While chilling, eating, and trying to enjoy Christmas in my own way, movies are something I also do. After the meal with some nice protein, I knew a new movie was the next thing I had to try out, probably so I could sleep off or just be entertained. I picked up Shondaland's The Residence on Netflix since it was a murder mystery mixed with comedy, meaning the thematic preoccupation would not be as serious as other serious murder mysteries.
The show is an 8-episode run based on the death of the White House's usher from the beginning of the series during an evening dinner in the house with foreign guests and celebrities. With the immediate death of the White House's usher, the best detective, Miss Cordelia Cupp, was brought in to solve the case and, as quickly as possible, rule it off as a possible suicide. Now this is where things got exciting. Cordelea, being a good detective, immediately sensed that this was murder and not suicide by carefully examining the crime scene. With this realization of this information, she had to use her influence to advise the United States President to instruct the lockdown of the house to help with the investigation, as everybody needs to be questioned at this point.
I have to add that from the first three episodes, I was not sure where this movie was heading and what category it fell under in order to better understand what to expect. Is this a political satire with a mix of murder mystery, or an outright murder mystery from the get-go? It felt like the movie was a bit indecisive on that, but I have to give an outstanding accolade to the Nigerian and American actress Uzo Aduba for her impeccable acting as the lead character, Detective Cordelia Cupp, the smart and peculiar detective with a strong love for birds and paying attention to details.
She is the main reason why I could not take my eye off the movie because I admire how she puts one and two together on the case. Aside from that, I am certain I would not have stayed to the end of the first season. Another was how the woman was so obsessed with adding up every bit and cranny of the events that led to the usher's death. She asked questions of all the guests and did her best not to assume anything, only make up her hypothesis while looking for facts that prove them wrong or add to it. A new technique I grabbed from Cordelia when interrogating was to keep quiet and stare at the person being questioned. Give them that gaze that makes it look like they are guilty and watch as the ravel and spill out everything they know. She did that not once, not twice, and it worked like magic.
Do not get me started on her name, Cordelia; it is uniquely peculiar to the character, and it just fits like glue. As the movie unravelled, I noticed that it is becoming a trend with murder mystery movies where they twist and keep twisting the plot of the story. I get murder mysteries that come with a twist, but does it get out of line when the twist has another twist wrapped within it and another twist within it, and it keeps going like that? It becomes a bit over the board in my opinion, and that repeated itself in the ending of The Residence. Anyways, the ending was impressive because of how the detective discovered who the murderer was by paying attention to statement each suspect gave and trying to make sense of it, and from there followed the evidence wherever it led.
It is not a bad watch, but keep your mind away from discovering who did it until the last episode.
I am 
♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟
Thanks For Reading!