Knives Out was a refreshingly zippy Agatha-Christie-style pastiche film that has spawned a number of mimics. The Residence, its eight episodes all written by Paul William Davies, has a splendid conceit at its core: the chief usher of the White House is murdered during a state banquet and the entire audience is locked up while the super-investigator, in this case birdwatcher Cordelia Cupp (played with brio and nuance by Uzo Aduba), exercises Poirot-style mental gymnastics to tease out the well-hidden culprit. The cinematography is lush and stylised, the cast is admirable, and the dialogue crackles with wit. Can this constrictive dramatic notion sustain eight episodes? I must confess to doubts around episodes three and four, but after the midway point, The Residence takes flight and zooms home to a satisfying climax. First-rate entertainment fare.
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