Netflix‘s newest Shondaland collection, The Residence poses the query, what in the event you set the sport clue towards the backdrop of the White Home?
Helmed by showrunner Paul William Davies, who beforehand tackled courtroom dynamics with For the Folks and D.C. drama with Scandal, this newest collection introduces a brand new sort of investigator in Uzo Aduba‘s Cordelia Cupp. A consulting detective for the Metropolitan Police Division, Cordelia is introduced in to resolve a possible homicide when one particular person winds up lifeless amid a state dinner.
However what spawned this White Home homicide thriller? Taking inspiration from Kate Andersen Brower’s 2016 guide, The Residence: Contained in the Personal World of the White Home, Davies says, “Shonda [Rhimes] and Betsy [Beers] gave me the guide years in the past and requested if I had one thing that I might consider to do with it by way of a present, however I didn’t fairly know. After which weirdly, one night time, I used to be doing further analysis on the White Home employees, and I stumbled into this C-Span video of the then-White Home chief usher testifying earlier than the Senate Banking Committee about some containers within the White Home.”
As Davies recollects, “[The usher was] speaking in regards to the completely different rooms on the third ground of the White Home. The sport room, the music room, and the solarium. And as he was speaking, I used to be like, ‘Oh wait, this can be a Clue board.’”
And so, Davies bought to the drafting board, bringing to life a big ensemble of suspects for Cordelia to cross-examine alongside FBI-appointed agent, Edwin Park (Randall Park). However as a lot as The Residence is a White Home whodunit, it is usually a love letter to the residence and its plethora of staff.
“The mission began with studying in regards to the humorous and nearly farcical tales, after which different instances actually heartwarming or generally heartbreaking tales in regards to the lives of the folks that work there and the work they do and the relationships they’ve with one another and with the administrations that come and go,” Davies tells TV Insider. “And I actually wished to honor that and inform as a lot of these tales as I might in a means that was enjoyable and in service of the enjoyable thriller that we’re [solving].”
Under, Davies, Aduba, Park, and extra break down the need-to-know characters from this must-see thriller.
The Residence, Collection Premiere, Thursday, March 20, Netflix