didn't give the show a fair chance.

Today is February 6, 2024, and I just finally quit watching this series in the middle of the extremely boring 5th episode. I have to admit that I really enjoyed the series in the beginning. The first two episodes are quite exciting and stylish, but that's about it. The whole concept is stillborn, the characters are uninteresting and anonymous, the acting is unremarkable, the writing is boring for such a pre-designed genre as a huis-clos whodunit. The luxury yacht setting is embarrassingly déjà vu, and all the characters look like plastic models from a home-deco ad. There is no sense of class struggle, which ultimately seems to be the theme of the story, as everyone looks like they could be having mai-tais on Wall Street during lunch. What's interesting about shows like The White Lotus or movies like Triangle of Sadness and Saltburn is how the creators are aware that everyone looks good as a statement, and because it's either that or the highway in such deluxe hangouts. This murder mystery seems to be ambivalent about a recognizable way to present the characters and totally unaware of a better way to do it. In the end, the whole story development is substandard and very unambitious. Kudos to the lovely Violett Beane as Imogene, witty and perpetually well-coiffed.

It is quite obvious that this is meant to be a highbred of white lotus and only murders. And that is completely fine with me. Because in the two episodes I've seen it all seems to be paying off.

The visual style goes along way in helping this voyage be a pleasure cruise. Our story seems to take place in present day, Although the costume design and art direction say otherwise. The acting is top notch and the writing is so far good enough to keep the viewer engaged.

The story as it goes is about an unlikeable person being murdered. So we are never really meant to care about the victim. We are just here for the ride.

I wanted to like this show. I love murder mysteries and I wanted something to fill the between-seasons void of Only Murders in the Building. Unfortunately, Death and Other Details is not it. For starters, the protagonist is a selfish, self-centred, privileged brat who you find yourself rooting against. It's so blatant that even the other characters call her out on it. The amateur writing is evident in the dialogue that often contradicts that of the characters. What also destroys the potential of this series is the constant repetition of scenes. Flashbacks are one thing, but they often show you large chunks of the same scene two or three times and sometimes in the same episode. At eight episodes in, I find myself hoping the villain just murders them all and calls it a day. It is clear that they tried to make this show clever, but it's poorly executed and sloppy. There are some great actors in the series (Mandy Patinkin, Rahul Kohli, Linda Emond, Karoline), it's just a shame that their talent is wasted on this sinking ship.

I don't care what other reviewers are saying but I am really enjoying Death & Other Details so far. Also I must be oblivious to accents because I don't think Mandy Patinkin's British accent is bad at all. If I were going to complain about an accent it would be Linda Emond over the top accent but even that isn't enough to bother me.

I don't particularly like the actress playing Imogene but she works well with Mandy and I like that. The setting costumes are beautiful but it's also really fun to watch and I'm really curious where they're going with the story. I've only seen the first four episodes but so far I'm loving it.

If the show was 8 episodes and cut some of the spiraling ending I think it would have been better. The ending just took a lot of turns that weren't needed that made the show feel kind of stupid. The first 6 episodes are really solid and made me want to stay around to see the ending. The only reason I think I kept watching is because of the beauty of the main actress. There is a lot of jumping point to point that got old fast plus a lot of inconsistency in how the show issues out justice the end of the last episode feels dumb. If this show or first season is a one-off storyline I would rate it 7 but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Typical modern show where everyone is an annoyingly over the top +and yet boring- caricature. It is agonizingly slow, with stretches that consist of people just walking about and flashbacks being repeated and nauseum. The setting and style are nice for the first episode, but then stops adding anything of value. The mystery is convoluted with far too many ridiculous red herrings, making it unfocused instead of complex. By the time the fourth episode comes around, you already know that it isn't going anywhere and that it probably shouldn't, because the reveal will be poor. And... it is. Disappointing.

This is series is about central character Imogene played by Violette Beane who as a child loses her mother to a car bomb and the murder was never solved.

Now as an adult she is currently a guest on a cruise being hosted by her rich best friend Lauren Patten. On this cruise there are an assortment of interesting characters each with their own personal agendas.

Mandy Patinkin shines in the role of Rufus who is a private investigator. He was never able to solve Imogene's mother's murder and now is trying to make up for it.

A series of deaths occur during the cruise which leaves everyone searching for the killer. This series takes inspiration from one of Agatha Christie novels.

I thought the series was interesting and keeps you entertained up until the big final reveal of the killer/ black mailer. Ending leaves several plot holes and doesn't make a lot of sense. Also they ended series in such a way so they can continue with season2. It would have been better if this was a mini-series with proper ending.

While I have a plethora of praise for Mandy Patinkin, there is one thing that I found lacking, that being his accent which I cannot place. Rather than letting my praise for Mandy Patinkin give more credit than deserved to this flick, I'll stop there. For some bizarre reason director and executive producer Marc Webb runs this project into the ground by exploiting actresses (I use this rather than actor on this occasion only to specify female actors) Lauren Patten and Pardis Saremi, having them do unnecessary, distracting, disjointed sex scenes in a project that pretends to be an Agatha Christie genre piece. Even if it was essential to the plot to see Lauren Patten nude, the extreme lack of chemistry and unbelievability of the scenes appear to be injected either to deliberately harm the careers of these actors, or because he simply isn't very good at what he does, "awards" aside. My guess is he has an axe to grind and is taking it out on his cast.

As for plot, there isn't much here. A locked room mystery that is forced, has lots of irrelevant interviews that are supposed to make the viewer believe that the main character is "brilliant", when in reality, the director instead chooses to over explain everything in hopes that the massive holes in the story will be hidden among all of the trashy, unnecessary and unwanted dialog. I give Mr. Patinkin a 9 for performance, the rest of the cast a 4, the writing a 5, and the directing a 2 for an overall score of 6, all riding on the coattails of Mandy Patinkin.

So many of the bad reviews are from people that bailed on the show early on which in my opinion isn't fair. Why review something when you haven't seen it in its entirety. Also, who would rely on a recommendation from someone who only watched one or two episodes? I admit that it took a couple of episodes for me to get interested but it got better and better. I can usually figure out the twist way before the reveal but not this time. Twist after twist! I think it was a really impressive execution of a murder mystery. I am really hoping for a season 2!! They tied up all loose ends but ended with a setup for more seasons.

I've only had access to the first two episodes, but so far it's like a weak interpretation of an Agatha Christie-type story, with a splash of Only Murders in the Building. Mandy Patinkin piqued my interest, because I usually enjoy his work, but this accent he's doing - I think it's meant to be British? - isn't working for me. I do love the sets. Although the story is set in present day, the ship has an elegant Art Deco decor. I'm hoping the story will get more interesting as it delves deeper into each character. A genuine Agatha Christie locked-room mystery could make the reader (or viewer, in the case of a screen adaptation) feel like they know each character, even with, say, ten suspects.

I'm never a reviewer but this show is really extraordinary. It has well told plot that unfolds with perfect pace. Great mix of story telling, character, action, emotion and social commentary that draws you in and doesn't let go. The look of the show and the seamless flashbacks are brilliant. Mandy Patinkin is great, but I will watch Violett Beane more closely after this. Honestly not even fair to leave out anyone's effort in the entire cast - just stellar across the board. I can't believe there are any negative reviews - must be a paid campaign because there's no validity to anything below a 10. Come on, people! Watch it.

Hard to understand what Mandy Patinkin's character is saying in this show as it's so gravelly and he also mumbles. Why oh why do TV shows think the audience wants gratuitous sex scenes? For kicks? If it doesn't add to the story, leave it out. Very unfortunate about this show. I had been looking forward to it. This could have been a better show if there was better writing and articulation by the lead actor. I have loved Mandy Patinkin in many things. You can't win them all. Do yourself a favor and watch The Artful Dodger and Only Murders in the Building instead. Thank you... and boy, this site wants you to write a lot of characters before submission!

So many of the reviews for this show are from people that watched the first two episodes and gave up? Truly seems psychotic. I had no idea how this show was going to end but the finale delivered in every way possible! Sure a couple of the episodes may have seemed scattered and been slow with the pacing but I don't see that as a huge problem with a murder mystery. I want to be confused, I want to ask what the hell is going on!! And frankly I do not really mind if that's portrayed in ways that are unintentional, I'm grateful if a show like this can have me asking questions throughout the entire thing! And not to mention there's a scene transition where a mountain turns into a lump of cocaine and they use one of those teeny tiny little spoons to hit a bump off the peak. So yeah this show was brilliant and the performances were stellar and if you rated it 3 stars after only seeing two episodes get a hobby!!!

Whodunits have become common since Knives Out, the latest being Death and Other Details, a light comedy-mystery dealing with murder among select rich folk on a fancy boat.

The problems with the series show up early with a scene where the head of a ship's housekeeping gives the staff detailed, caustic comments about the passengers. In real life she would be fired, and they could have easily had her say it in private to her sister, or she could have given anodyne descriptions while we saw the reality revealed in snippets, but instead, it's just writing as a blunt instrument to establish the characters as quickly and lazily as possible. It's like the opposite of the scene in the first episode of White Lotus that set up a lot in a very subtle way.

At the same time, that scene actually displayed one of the series' strengths - it really wants the viewer to know what's going on. The series is constantly reminding you of who everyone is and how they connect with each other. You rarely find yourself saying, "what, who was that again?" Although at times a character does something that really doesn't make sense for that character.

So in some ways the writing is lazy, and many scenes, like crosscut suspect interrogations, you've seen a million times. Yet the dialogue can be witty and the characters are distinct and well defined. And sometimes it's genuinely clever, as in an episode where the protagonist revisits her mother's murder (it's a little wonky but genuinely fun).

The series is also lushly filmed and has some very good performances - particularly notable is Linda Emond as a starchy investigator. Mandy Patinkin is pretty fun in spite of an egregious floating accent (don't judge Mandy - it's a story-driven choice), and Violett Beane makes an engaging protagonist. She also fits the series desire for gratuitous nudity of its attractive ladies, which may please or bother the viewer.

The series is generally solid, and in spite of its issues, I watch each new episode the moment it came out. But towards the end, this went from a clever puzzle box to something bigger and fairly nonsensical, although even when the reveals were dumb and overdone, they were still genuinely entertaining.

The series ended with an inexplicable event that, while clearly meant as a tee-off for a second season, created more confusion and annoyance than intrigue. From end to end, the series is a mixed bag, but overall I really did enjoy it and would recommend it - with some reservations - to whodunit fans.

This is so incredible reductive. Its like the writer watched a lot of vastly better in the genre then removed all the parts they didn't understand to create this.

Its very derivative work of the parts they did understand. With whatever added with the directing and writing been pretty bad.

It sort of moves like what you would expect but with no substance.

The sets and backgrounds are good. I would recommend this if you like the actors then definitely watch it though they are very miscast, but I found it painful to watch such a waste of set and actors on something so badly put together.

It gets a 4 as I thought that sets were ok, but the camera did not to much for them, which I assume was the directors fault.

The show starts strong with an engaging whodunit premise but falls short in execution. Mandy Patinkin shines as the astute detective, while Hugo Diego Garcia delivers an intense performance as the ship's head of security, bringing an undeniable screen presence and palpable sexual chemistry. His striking looks and magnetic charisma make him a standout, adding an extra layer of intrigue to his role. Linda Emond also adds depth as an Interpol agent. Despite these standout performances, the series suffers from repetitive writing and distracting subplots that hinder the central mystery and slow the pace. The promising elements are overshadowed by its shortcomings. **Rating:** 6/10.