"The Residence": Murder at the White House, with a gay President, suit guy d*cks, and Randall Park's backside

Link to the suit guy d*cks

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!

Giancarlo's backside and p*enis are on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends. 

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. 

Scene 5: Switch to the testimony of FBI Special Agent Edwin Park (Randall Park, left). Cordelia examines the body (shouldn't the coroner do that?) and finds slit wrists and a suicide note. Everyone is relieved -- obviously a suicide, not as disastrous as a murder -- and starts strategizing. 

Problem: There's no knife around, and not enough blood, and why would you cut both wrists?  And he's wearing someone else's shirt.  

Cordelia, Jasmine, and Special Agent Edwin go downstairs to check out the dinner.  We get an interesting cross section of the White House: 132 rooms, 8 staircases, 3 elevators, 6 floors. The State Floor has the Blue Room, the Green Room, and other ceremonial rooms.  Right not everyone is in the East Room, listening to Kylie sing.

Scene 6: Testimony of Lilly, White House Social Secretary.  She is summoned to the Green Room, where Jasmine asks how many people attended the state dinner. 141.  Cordelia stares at her; she leaves.

Cordelia looks around the crowd listening to Kylie, and sees an empty chair. 

Next she wants to see the lower basement, with supply rooms, the staff break room, and lockers.   The upper basement, with the carpenter's shop, paint shop, chocolate shop, flower shop, dentist's office, and bowling alley.  The florist is very upset about something.

The kitchen.  A chef is sitting on the floor, upset.

Scene 7: A.B.'s office.  They find Best Friend Hollinger going through his desk!  He claims to be looking for sensitive political documents, but why would an usher have such things?  Cordelia kicks him out and asks Jasmine if anything looks different.

She flashes back to A.B. telling her that this will be her office when she becomes Chief Usher.  Sounds like he promised her the job, then changed his mind just before he died.

Cordelia pulls a bloody handkerchief from the waste basket.  

She wants to talk to everyone who had access to the third floor and everybody who talked to A.B. tonight. " That's hundreds of people!" Hollister and company complain.  

Police Chief Dokes warns that she has to tread carefully: the President and his husband are considered aloof; people in Washington don't like them; the administration is underperforming, or in the opposing party's eyes in free fall.  A murder at the White House could be a scandal that the administration will never recover from. 

While they're strategizing on how to get everyone to be interviewed, quietly, one at a time, Lily the Social Secretary rushes in: everyone has heard about the murder!  Now how can they keep everyone from leaving until they're interviewed? 

Scene 8: They ask the President (Paul Fitzgerald) to make an announcement saying that they can't leave. Can't she do the interviews tomorrow or the next day?  No, it's a crime scene, and you have to take statements from everyone.  But the President says no, he can't force the Prime Minister of Australia to stick around. 

Left: Brett Tucker as David Rylance, the Australian Foreign Minister.

At that moment, Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, and the Ambassador burst into the room, wanting to know what the f*ck is going on.  He explains that a staff member died, but of course they are free to go.

While he is speaking, Cordelia is look through her birding binoculars at the Foreign Minister.  She explains: "I'm wondering why you're wearing A.B.'s shirt.  You're wearing a dead man's shirt, and he's wearing yours."

The President: "Lock it down, now!"  

We end with a cool view of the State Floor from above.  

Beefcake: It all takes place at a state dinner, so a lot of cute guys in suits.

Other Sights: Some remarkable recreations of the Blue Room and the East Room

Heterosexism: None.

Gay Characters: The President and his husband, but it's just mentioned once.

Will I Keep Watching:  I really want to know why the Foreign Minister is wearing AB's shirt.

Update: It's a red herring.  But you have to expect red herrings in the first episode.

Bonus: n*de suit guys 

See also: Wet Hot American Summer 10 Years Later: Skyler in a satyr costume, a gay couple is gaslit, and Ken Marino learns to use his p*enis

Young Rock Episode 2.12: Dwayne works on his bluster, calls out a bully, and offends his boyfriend...I mean buddy Randall Park

The n*aked press bro on the bus with the "Girls on the Bus"

Ten problems with liking men in suits