I wanted to see The Residence, a new Netflix comedy about a murder at the White House, because it has a gay character: the President. The Observer review specifies: "it's rarely discussed and simply accepted as part of the narrative landscape." Buttigieg in 2028!
Besides, I love a guy in a suit, and the White House will be full of them.
Episode 1 is "The Fall of the House of Usher," a reference to the Poe story.
Scene 1: Thunder rumbles. We pass the busts and portraits of former presidents. An older man in a tuxedo (Giancarlo Esposito) walks down a busy hall, being greeted by passersby. He peers down at a reception, and then a formal dinner with hundreds of people attending, including the Prime Minister of Australia. There's a knock on the door, a woman screams, and we cut to the evening's entertainment, Kylie Minogue.
The camera zooming through the hallways is making me dizzy. Back to the screaming woman, who looks like Jane Curtin. The older man is dead!
Scene 2: The Capitol, a few months later. A Congressional Hearing about the murder and the investigation that followed. First to witness: Jasmine, the Chief Usher, in charge of overseeing the Executive Residence (the 3rd floor residence of the President and his family).
Flashback to Jasmine sitting in the very authentic-looking Blue Room, drinking while she's supposed to be working. A waiter asked if she talked to him, and advises that she not do something she'll regret. Like murder? "Too late, I already did."
Suddenly Agent Rausch (a woman) appears, and brings her upstairs, where the President's best friend Harry Hollinger (Ken Marino, left) says that there's been an incident, and she has to keep everyone away from the second and third floors.
Jasmine refuses to do it because she's only the assistant usher. She thought she was going to be the chief usher, but it was made very clear that she wouldn't, so ask the actual Chief Usher, A. B.
Ulp -- A.B. is the murder victim!
Scene 3: Jasmine takes the elevator down, and flashes back to meeting A.B. on the same elevator earlier that evening. She congratulates him on his upcoming retirement, but he announces that he's not retiring after all, so no Chief Usher job for her. She bangs the doors and screams.
Later Jasmine returns to a roomful of people, including the President's friend Hollinger, Secret Service Agent Trask, the FBI director, the head of the National Park Police, and Lawrence Dokes, chief of the Washington, DC metropolitan police.
Scene 4: Testimony switches to Chief Dokes (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.). He explains that the White House is his jurisdiction. No, it's not.
Back at the crime scene, he brings in Cordelia Cupp, the greatest detective in the world, to help out. She's on the South Lawn, bird watching. Best Friend Hollinger insists that it was a suicide, so they don't need an investigation.
Cordelia enters, discussing Teddy Roosevelt's list of birds (a real thing), and examines the body and the room -- it was locked from the inside --
a locked room mystery!
Next she interviews the person who found the body: the President's mother-in-law, Jane Curtin in a bathrobe, who was watching a movie on tv. She didn't go to the dinner because she doesn't like talking to people, especially her son's husband, the President. First indication that the President is gay at Minute 14. She heard a thump and a door close, and investigated to find the body in the Game Room.
Cordelia gets a tour of the various other bedrooms, gym, music room, and solarium. The President's brother Tripp was asleep, heard the scream, and went back to bed. Best Friend Hollinger has a room there, too, which makes Cordelia suspicious.
Hollinger explains the severity of the situation: the last administration pissed off the Australians (and the Canadians, and the Danes, and...well, everybody), and this is a state dinner designed to smooth over relations. They need to figure out what happened and put the least disastrous spin on it in 45 minutes.
More after the break.
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