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notes on The Residence finale
Jul. 8th, 2026 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](/post-https-www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishPaul William Davies et al, The Residence
A cosy whodunnit set at the White House during a state dinner. About six hours' worth of material, spread over eight hour-long episodes. Rapid-fire dialogue reminiscent of Howard Hawks's screwball comedies, a fun birding-obsessed detective, and a great cast. Recommended.
Three thoughts after the last episode:
1) That last episode is emblematic of the Netflix Way. The detective gathers all the suspects to walk them through the crime, as is traditional for the genre (though she's doing it to see who will give themselves away, rather than because she knows). So she takes them all through a recap of everything that's come up in the series so far. Then, just in case you missed it, she spells out explicitly how the murder was committed, again, for the big reveal. Dumbed down, for people who've been half watching and half scrolling. Kudos to the writers for managing to keep the rest of the show interesting, but I was about ready to gnaw my arm off to escape yet more Here's What Happened.
I recognise that audiences can't be trusted anymore, what with the proliferation of videos explaining the ending of even fairly straightforward movies. I just wish it weren't so.
2) I did not so much call the culprit as really really want it to be that person.
3) The whole series demonstrates how mysteries are a fundamentally conservative genre. ( spoilers follow ) I have no beef with this in general; it's just really obvious, and not a little frustrating, in this instance.
A cosy whodunnit set at the White House during a state dinner. About six hours' worth of material, spread over eight hour-long episodes. Rapid-fire dialogue reminiscent of Howard Hawks's screwball comedies, a fun birding-obsessed detective, and a great cast. Recommended.
Three thoughts after the last episode:
1) That last episode is emblematic of the Netflix Way. The detective gathers all the suspects to walk them through the crime, as is traditional for the genre (though she's doing it to see who will give themselves away, rather than because she knows). So she takes them all through a recap of everything that's come up in the series so far. Then, just in case you missed it, she spells out explicitly how the murder was committed, again, for the big reveal. Dumbed down, for people who've been half watching and half scrolling. Kudos to the writers for managing to keep the rest of the show interesting, but I was about ready to gnaw my arm off to escape yet more Here's What Happened.
I recognise that audiences can't be trusted anymore, what with the proliferation of videos explaining the ending of even fairly straightforward movies. I just wish it weren't so.
2) I did not so much call the culprit as really really want it to be that person.
3) The whole series demonstrates how mysteries are a fundamentally conservative genre. ( spoilers follow ) I have no beef with this in general; it's just really obvious, and not a little frustrating, in this instance.
